The Meches, Travis Sr., right, and Travis Jr., celebrated Father's Day a day early on June 14 by winning the 4th annual Louisiana Bass Cats Father's Day Open held at Lake Fausse Pointe out of Marsh Field Landing. Their five bass weighed 9.77 pounds, easily enough to finish ahead of the 11-boat field. DON SHOOPMAN / THE DAILY IBERIAN

LOREAUVILLE – Travis Meche Jr. continues to rack up skins on the wall during a red-hot Summer of 2025, the latest while bass fishing with his father, Travis Meche Sr.

The father-and-son team from Branch enjoyed a rare opportunity to pair up June 14 for the Louisiana Bass Cats Father’s Day Weekend Open tournament on Lake Fausse Pointe. After a painfully but understandably slow start, considering the lake was swollen and stained, they slowly rallied with one here, two there and then a handful more including two 3-plus pound keeper-sized bass in the waning hour or so.

The 17-year-old senior-to-be at Summit Christian Academy and his 36-year-old dad solved the lake to cull to a five-bass limit for 9.77 pounds and a payday of $500.

Their stretch run was something to behold as they pulled up to a drain, the younger bass angler inexplicably tied on a large, white Zoom Super Fluke, cast, set the hook and reeled in their fourth keeper he saw on LiveScope. His dad tied on a pearl white jerkbait, then promptly caught a 3.27-pounder, their biggest of the day. A 3-pound class was hooked and boated a few minutes later by his son, plus a few more keepers that didn’t help.

“Did you look at the fish (3.27-pounder)? Big, healthy butterball fish. Man, they were pulling so hard,” Meche Sr. said later.

The Meches celebrated mildly.

“We kind of hollered a little bit. I mean, once we figured it out with that jerkbait, it was over,” Meche Jr. said. “It felt pretty good. We felt pretty sure we’d cut a check. We knew if we caught 9 pounds we’d be sitting pretty good.”

Meche Jr., the reigning Louisiana High School B.A.S.S. Nation Angler of the Year, appreciated the timing of the comeback win. After all, the next day was Father’s Day.

“That made it special to me. I wouldn’t be as good as I am if it wasn’t for him,” Meche Jr. said. He has cashed in in a vast majority of money tournaments the past five months from Chicot Lake to Lake Fausse Pointe.

New Iberians Brad Romero and Raven Owens, who are enjoying another great Hawg Fight season, finished second with a limit at 7.83 pounds for $300.

Jean Trahan, fishing alone, solved the lockjaw and nightmarish water conditions using a wacky-rigged Senko to win $150 with three bass weighing 7.06 pounds for third place.

Johnny Hester of Lafayette brought in one bass but it was the right size. His 4.55-pounder emerged as the tournament’s lunker bass worth $100.

Four father-son or father-daughter teams, including the winners, fished the tournament on a weekend dedicated to fathers everywhere. The others were Don Shoopman and his son, Jacob Shoopman; Kyle Kelly and his son Dylan Kelly, and Rusty Owens and his daughter, Reagen Owens.

Lake Fausse Pointe’s water level was at 2.07 feet on July 11, the day of the Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series contest out of Marsh Field Landing. This region was soaked two nights later during a lengthy storm that quickly pushed the water to 2.99 feet by Saturday.

When bass tournament anglers arrived in the predawn darkness the muddy, extra-high water had pushed past the two boat ramps into the parking lot but hadn’t topped the bulkhead or three wooden piers. Fully aware of plummeting odds to coax a bass to bite, even in clearer water in some areas, 11 boats showed up to fish the Father’s Day Weekend Open.

The 11-boat field left at safe daylight. The eventual winners went to the youngest angler’s hotspot in a borrow pit, commonly known as the “Stump Field,” along the West Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee.

“It was extremely tough. We started off not so good. Then Brad (Romero) came behind us and caught two,” Meche Sr. said, noting after a while they left to try two other borrow pits.

Their new Skeeter’s livewell remained empty for approximately 2 1⁄2 hours before the first keeper went into the boat around 9 a.m., according to the older Meche, who works for his father’s Meche’s Welding, a metal construction business. Meche Jr. said he nailed that icebreaker on a Chug Bug in the Mardi Gras Pit.

When action slowed to a crawl they cranked up and returned to the back borrow pit where Meche Jr. has tapped bass since the Jackie Savoy Memorial Big Bass Classic when he won Heaviest Stringer and boasted two 4-plus pound bass.

That move paid off for the Meches with two 2-pound class bass hooked and boated at the same time. One hit Meche Sr.’s spinnerbait while the other bit on his son’s black/red Ultra-Vibe Speed Craw.

“That put us up to three keepers at the time … three small ones or 3, 4 pounds,” Meche Sr. said.

Another scoreless drought ensued before the two bass anglers headed to the drain and those 3-plus pounders.

“We caught five more keepers. It’s just kind of crazy to me you can win a tournament with a jerkbait at Lake Fausse Pointe. I’d have never thought that,” the younger bass angler said.