Gavin Savoy's third of three quality-sized bass bit just before the 8:40 p.m. weigh-in June 25 on a spinnerbait with a swim shad rather than a skirt. His winning limit weighed 8.12 pounds, good enough to win the WN Hawg Fights BTS tournament at Lake Martin. DON SHOOPMAN / THE DAILY IBERIAN

BREAUX BRIDGE – Of all the spinnerbaits flashing by fish the evening of June 25 in Lake Martin, none looked or acted like the one cast and retrieved for most of 3 ½ hours in the eighth Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series of 2025.

Twenty-two-year old Catahoula outdoorsman Gavin Savoy was one of many bass anglers using spinnerbaits. However, Savoy was throwing a big, heavy ol’ spinnerbait he bought earlier this year at Toledo Town & Tackle. It’s well-worn from its share of bass fishing abuse but still getting the job done as it triggered three bass bites at Lake Martin.

“I caught all of them on the spinnerbait. Man, I found this spinnerbait at Toledo Bend a few months ago. It came in a big, plastic pack with a big swim bait on it,” Savoy said after weighing three bass at 8.12 pounds to finish comfortably ahead of the 22-boat field and collect $495.

“It’s at least a ½-ounce, maybe ¾ to be honest,” he said, noting his searches have come up empty in an effort to find another one like the double-bladed spinnerbait with gold/silver willowleaf blades. He removed the big swim bait and replaced it with a smaller silver swim bait.

Savoy, a welder at GOM Energy Services LLC in Youngsville, was glad he had it because he was fishing alone sans his regular Hawg Fight partner, Austin Theriot. Theriot had to stay home to tend to work on his new mobile home, he said.

That’s one reason he was so proud of the win.

“I was so pumped up. I’ve placed in tournaments but never won one by myself. It was soooo tough to get three it was crazy … At 8 o’clock I still had one fish,” he said. “Even though it’s a Hawg Fight, man, that’s some sticks you’re fishing against. It isn’t easy at all. They’ve got giant fish in there. It means I was doing something right.”

Fifteen minutes into the pressure-packed bass tournament from 5:30 p.m.-8:40 p.m., the first bass hit right at the boat around hydrilla. He lipped the good-sized bass.

“I couldn’t get another bite for nothing,” he said.

After a thunderstorm passed nearby, the lake calmed, he said. A cast by a deadfall produced a second nice-sized keeper bass, which he boat-flipped around 8 p.m.

He decided to cross the 800-acre lake and fish duck blinds in the waning minutes.

“I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to start fishing duck blinds.’ The first duck blind I went to, about the second or third cast I caught my third keeper. I boat flipped it. I just kind of rode up to it, idled up slow. I was sooooo pumped up,” he said, noting on the previous cast he felt a “tick,” which he thought might have been wood, but cast back in the same spot and got bit.

How pumped up? He doesn’t normally get on his cellphone during a tournament but made an exception to call Theriot.

“I was so happy,” he said. “I didn’t think I won it. I was just happy I got a limit. It’s already so tough.”

The all-around outdoorsman finished ahead of Hunter Neuville, who was fishing alone. Neuville came back with three nice-sized bass weighing 6.64 pounds, good enough for second place and $297.

Derrick Romero’s 5.81-pound beauty was the biggest bass of the tournament worth $110 and also lifted him and Jacob Wiltz into third place for another $198.

The key to winning, Savoy said, was locking the spinnerbait rod in his hand.

“It was a matter of getting the bite. Once I get a bite in there, I don’t put down that bait. You’ve just got to keep at it and roll with it,” he said.