AMELIA – The Coteau Bass Hustlers’ 2023 Angler of the Year needed something to jumpstart defense of his title and he got it in the form of a friend who also happens to be a customer.

Jason Jones of New Iberia had three fairly forgettable tournaments to start the new year. Going into the fourth tournament April 27, Jones picked a guest, Brad Tullier of Baton Rouge, and Tullier proved to be a slump buster as they teamed up to win the bass club’s Amelia tournament with five bass weighing 10.74 pounds.

“I was happy with what we had,” Jones said about a tough day of fishing in extra windy conditions.

The 52-year-old salesman for Alamo Hydraulics went into the tournament wary of wind forecasts of 20-30 mph with higher gusts on a day he planned to fish drains he knew in an area. That didn’t happen as far as putting many keeper bass of any size in the boat from that starting point.

“We weren’t able to scout. He (Tullier) fishes that area more than I do. He’s more familiar with the area. We were going to run a few spots. If the spots didn’t hold up, we were going to fish a certain canal. He was pretty confident we could get 10 pounds out of it,” Jones said after their first stop of the morning, following the safe daylight start, yielded two line scratchers and their next two fishin’ holes gave up nary a one.

Then they headed to the canal to the west in the Stephensville area, where bass were much more obliging.

“We went to the canal and took our time and figured out what they wanted,” Jones said.

They caught several keepers to get their limit on Zoom Brush Hogs, Chatterbaits and crank baits before Tullier got dialed in on punchin’ pattern. They started culling.

“We probably had 15, 20 keepers. That was pretty much our day. We started culling up. We couldn’t get that last one, a 1.5, until about 10 minutes before we came in. He stuck that one, about 2 pounds, punching a Zoom Speed Craw, and it helped by half-a-pound,” the New Iberian said.

That was more than enough to top the 10-boat field that fished out of Amelia Landing.

Tim Sturm and his guest finished second with a limit weighing 8.67 pounds. The runners-up also boasted the biggest bass of the tournament, a 2.67-pounder to shave the next-biggest bass, a 2.64-pounder brought in by Jones and Tullier.

Marlin Hebert, who leads the race for AOY, and Blaine Miller finished third with five bass weighing 6.74 pounds following a dead fish (3) penalty of .75 pounds.

Hebert’s clutch finish, combined with his key bass tournament win in March at Toledo Bend, pushed his AOY-leading total to 362 points, 32 points ahead of Jones.

“I’d rather be chasing than up ahead with everybody chasing me,” Jones said with a chuckle.

The bass club’s next tournament is May 18 out of Amelia Landing.