MANY – A veteran bass angler from New Iberia is having himself a spring to remember in 2025.

Mike O’Brien finished 18th in a 363-boat field at the prestigious 9th annual Dylan Kyle Poche Memorial on Toledo Bend while fishing March 22 with David Detwiler, then one-upped that significantly with a lofty showing in the 2025 Louisiana Oilman’s Bass Invitational tournament, better known as LOBI, also at Toledo Bend.

O’Brien got his hands on an 8.05-pound bass in the Poche event and followed up with a heavenly 7.06-pounder April 6 on the second day of the LOBI. Heavenly, indeed, according to O’Brien’s fishing buddy, Kenny Louque.

Louque, a native of St. James Parish who lives in Paulina, and his family met the O’Briens, Mike and his wife, Melanie, a retired Iberia Parish educator, while camping one spring around 2000 at Toledo Bend. The couples cherished the springtime get-togethers while becoming close friends.

Kenny and his wife, Amy D. Louque, learned about the late Katie O’Brien, the O’Briens’ youngest daughter who died Dec. 10, 2006, at age 18 at a Lafayette hospital after being injured in a highway wreck. Katie remains near and dear to the heart of family and good friends, and her name, Katie “O,” is emblazoned on the family’s saltwater boat seen so often when the speckled trout fishin’s “on” around Cypremort Point.

She played an integral role – call it inspirational, spiritual or whatever you believe fits – in the latest bass tournament entered by her loving father, who teamed with Louque for the LOBI tournament at Toledo Bend.

O’Brien, 67, and his partner left the LOBI site that Sunday afternoon oh-so proud of a 5th-place overall finish, which included the 19th biggest bass, the New Iberian’s 7.06-pounder, 12th place on Day 1 with 18.07 pounds, and 7th place on Day 2 with 20.07 pounds for a two-day total of 38.41 pounds. When all the counting was done, the O’Brien-Louque team finished with a payday totaling $1,500.

“Ah, very good. We’ve been improving since we’ve been fishing together. So we’ve been doing better each time,” Louque said, noting it was their third major bass tournament together as a team.

O’Brien agreed and said, “We’re still looking for No. 1 (a big win).”

The big bag of bass they put on the digital scale the second day was rewarding. There was more to it than that, more than the money.

“The memories made spiritual moments,” Louque said.

Katie O., as she is remembered reverently, chipped in big time on the first day, Louque confided, at a time both bass anglers knew they needed a “kicker fish.”

“We leave this area where we’re catching fish in search of a kicker fish. We were catching cookie cutter fish – 3 pounds. We wanted bigger. We want to increase our creel. I talked to his daughter in heaven, Katie,” he said, adding hopeful of latching onto a bass weighing more than 3.

Then Louque caught a 1.15-pounder. It didn’t help.

“I mumbled, ‘C’mon, Katie Boo, you’ve got to give me a bigger one than that!’ I catch a 4-pounder that increased our weight from 15 pounds to 18 pounds,” he said.

They returned to their respective campsites and geared up for the second day of LOBI.

Louque, a 59-year-old senior mechanical rotating equipment specialist at Shell Oil Co., and O’Brien were keeperless for the first 3 ½ or so hours on Day 2.

“We don’t have a fish in the boat by 11 o’clock. We catch two small keeper fish, about 15-inch fish, 1 ¾-type fish, and we’re about ready to start talking about Plan B. Just as we had thought that, we pulled onto a point. I caught two 4-pounders back-to-back. Swim bait,” Louque said.

As weigh-in time approached, they cranked up to move to their special area.

“We go back to the same spot where I spoke to Katie the day before. I told Katie, ‘I know you favor your dad more than me but you can let him have the big fish today.’ So he catches the 7-pounder. It still brings tears to my eyes when I talk about it,” Louque said, his voice cracking.

O’Brien, an all-around outdoorsman and outboard mechanic who retired as Bayou Land Marine owner in 2019, said he went “old school” to catch the 7-pound class bass in those last 20 minutes of fishing. The soft plastic, a green pumpkin Zoom Baby Brush Hog, triggered the bite from the hawg in shallow bushes in an area they culled two bass on Day 1.

He realized right away the bass on the business end of his fishing line would help the cause.

“Oh, yeah. I hollered at Kenny to ‘get the net. This is the big one.’ Poor thing. He has had a bad knee (potential torn meniscus) … (but) we ended up getting it. It was good. We were pretty much excited,” O’Brien said.

The long-time fishing buddies whose friendship strengthened for the past 25 years each spring when their families camped at Cypress Bend Resort, started celebrating that 7.06-pounder with fist bumps.

“It was awesome,” O’Brien said about the big bass that culled a 2.4-pounder. That left their smallest keeper at 2.10 pounds.

“We pretty much hugged in the boat. It was a moment. It’s going to be one we talk about for ages. We’ll continue to remember this for the ages,” Louque said.

“All in all, it was just a cap to our two days of fishing. Mike and I are pretty diehard. We didn’t miss a cast in the two-day tournament. That one fish gave us a feeling of accomplishment.”

The LOBI was won by Brandon Sweet and Jacob Ezernack with 45.46 pounds. The winners were followed by Craig Meche and Kevin Zaunbrecher, who had 42.13; Tyler Wilkerson and Ryan Wilkerson, 41.76; Travis Pitre and Dean Carle, 39.11, and O’Brien-Louque.