Travis Meche Jr., left, and Chance Watson's three-bass limit, anchored by a 6.55-pounder in Meche's right hand, topped a 16-boat field May 18 in a rainy Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series tournament at Lake Martin. Their bass weighed 13.85 pounds, a little more than 4 pounds ahead of the closest challengers. DON SHOOPMAN / THE DAILY IBERIAN

BREAUX BRIDGE – Five minutes into his second-ever fishing trip to Lake Martin, Travis Meche Jr. got one of the hardest bites to handle from one of the bigger bass in the cypress tree-lined lake.

The high school senior-to-be did everything he could to keep the “hawg” hooked up during a heavy downpour May 18, waited impatiently for a few scary moments for the net man to swing into action, then boated a 6.55-pound bass that wound up being the biggest of the sixth Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series of 2025. The 6 ½-pounder also anchored Meche and Chance Watson’s three-fish limit that tipped the digital scale to 13.85 pounds, more than enough for a first-place finish worth $360 in the rain-soaked 16-boat field.

It was the second of three straight payouts in as many nights, each on a different lake, for Meche, a 17-year-old avid bass angler who finished third May 17 with Watson in the Chicot Dog Fights at Chicot Lake, first in the WN Hawg Fights BTS, followed by a third with William Guidry in the May 19 Henderson Lake Dog Fight.

At Lake Martin soon after the 5:30 p.m. takeoff, Meche tossed a ½-ounce white spinnerbait, reeled it alongside a cypress tree and noticed some other structure near the boat.

“Listen. Listen. I threw by a tree and when I was reeling it up from the tree, I realized there was an old log about a foot under the water. I stuck my rod out and reeled it right over it. My bait was about 10 inches from the rod when the bass grabbed it,” Meche said a few days later, still excited about that moment.

“After I hooked it it was all in the trolling motor for about eight seconds. When it came out – I got it out – I didn’t know how big it was. My partner got the net. It jumped out of the water, did a backflip, come clean out of the water! When it did that, my heart dropped. I thought it was an 8- or 9-pounder.

Meche said he didn’t slam the hook home hard but leaned into it, apparently good enough.

“Eventually it gets up to the top right at the boat. I’m waiting for my partner to net it … he has no net in his hand. He had dropped his rod in the water. He was trying to get his rod,” he said. “So I started yelling at him to get the net. All kinds of stuff. He finally got the net and we put it in the boat.

“We kept fishing and fishing. About 15 minutes later, they had a dead log with some grass around. I knew it’d have to have a fish because it looked so good,” Meche said, noting he cast a chartreuse/white ½-ounce Z-Man Jackhammer Chatterbait once, twice and a third time when a 4-pound class bass ate it.

“I hooked that one. I boat flipped it. It wasn’t coming off. I had 25-pound fluorocarbon on. I just swung him,” he said.

With two bass and 10-plus pounds in the livewell, he wasn’t done yet. He cranked up the boat and made a beeline for cypress trees right at the boat ramp.

“We had two big ones. I knew we’d get a check with two big fish. We needed one more to be sure to win it,” said Meche, who recently celebrated an unbelievable Louisiana High School B.A.S.S. Nation season with Watson by coasting to an Angler(s) of the Year title for 2024-25.

The first cypress tree, which had an old, dead log, of course, gave up another good-sized bass, a 3-pound class bass, on his fifth cast around 7:15 p.m. with the Jackhammer.  He added a 2-pounder about 30 minutes later that didn’t make the team, as they say.

It was more than enough to finish ahead of an eye-opening limit brought in by Dylan Kelly, who fished with WN Hawg Fights BTS director Rusty Owens. Their three bass weighed 9.09 pounds for second place and $216.

Mike Sinitiere and Mike O’Brien, fishing together for only the third time this year, finished third with three solid bass weighing 6.91 pounds worth $144.

Meche, who made his first-ever trip to Lake Martin for a few early hours on Memorial Day, two days before the Hawg Fight, said he just tried to cover as much water as possible with his bladed jig and spinnerbait.

“I ain’t got much to say except I think we got lucky. Oh, man, I knew we were going to catch fish but not what we caught,” he said.

Ironically, Meche pointed out, he had the exact weight, 13.85 pounds, with three bass in a Chicot Lake evening tournament he and his grandfather won hands down in 2024.

For the record, Watson retrieved the fishing rod that went into the drink.

Halfway through this Hawg Fight season, Brad Romero and Raven Owens have racked up the most points toward the Angler(s) of the Year title. After six tournaments, last year’s AOY runners-up team has 517 points and sit atop the point standings.

The defending AOY champions, Bo Amy and Donald Romero, lurk close behind them in the point standings with 513 points.