MYETTE POINT – Johnny Hester’s game plan for a recent Louisiana Bass Anglers tournament almost went as well as planned July 22 in the steaming Atchafalaya Basin.

The Lafayette bass angler who has been in the bass club 10 years had two primary fishin’ holes in mind for what he figured would be a hot, tough day of bassin’ once the 16-boat field left Myette Point Landing at safe daylight that Saturday.

Hester, 69, was right. It was hot and tough the first 4-5 hours fishing cypress trees in 1- to 3-foot depths in Charenton Lake, which grudgingly gave up 9 or 10 bass, including five small keepers, most on his June bug Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Craws. He was hopeful his tournament partner, guest Don Shoopman of New Iberia, would pick up a bigger bass or two on a Superbait buzz bait.

After talking to other bass club members who cited subpar catches there, Hester decided on Plan B, then took a ride downriver to the Duck Lake area. He returned after culling three times, including the biggest bass of the tournament, to win with 10.75 pounds.

“The last club tournament I had 12 pounds and finished third. This time 10.75 and we come out first. You never know until you come in and see them on the scale. My plan was to fish those two spots. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to,” Hester said.

“It was just a hot day. The water was low. Nobody could put things together. Only Don caught the quality fish,” he said about the 3.36-pound bass that bit a June bug/red Mister Twister Buzz Bug in less than 2 feet of water 20-25 minutes before they had to go back to Myette Point.

Hester, a Franklin native and veteran bass angler who retired as an oil rig superintendent after a 35-year career with Hunt Oil Co., and Shoopman finished ahead of Max Stevens and Dennis Worsham, who were runners-up with a limit weighing 9.91 pounds.

Cody Patillo, fishing alone, was third with 9.56 pounds. Wrenwick Drexler, also fished by himself, was fourth with 8.93 pounds.

Obviously, the midday move paid off for Hester, who considered what other bass club members in the lake had to say about the bassin’ there.

“One good thing about the Louisiana Bass Anglers, when you pull up to each other, we tell each other how we’re doing. It’s a club. We’re against each other but we still want the other to do better,” he said. “One good thing about the club, we want to kick each other’s butt but we want to help them kick somebody’s butt, too.”

His boat did the kicking that day. At his spot around Duck Lake, bites were few and far between but his guest did upgrade one around 1 p.m. with a buzz bait and Hester added another cull fish 30-45 minutes later in the stifling heat.

Around 2 p.m., Shoopman, a 70 ½-year-old local outdoors writer who retired as senior news editor from The Daily Iberian in 2019, set the hook on a sizeable bass about 15-20 yards away and pulled it out of the water. Then it jumped twice before he cranked it the rest of the way to a waiting landing net wielded by Hester.

It was the game-changer.

“I had Don throwing a buzz bait for a big bite but it didn’t happen. Thank goodness he threw that (Mister Twister Buzz Bug),” Hester said.

“Overall, it was a good day. I could very well have ended up differently if Don doesn’t catch the big one. The big bite makes a difference.”