BREAUX BRIDGE – Accomplished New Iberia bass angler Bo Amy has tussled with a 10-plus pound bass before on a body of water known for churning out double-digit bass but he never expected one Feb. 6 on a fishing trip to nearby Lake Martin.

His expectations were exceeded, and how, though, on his second cast while fishing with his father, Troy Amy of New Iberia, around 8:30 a.m. Amy dropped daughters Nova Marie and Karmyn at school earlier Thursday.

The 38-year-old thread rep at VAM USA, who celebrated his birthday the same day, set the hook hard in the bottom lip of the fish that hit halfway between the boat and the cypress tree it was hanging around at the time. He was using a ⅜-ounce chartreuse/white Humdinger, he said.

“I hooked her and told Dad, ‘It’s a good fish!’ He said when he first got to see it, ‘May be an 8-pounder.’ When it eventually laid on its side, we thought it might be a 10-pounder,” Amy said.

At first the hawg made a beeline for the back of the boat. Then it tried other avenues to escape and it got interesting.

“I kind of took my time with her, probably a couple minutes,” Amy said about the way he played the fish.

As the big bass got close to the boat, it became apparent the landing net they had might be too small because it’s the one they use while chasing speckled trout in and around Vermilion Bay, according to Amy.

Considering that, Troy Amy, VAM USA shop foreman, who celebrates his 58th birthday later this month, leaned over the side of the boat, then carefully lipped what proved to be a 10-pound, 3-ounce bass. The risk of losing it at the boat didn’t faze Amy, who said he was going to release her anyway and, what’s more, he was prefishing for a Louisiana Bass Anglers tournament at Lake Martin on Feb. 15.

That recent lunker is swimming with the fishes. And it might thrill another bass angler in the future, perhaps this Saturday when 14 or more two-man teams from the LBA visit Lake Martin.

“People say, ‘Why didn’t you mount her?’ I’ve got a big one on the wall. And I didn’t want to pay another $600,” he said.

That 10-pound, 3-ounce birthday bass wasn’t his personal best, or he just might have considered bringing it to a taxidermist. After all, he recalled, he always did tell people if he catches a 10-pounder “anywhere around here, not Toledo Bend, I’m going to mount it.”

Amy caught his PB, a 10.89-pounder, last spring at Toledo Bend. Double-digits are more common there nearly any time of the year than at Lake Martin, although the small cypress tree-lined lake in St. Martin Parish gives up double digits during the spawn each spring.

After the Amys watched the Lake Martin hawg swim away in the clear, green water, they resumed fishing and caught several more bass.

“Oh, yeah, it was fun. I was going there expecting to catch 2-pounders,” he said, noting the 10-3 changed his mind in a hurry. “I said, ‘It might be a good day. We had a good day.”