Brad Romero, left, and Raven Owens teamed up again for another first-place finish, most recently on May 24 when they dominated a 14-boat field from the Louisiana Bass Anglers who fished Chicot Lake. Romero and Owens' five bass weighed 17.98 pounds. facebook.com

VILLE PLATTE — Recent history was on Brad Romero and Raven Owens’ side going into the Louisiana Bass Anglers tournament May 24 at Chicot Lake. After all, Romero and Raven Owens, both of New Iberia, finished an agonizingly close second May 18 in a Louisiana Bass Cats tournament at the scenic lake in Evangeline Parish. They returned to the lake May 20 and finished third in a Tuesday evening bass tournament out of Chicot State Park’s South Landing. The New Iberians went back to the lake to fish the LBA tournament on a Saturday. Their day on the water started slowly as far as catching keeper bass, as it did the first two tournaments, but came on strong down the stretch when they culled to a five-bass limit weighing 17.98 pounds. “It could have been 20 pounds if I caught the one that popped my line. It was a good fish,” Romero said, emphasizing the second-to-last word.

As it turned out, the winners had more than enough size to the five bass they carried to the digital scale.

Their closest competitors were Tony Sinitiere of Franklin and Charles Domingue of Lafayette, whose limit weighed 11.32 pounds for a lofty second-place finish at Chicot Lake in the LBA’s fifth tournament of 2025.

Levi Louviere of Broussard, a former Franklin resident who has been on a hot streak, and Trey Hebert of Natchez, formerly of Franklin, teamed up to finish third and claim the tournament’s lunker bass, a 4.58-pounder. The bag of bass weighed 9.61 pounds.

Only two of the 14 boats managed to catch a five-bass limit. For a long while, Romero and Owens might have been wondering if they’d ever put five keepers in the livewell.

“First thing in the morning, Raven caught two good ones on a Senko. I had caught a dink on a Senko,” Romero said.

It took a few hours after safe daylight for his successful pattern in the two tournaments earlier in the month to pay off, he said. They needed the sun to be pretty high in the sky to position bass around bushy trees that provide shade.

The veteran bass anglers winged it until the day shaped up to their liking.

“We had to wait for the sun to come out for it to work, so we just went fishing,” Romero said, noting they added three more keepers to the livewell as the day got sunnier and sunnier.

“We had four fish for the longest time,” he said.

Weather and water conditions improved around midday. They got their limit and then some.

“We ended up catching three (more) pretty good ones. The better fish I caught were after lunch, for sure,” he said, adding one of them was a good-sized bass that slammed the crankbait he was throwing around a “random log.”

Getting that bass in the boat was a more favorable result than for another bass, one that hit his crankbait so hard it snapped the line. He lost another nice-sized bass AND his red-hot crankbait.

The winners bounced back strong.