MYETTE POINT – Mike Louviere had ’em right where he wanted ‘em Nov. 9 for the Louisiana Bass Anglers Classic in the Atchafalaya Basin.

The Jeanerette outdoorsman who was born and raised in Loreauville just had to get there and he did soon after the safe daylight start from Myette Point Landing. Louviere had to go in a smaller, lighter boat that’s a pain, literally, to fish for bass out of but it was worth it, he said.

“I knew I was going to catch fish but I didn’t think I’d catch what I caught. I caught a bunch of fish,” he said later, happily, despite a backache to beat all backaches.

After culling constantly, the five bass he carried to the digital scale weighed 10.81 pounds worth $600.

“Man, that felt pretty good. I won it when it counted. It’s always nice to have a Classic win. I ended with a bang,” the 45-year-old weld leader for Chart Industries said after winning the season-ending tournament.

It was a trying season for him in that bass club, he confided, because he missed a few tournaments due to out-of-town business trips or other circumstances that conflicted with tournament dates.

“I really was trying to make the Top 8. We won it (inaugural Southern Bass Club Association’s Elite 8 bass tournament at Toledo Bend) last year. I really wanted to be on that team.”

Johnny Hester of Lafayette, disappointed over a fourth-place finish in the race for Angler of the Year, salvaged the season with a runner-up showing in the LBA Classic. Hester weighed in a limit at 9.80 pounds for $400.

Franklin’s Tony Sinitiere finished a close third with five bass weighing 9.78 pounds worth $200. His biggest bass, a 3.46-pounder, was the tournament’s lunker bass to reel in another $200.

Louviere, who qualified for the 2025 B.A.S.S. Nation Central Division tournament next May with a clutch effort Sept. 28 at Toledo Bend, ended his bass tournament season on a winning note.

His hotspot was known to most if not all of the Classic contenders. It was no secret, he confided, pinpointing Grevemberg, which was difficult to access due to extremely low-water conditions at the time with the Atchafalaya River stage at Butte La Rose in the mid-3s.

“Everybody knows where I was,” he said, noting he needed to use his crawfish skiff to get there because about one month earlier he bent the prop shaft and propeller on his high-performance fiberglass bass boat on a venture into Grevemberg.

The bite was nonexistent as soon as he got in the popular fishin’ hole and started flippin a soft plastic around. After nary a bite, he picked up a Chatterbait.

The bass loved it and ate it up.

After Louviere switched to the bladed jig, “I had my limit in the first 15 minutes of fishing. They were just eating it.”

He kept the Chatterbait locked in his hand on his way to boating 30-plus keeper-sized bass.

“I did miss two good ones – 3 pounds (each). I saw both of the fish. I would have had more than 10.81,” he said.

With the Atchafalaya River on the rise until Nov. 21, Louviere plans to turn his attention to building an aluminum tunnel hull designed to get around easily and fish comfortably “when the Basin drops” like a rock in 2025.

“I’ll put my twist on it. It’s going to be strictly for bass fishing,” he said, noting he plans to buy aluminum and other material next month to build the 19 ½-foot long, 5-foot wide boat and hang a 140-h.p. Suzuki outboard motor on it.

Along with cooperative bass, the proposed boat might make his LBA Classic experience an all-around great one in 2025.