B.J. Maturin shows the chip with the number 3 he pulled June 11 from the bag of chips held by Jacob Shoopman, left, before the start of the Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series at Lake Fausse Pointe out of Marsh Field Landing. Maturin and Dusty Rice finished second in the 18-boat field with 5.60 pounds. DON SHOOPMAN / THE DAILY IBERIAN

LOREAUVILLE – Two solid keeper-sized bass, plus a 1-pounder, gave Dylan Kelly and Steven Credeur some rays of hope on an overcast evening June 11 in a Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series at Lake Fausse Pointe.

“It was tough but it actually started off really good for us. We ended up catching three bass in the first 1 ½ hours of the tournament. We didn’t get many bites but we capitalized on the bites and good bites,” Kelly, a 21-year-old Loreauville resident, said after winning the tournament.

Kelly, who teamed up for the seventh WN Hawg Fights BTS of 2025 with his uncle, got one more crucial bite in the last 30 minutes. Credeur, who lives in St. Martinville, hooked and boated the 2-pound class bass to seal the deal.

“He put in a 2-pounder that bumped us all the way to first place,” Kelly said about their limit weighing 5.93 pounds worth $405.

They topped an 18-boat field that fished a lake still giving up its bass grudgingly. Fishable water clarity-wise was at a premium.

The winners’ stiffest challenge came from Dusty Rice and B.J. Maturin, whose three-bass limit tipped at 5.60 pounds for a runners-up finish worth $243. Travis Meche Jr. and Chance Watson finished third with 5.35 pounds to show for their three bass for $162.

The tournament’s biggest bass, a 2.91-pounder was turned in by the team of Jerry Marcotte and Johnny Hester. That big bass anchored their limit weighing 5.26 pounds.

Kelly, who has been fishing the evening bass tournaments since he was a freshman at Loreauville High School, was proud of his boat’s finish. He was pleasantly surprised by the first-place finish.

“We have some really good guys in the club (WN Hawg Fights BTS) and they know how to catch fish. I figured it might be close,” said the veteran high school bass angler who fished for LES. “After watching a few people weigh in (8:30 p.m.), I knew we had a solid chance of placing.”

A double – two 2-pound class bass – they put in the boat early in the tournament provided the hot start on an otherwise slow evening that began at 5:30 p.m. out of Marsh Field Landing. Both of them cast a soft plastic hollow body frog and got bit, he said about their evening of bassin’ in the “back borrow pit” area known as the Stump Field.

Kelly, an HVAC with Oilfield Instrumentation, said he was throwing a “bulldog”-colored SPRO Frog, a spittin’ image of the real thing in his opinion.

“We fished slowly up the bank. If you fished too fast they weren’t hitting it. Slow and steady. Every bite we got we put in the boat,” he said, noting they were a perfect 4-for-4.

Kelly, who usually fishes with Devin Verret, who had to work late that night, said he spends “a lot of time” on the water trying to figure bass out. His goal is to finish in the Top 10.

“It means a lot to me being able to do well with these older, experienced anglers,” he said.

The next WN Hawg Fights BTS tournament is scheduled for June 25 at Lake Martin. It will be the third visit this year to the lake in St. Martin Parish.