LOREAUVILLE – Blaine Miller and Brandon Sellers have been there, done that before by winning a Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series tournament on the strength of a really big bass from Lake Fausse Pointe.

Miller, whose 6.64-pound bass, their only keeper, won the second WN Hawg Fights BTS tournament April 7, 2021, did it again (albeit with the help of a 2-pound bass in their bag this time around) in the 12th and final Hawg Fight of Aug. 23. Their two bass weighed 8.67 pounds, thanks to a 6.57-pounder, easily enough to top the 15-boat field and win a total of $413 – $338 for first and $75 for big bass.

“It’s always nice to end it like that,” Sellers said.

The winning team was hopeful the first-place finish would seal their comeback for Angler(s) of the Year. But Austin Theriot and Gavin Savoy came up clutch by putting one keeper, a 1.12-pounder, on the digital scale to finish with 1,068 points, 30 points ahead of Miller, 38, and Sellers, 53.

Miller, of Loreauville, and Sellers, of New Iberia, finished ahead of John Gordon and Al Falcon, who had a three-fish limit weighing 7.34 pounds worth $303, and Damien Clements and Brad Romero, who checked in with a limit at 7.10 pounds for $135.

“Man, we got lucky … We were supposed to stay in Teche Lake Canal. That was the plan, to start in Teche Lake Canal,” Miller said.

However, 10 of the 15 boats were ahead of them at takeoff time at 5:30 p.m. Five of them either headed back toward the launch or farther down Teche Lake Canal.

With a spur of the moment call, they roared away to fish a main lake stretch with two small points. But it wasn’t happening there.

“I said, ‘We can’t do this (continue to fish there). We need to win.’ Austin and Gavin had to scratch” for Sellers and Miller to rally to claim AOY,” Sellers said.

Since Miller had caught four 11 ½-inch bass in Big Dogleg while prefishing on Tuesday, all on a buzz bait, they pointed the bow of their boat there.

“We decided, like, ‘Man, let’s go to the Dogleg and tough it out,’ ” Sellers said.

On Miller’s third cast with a chartreuse/black Bandit 200, a 2-pounder hit and he put it in the boat. There was a flicker of hope.

They fished along the canal and took the turn.

“I made a long cast past a floating cypress log,” he said.

Then he got the bite of a lifetime for the second time in a Hawg Fight. Sellers was looking for another artificial lure to tie on.

Things were getting real on the business end of his fishing line, which prompted Miller to say, urgently, “I said, ‘Get the net.’ He didn’t move. I said, ‘Brandon, get the net!’ The fish was under the boat. I was bowed up. Brandon said, ‘Bring him up!’ ”

When it surfaced, it looked white and gold, and for a brief instant it looked like an Asian carp to Miller. Then the unthinkable nearly happened.

“When it came out of the water, the crank bait flew. Only its head went in the net. Brandon barely got him into the net,” he said.

And what a catch, what a save it was for both fishing buddies. As so many bass anglers know, it could have bounced either way, like a basketball on a rim.

They celebrated, naturally, with high fives and such but went back to business in a hurry. After all, they were looking for third keeper to five them a limit.

No. 3 never made it in the boat for the ride back to the 8 p.m. weigh-in but another heart stopping moment happened when Miller foul hooked a big, heavy grass carp on the crank bait. That shook them both up.

The small crowd around the digital scale under the pavilion back at Marsh Field Landing got shook up when Miller extracted the huge, weighty bass from the weigh-in bag seconds after he put the 2-pounder in the basket.

Sellers called the reaction “shock factor-like.”