FRANKLIN –  A 22-year-old Catahoula bass angler who planned to go crawfishing with a friend Feb. 15 instead wound up fishing the Teche Area’s first major bass tournament of the year and winning $1,000.

Gavin Savoy, however, met up with another fishing buddy, Ben Berard of Cecilia, the previous day while sac-a-lait fishing to talk about bass fishing prospects in and around Lake Fausse Pointe. Berard was set to fish the 20th annual Louisiana Bass Cats Open, also known as the Invitational, with a friend of his, Zack Brazda of Cecilia.

“I said, ‘Good luck tomorrow,’ ” Savoy said.

Brazda’s wife became seriously ill during the day Friday. Berard alerted Savoy to stay on standby and watch for a text around 4 a.m. tournament day Saturday just in case he was needed to fish the Open.

Berard, 34, got the unfortunate news via a 1:30 a.m. text that Brazda’s wife eventually had been hospitalized and promptly sent a text about that to Savoy. They paired up, got to Fairfax Foster Bailey Memorial Boat Launch in plenty of time along with 27 other boats and returned from the long boat ride to the lake with five bass weighing 14.76 pounds to claim the grand prize of $1K.

“Like I was telling Gavin, everything happens for a reason. Man, it was fun. It was a good bite all day,” Berard said.

Well, mostly, the “good bite” happened during the first few hours Saturday.

“By 8:30, 9 o’clock, we had 13 or something (pounds),” Berard said.

Savoy, a welder at GOM Energy Services LLC, said they have been fishing together for about eight years.

“I’ve been knowing him and his brother a long time, since I was a kid. They’d always bring me to fish. They’re good guys and good fishermen,” he said.

Savoy has proved to be just as accomplished a bass angler. The combination of the two was hard to beat in the Open.

After the fast start in the morning, they continued making the rounds around the fishin’ hole working swim jigs and Texas-rigged soft plastics while targeting spawning bass on their bed. Getting cull fish was the challenge.

What proved to be the difference-maker was a 3 ¼-pounder that they missed four or five times on different baits. They debated leaving the area but decided to make one last go-around and try the bass that had been lucky so far.

Berard, an outside sales rep for welding equipment with the Jacc (sic) Group, changed his artificial lure selection and picked up a white Spro plastic frog about 12:15 p.m. That bogus hopper made something happen.

“We went around a couple times and the last round he threw that frog and that good bass blew up on it,” Savoy said.

“I don’t know what made me pick it up. I twitched it twice and she inhaled it,” Berard said.

He hooked it but good and they got it in the boat. It culled a 1.90-pound bass that left the team, as they say.

“There was a lot of high-fiving and fist-bumping going on. That Gavin, you know, he has passion,” he said. “We had been saying all day if we get one more at or over 3 pounds that would get us over the edge. That was the key fish.”

The winners needed every ounce.

Kevin Suit of New Iberia, a semi-retired salesperson at Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Moon Griffon of Lafayette, a widely known radio talk show host heard locally on KPEL 96.5 FM, put a charge into the crowd with a 6.93-pounder caught by Griffon. However, the veteran team came up 8 ounces short in their bid to win it all with a five-bass limit weighing 14.29 pounds for a $500 payday, plus $280 for the biggest bass to hit the digital scale manned by past LBC president Mike Sinitiere.

Suit said, “We just congratulate the winners. We knew we had a pound-and-a-quarter that needed to be upgraded. It’s like a waste to me, when you catch a big one like that (and don’t win), but we tried to upgrade.”

“Those boys had cookie cutters (all around the same size). We had the baby and the giant.”

Berard agreed and said, “It was close. That fish Moon caught, that was a big one.”

Following the top two finishers, Lee Bordelon and Nathan Gondron cemented a third-place finish worth $300 with a five-bass limit weighing 11.18 pounds.

Don Shoopman and his son, Jacob Shoopman, who won the Open in 2024, were fourth with a limit weighing 9.70 pounds for $200.

Chris Vedrines, continuing his hot streak this year, and Mike Louviere grabbed the fifth and final payout spot with five bass at 9.68 pounds worth $100.

While narrowly missing the winner’s pot, Suit and Griffon cashed in for the second year in a row. They were third in 2024 with 12 pounds, 8 ounces.

Griffon, 63, said it really was a tough day of bassin’ overall in the marsh near Franklin.

“We stumbled across the big one and a few more to go with it. It helped us tremendously when you get 40 percent of your weight on one fish,” he said.

The talk show radio host was being too modest, his partner said, noting they didn’t stumble across the fish while grinding it out under trying conditions, i.e., muddying water and high winds.

“Moon figured out how to catch them. He knew exactly where to put the bait,” Suit said about the Senko his partner had on the business end of the line.

The Senko’s exact color is a guarded secret. It’s such a go-to soft plastic stick bait that Griffon has 35 bags of that color, Suit said.

That “big bite” and tussle with the big ’un was as sweet as it was welcome. They had three keepers in the livewell.

“Ah, sheesh. It was after lunch sometime when he hooked up with it. When we saw it come up we knew it was big. He did an excellent job (bringing it safely to the boat) and I just clamped on it (the Suit family doesn’t use a landing net). It was a beautiful fish, for sure. Really nice,” Suit said.

“I was skipping the Senko underneath a post or log. It took off and I stuck it,” Griffon said.

“We just did a few fist bumps. We don’t celebrate too long,” Suit said.

He figured the beast in the livewell weighed at least 7 while his fishin’ buddy pegged it at 6.