Raven Owens, left, and his wife, Brandy Owens, worked hard to get a five-fish limit on a scorching hot day June 7 on their way to winning the sixth Louisiana Bass Anglers tournament of 2025. The Owenses had just one keeper before lunchtime but added four bass, including her 2.94-pounder on a soft plastic, to win with 7.80 pounds after a tough day on Lake Fausse Pointe. The 2.94-pound bass was the biggest of the tournament held out of Fairfax Foster Bailey Memorial Boat landing. facebook.com

FRANKLIN – To sum up the winning bass club tournament experience by a local husband-and-wife team on June 7, it’s best to paraphrase the Charles Dickens poem “A Tale of Two Cities” published in 1859:

“It was the worst of times, it was the best of times.”

Raven Owens and Brandy Owens, a couple in their mid to upper 30s who have won big bass tournaments the past few years, rose to the occasion on a steamy hot day at Lake Fausse Pointe. With bites at a premium they stayed at it all day to collect a five-bass limit weighing 7.80 pounds, just enough to top a 20-boat field of Louisiana Bass Anglers members and their guests who left at safe daylight from Fairfax Foster Bailey Memorial Boat Landing.

Raven Owens said, “We were very proud. We went from being very, very aggravated … frustrated … miserable … to a complete 180. We were really surprised.”

Along with other boats, the Owens Team traveled north to Lake Fausse Pointe. As they all discovered upon arrival, the lake gave up its keeper-sized bass grudgingly, if at all.

“It was pretty rough. It was really rough, actually. By lunchtime we had one fish in the boat. We had caught a total of three fish and one was a keeper. It was barely over 12 inches,” Raven Owens said. “We had stayed in the borrow pits all morning. We eventually left there and went to Mardi Gras Pit. We spent a good bit of time there but all we caught was one fish barely over the minimum length limit.”

From there, they went to the Texaco Field, which gave up a short fish, then to another spot. There were 2 hours remaining before the 3 p.m. weigh-in.

Brandy Owens, who works in human resources for Premier Inc., a casing and tubing oil field company, got the momentum rolling in the right direction with a 2.94-pound bass that made the mistake of mouthing a Zoom soft plastic flipped into its wheelhouse. That bass wound up being the biggest of the tournament.

Her husband, a contractor for Randy’s Total Renovation, also put a 2-pound class bass in the boat to give them four keepers.

“We went back and forth and caught another keeper” on his bladed jig to give them their limit, he said.

“It was a terrible bag but a great bag at the end. We were not expecting to win,” he said, noting when they got back to the boat ramp many others told him they had only one bass.

“I told her (Brandy), ‘You never really know. We might place.’ I never expected to win.”

They needed every fraction of an ounce to turn back Hank Harris and Crystal Gayle, whose limit weighed 7.41 pounds for a strong second-place finish. Guy Derouen and Devin Derouen finished third with 6.31 pounds.

It was that kind of day on the lake that has been up and down as far as bass fishing success, mostly down as it’s been high and mostly muddy, fish small.

“They had boats running back and forth. It was so hot, the bite was just dead. It was nothing,” Raven Owens said.

What might be wrong with the lake and its bass population?

“I don’t think anything’s necessarily wrong. It’s the time of year. It’s been beat up since spring. It was rough. I thought (fleetingly) about picking up and heading back,” he said.

The couple has enjoyed much better days, such as their March 15 tournament effort at Toledo Bend, when their five bass weighed a whopping 26.90 pounds and included his personal best bass, a 9.52-pounder, to win that day’s Louisiana Bass Anglers tournament.