LOREAUVILLE – Same song, different verse.

One week and a day after winning the Legends on the Lake at Lake Fausse Pointe, James Fredieu and his son, Brodie Fredieu of Parks, returned to the lake for the second Louisiana Bass Cats tournament of 2023. Their day went a lot different than the weekend before but the end result was the same.

The Fredieus finished nearly 3 pounds ahead of the nearest challenger in the 15-boat field with five keeper bass weighing 14.72 pounds worth $675.

“I didn’t think we’d win today. Not with the weight we had and the turnout (of accomplished bass anglers). It was tough for everybody,” Brodie Fredieu said.

His dad said the day’s events “kind of like flip-flopped” from the previous tournament. They caught keepers early, he said, but no sizable bass like the week before when four 3-pound class bass went into the livewell in the first hour or so.

The bite, particularly bites from larger bass, was tougher to get during the bass club’s second outing of the year compared to the father-son team’s big day on the water one weekend earlier on Feb. 25, the winners said.

“We never could get a big one. We weren’t getting big bites. I told Brodie we have to slow down, find another little hole in the Texaco. I told Brodie I know another spot with a lot of fish. We ended up getting three 3-pounders in there,” James said.

Catching one of those bigger bass was one for the books. The 3-pound class bass, a female pushing a big wake that was a tell-tale sign, was with a male in a tangle of branches and for the longest while ignored repeated offerings from the Fredieus.

Finally, the bigger bass chomped on a Sweet Beaver flipped in the copious cover by the elder Fredieu. The fishing line connecting bass to bass angler was over a branch, which forced them to go in and get the fish.

Another tournament boat watched the proceedings. When the bass was deposited in the livewell, there were chuckles all around.

The teammates in the other boat turned out to be true sportsmen. They pointed out the Fredieus were in there first so cranked up and left the fishin’ hole to the eventual winners that Sunday.

The nearest challengers were Ry Savoy and Derrick Romero, whose limit weighed 11.73 pounds for $405.

Mike Sinitiere and Nick Derouen finished third with five bass weighing 9.79 pounds worth $270.

Gerard Dupuis’ 3.66-pounder was the big bass of the tournament.

James Fredieu, who lives in rural St. Martin Parish, continues making the most of bass fishing trips when he can with his son, who helps him run his business, JF’s Louisiana Crawfish. Their big win a week earlier was one of their first trips together in a long while as this is the height of the crawfish season.

“It feels good to be fishing. It feels good to be fishing with Brodie,” James Fredieu said.

They persevered despite contrasting days. The sky was high and blue for the bass club tournament but heavily overcast for the Legends.

There were other differences.

“It was pretty neat. It was a different day like he said. Totally different conditions. Different bite. We lost some fish early, nothing too big. We ended up bouncing around and picked up one here, one there. They were kind of scattered today,” Brodie Fredieu said.

Their fourth and final 3-pound class bass came from the muddy Teche Lake Canal, his father said.

The Louisiana Bass Cats next tournament is April 1-2 at Toledo Bend.