PINELAND, Texas – To get to the top in two separate Louisiana Bass Anglers tournaments Sept. 15-16 at Lake Sam Rayburn, both winning teams had to fish the top, as in mostly topwaters.

Bubby Lopez and three-time bass club Angler of the Year Dicky Fitzgerald did just that in the first tournament on Friday when they culled to an unbeatable five-bass limit weighing 14.44 pounds, including the biggest bass of the day, a 4.21-pounder.

On Saturday in the second tournament, Louis Daigle and his guest, James Fredieu, reeled in enough quality keeper bass to win the day with 15.74 pounds, a limit that included a 5.7-pound bass that wasn’t big bass. That Day 2 honor went to the team of Gerald Buck Jr. and his grandson, Bryant Louviere, with a whopping 6.47.

Fredieu, 55, of St. Martinville, said he and his tournament partner caught about a dozen keepers on Day 1 but were unable to get the bigger bass to bite. They had so many spots but couldn’t fish all of them, he said, so they “just changed up areas” for Day 2.

Within 45 minutes they had five bass in the livewell, including the 5.7-pounder, then culled to a 3-plus pound average the rest of the day in Harvey Creek.

“It was a fun weekend for fishing, a good weekend,” Fredieu said.

Most of the bigger bass bit on a bone-colored Yellow Magic, he said, which he had to cast far from the boat sitting in about 15-foot depths to outside grasslines in 10-foot depths.

“That seemed to trigger the bigger bites. I had to fish it so slow. Throw it far, let it sit, and fish it real slow,” Fredieu said, noting most of the time the bass hit after it landed and remained still for a few moments.

Daigle, a Franklin outdoorsman who, like Fredieu is a commercial crawfisherman who buys and sells crawfish, caught on a white Whopper Plopper. But the bass’ modus operandi was different for that sputtering topwater as they often would trail it all the way to the boat before biting.

“For the big bite we had to stick to topwater,” Fredieu said, adding they also hooked and boated some bass on a Zoom Speed Craw.

A day earlier, Lopez, of Centerville, and Fitzgerald, of Charenton, experienced probably the worst three days of prefishing in their accomplished bass tournament careers, according to Lopez.

“Our scouting days were horrible … maybe five keepers. So we just went to where we caught the better keepers and started there,” the 52-year-old bass angler said about alternating between the St. Augustine and Buck Bay areas.

“We just got the right bite. I think we had a limit by 8 o’clock. That 4.21 was out big fish. Dicky caught our big fish, like always. That made our third fish … I’d say about 7:15, 7:30.”

Lopez, a lead production operator for Perdido Energy, and Fitzgerald, who has the Dicky Fitzgerald State Farm Agency in Morgan City, targeted grass lines in 5- to 8-foot depths with black/clear Whopper Ploppers and brownish/clear Choppos.

“He (Fitzgerald) was getting the better bites on the Whopper Plopper,” Lopez said, noting they caught 12 or 13 keeper-sized bass.

“Oh, it felt good after the practice we had. We weren’t even expecting to place our prefishing was so horrible. We couldn’t figure nothing out in practice,” he said.

They fished the same areas on the second day but had plenty of company, including a few boats that cut them off, due to a large benefit tournament held that Saturday. They finished fourth with 11.20 pounds.

On Day 1, following the winners were Chris Marcotte and Jerry Marcotte with 14.38 pounds; Johnny Hester and Hank Harris with 12.79 pounds, and Tony Sinitiere and Kenton Sinitiere with 11.79 pounds.

Day 2’s other top finishers were Michael Louviere and Tabitha L. Landry, 13.76 pounds, and the Sinitieres, 13.56 pounds.