COTEAU HOLMES – Like the lyrics to a well-known song, Jacob Shoopman often realizes when to hold ’em, when to fold ’em, even in a short, pressure-packed evening bass tournament in the Atchafalaya Basin.

The 36-year-old Lafayette bass angler, formerly of New Iberia, deviated from his game plan July 6 long after the 5:30 p.m. start of a Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series tournament out of Bayou Benoit Landing. Shoopman and his father, Don Shoopman, returned for the 8:30 p.m. weigh-in with a three-bass limit weighing 5.96 pounds.

“It felt good to get our first win of the year,” Jacob said.

A late bite on their go-to Super Bait Buzz Baits in a shallow drain full of cypress trees sealed the win worth $405.

Nine of 18 boats scratched and just four limits hit the digital scales. Second place went to New Iberia outdoorsman Brad Romero, who fished by himself, with three bass weighing 4.75 pounds for $243. St. Martin Parish bass anglers Austin Theriot and Gavin Savoy, defending Angler(s) of the Year, were third with a limit at 4.55 pounds worth $162.

The Shoopmans, who captured the circuit’s AOY title in 2015 and again in 2020, had three second-place finishes to their credit going into the ninth WN Hawg Fights BTS of 2024. Those runners-up showings were in the first two tournaments – March 20 and March 27 – at Lake Fausse Pointe and June 19 in the Atchafalaya Basin out of Myette Point Landing.

The father-and-son team was glad to be back in the Spillway on July 3. Jacob, a salesman for Coca-Cola United Bottling Co., chose to fish the mini-bass tournament in one of three spots his dad caught at least one keeper in while prefishing two days earlier.

“I feel like every time we get out in the Basin this time of year, I get a lot of confidence, just fishing Basin history. Going into the tournament, I knew we could catch some fish. It was a matter of getting the right bites,” Jacob said.

The “right bites,” however, were a long time coming, seeming like an eternity that evening.

“After being pretty confident going in, we only had one 12-incher (which he caught on his buzz bait during the first 10 minutes) in almost 1 ½ hours. So I kind of changed up the plan a little bit and we went up shallow in some trees. After doing that we got on the right track real quick,” Jacob said about taking their Ranger RT198P powered by a 150-h.p. Merc deep into a drain and fishing 1 ½-foot depths.

They culled out the lonely line-scratcher right away, then caught three more keeper-sized bass in the next 10 minutes. They left for about 10 minutes, returned and caught two more solid keepers to cull again.

Whatever concentrated some hungry bass there, Jacob was pleased.

“For some reason, I don’t know why, fish are just staying shallow, not coming out of the drains. It’s kind of making it tough on everybody,” he said.

The elder Shoopman, 71 ½-year-old outdoors writer who retired as senior news editor of The Daily Iberian in January 2019, tagged five keeper bass on his buzz bait during the late blitz.

“Oh, yeah, the old man in the back of the boat done good,” his son said with a chuckle.

Based on what happened, Jacob called it a “magical drain.” That and the two good decisions he made made the difference.

He believes another topwater, such as hollow body plastic frogs, might have triggered some of those bass to bite. But, he said, “They always eat the buzz bait.”