LOREAUVILLE – Two St. Martin Parish bass anglers aimed for a three-bass limit each and every Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series tournament during 2023.

Austin Theriot of St. Martinville and Gavin Savoy of Catahoula hit the target the majority of the time through 12 tournaments. When it counted in the regular-season finale Aug. 23 at Lake Fausse Pointe, all they needed was one keeper bass to stay atop the point standings and win Angler(s) of the Year.

And for an eternity, it seemed, that bass wasn’t coming into the boat. Then a little more than 30 minutes before the weigh-in at 8 p.m., Theriot delivered with the biggest, sweetest-looking 1.12-pounder they’d ever seen. It clinched the title, for sure, even if their nearest challengers, Blaine Miller and Brandon Sellers, won the tournament, which they did.

It took just a minute to dispense with the suspense when all the boats returned to Marsh Field Landing. Miller, whose 6.57-pound “hawg” anchored their winning weight of 8.67 pounds, got the word from Theriot.

“We got back and Austin said, ‘We struggled but we’ve got one little fish,’ ” Miller said.

And that was that as far as his team’s determined but ill-fated bid to win AOY. However, the overall result didn’t dampen Miller’s exuberance over the catch of a 6.57-pounder or the team’s win to end 2023.

“We did what we needed to do (finish first) for us to have a shot for first place. Austin did, too. Everybody did their job,” Sellers said.

Going into the regular-season finale, Theriot and Savoy held a 45-point lead over Miller and Sellers, 983 to 938. The final score, so to speak, was 1,068-1,038.

Nailing down the third spot in the AOY standings was John Gordon.

Brad Romero kept the pressure on with a third-place AOY finish in the last tournament. Romero, who fished with Damien Clements and weighed a limit at 7.10 pounds, finished fourth in the point standings with 1,016 points.

Theriot, 22, an all-around outdoorsmen who works for his father’s asphalt company, St. Martinville-based T & T Asphalt Inc., won an AOY on the Hawg Fights circuit two years ago with his cousin, Braxton Resweber of St. Martinville, who was unable to fish the circuit in 2023. Winning a second title feels just as good as the first one, Theriot said.

“It feels awesome. The last one was tighter, though. We were tit for tat every tournament, us and Blaine. It was stressful,” Theriot said. “Later in the Hawg Fight, it was stressful when we didn’t have one fish. I ended up catching one. 12 ¼ (inches). I said, ‘Good. We caught a keeper,’ ” Theriot said.

“It took so much pressure off us, so much pressure. We needed one,” Savoy said. “We looked at the points before the last tournament. If Blaine won and we scratched, they win. With about 30 minutes left, it was definitely a tight, tight race.”

The bass that decided the 2023 AOY bit on a wacky worm, he said.

“It’s my go-to bait when it’s tough in the lake. I ain’t throwing a wacky worm in the Atchafalaya Basin. When it comes down to the day I’ve got to throw a wacky worm in the Basin, it’s time to quit fishing,” Theriot said with a laugh.

Savoy, a 21-year-old welder for GOM Energy Service in Youngsville and an avid hunter, was frustrated late in the season after three straight fourth-place finishes July 12 in Lake Fausse Pointe, July 26 at Bayou Benoit and Aug. 9 at Myette Point. He was down in the dumps.

“It’s true. If you ain’t first, you’re last in this spot. It holds down on you. You think you’re not doing good. But you realize at the end of the season once you add up the points, you’re better than all these good fishermen. We had an awesome season. Won AOY,” Savoy said.

Theriot said he had to get his tournament partner out of his funk about fourths.

“I said, ‘Gavin, dude, not many people can say they came out fourth three in a row,’ ” he said.

The highlight of the AOY team’s season was May 3. They won the fourth Hawg Fight with three bass weighing 7.06 pounds, including the biggest bass of the evening, a 3.09-pounder.

It was their only W of 2023.

“That’s the only time I expect to win and we won,” Theriot said, noting they finished first despite losing a “giant” that might have been twice as big as the 3.09.

“But we still got the job done,” he said.

His favorite artificial lure during the run to AOY was a 3/8-ounce green pumpkin Z-Man Jackhammer Chatterbait, he said.

Ditto for Savoy.

“Whenever it gets tough, it’ll catch,” he said.