MILAM, Texas – A 37-year-old New Iberia outdoorsman’s widely known passion for catching speckled trout got one-upped the past few years by another love — bass tournament fishing.

Bo Amy’s quest to catch more and more of the right-sized bass between every takeoff and weigh-in time reached a peak this year, most recently when he captured the Angler of the Year title in the Louisiana Bass Cats. His rise to the top was sealed on Oct. 13 at Toledo Bend.

“I still like fishing specks. Bass? I like the tournaments. I just like to compete,” Amy said a few days after capturing AOY.

“It was still a challenge keeping up with the fishermen we fish against. I was coming into the year to finish in the Top 8, the Elite 8. It worked out,” he said.

At crunch time during the stretch run, he definitely was gunning for the title, Amy confided. He was in it to win it despite two so-so tournament showings in April and July. His other six tournament results were on the money.

“Yeah, I was hoping to win it,” he said.

Amy credits his fishing buddy, Donald Romero of New Iberia, for a big, uplifting assist.

“I fished with my partner, Donald, and he helped me out with scouting when I had work,” he said. “He wanted to fish Toledo Bend (Oct. 12-13) with me. He has a camp over there. He’s got it set up nice out there. He fishes the Oilman’s every year.”

Going into that regular-season finale at Toledo Bend, Amy trailed New Iberian Mike Sinitiere by four points, 599 to 595. Kevin Suit of New Iberia was in third with 593 while LBC president Max Stevens of Lafayette was in the mix, too, in fourth with 589.

Amy and Romero, as they did all year during the Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series that ended Aug. 14, rose to the occasion at Toledo Bend by finishing second behind the two-day tournament’s winners, Jacob Shoopman of New Iberia and his guest, Zach Suit of Denton, Texas, formerly of New Iberia.

Amy finished the year with 692 points and was followed in the Top 10 by Suit, 684; Brandon Sellers of New Iberia, 670; Max Stevens of Lafayette, 669; Gerard Dupuis of New Iberia, 664; New Iberian Dennis Worsham, 664; Sinitiere, 649; Shoopman, 639, and Dusty Rice of Breaux Bridge and Todd Robertson of Lafayette, 623.

Amy was oh-so proud of his accomplishment in one of the most competitive bass clubs in South Louisiana.

“It means a lot, really, as long as I’ve been fishing, scouting, fishing, fishing and to finally claim a title showed it paid off all these damn years,” he said.

He’s aiming for a successful defense of his hard-earned AOY in 2025.

“I hope. If I actually make every tournament again I have a shot but like I say, fishing against these good fishermen, you never know,” he said.

Prefishing was an important part of his title run. It’s all about figuring out where the fish were and deciding what bait to tie on, he said.

The necessary artificial lures were different in Lake Fausse Pointe, different in the Atchafalaya Basin and totally different at Toledo Bend, according to the thread rep at VAM USA in Broussard.

“Where we are fishing determines what bait we have to throw” but, mainly, the key is scouting, he said.

His go-to baits in the lake were soft plastics, such as reaction Innovations Sweet Beavers, and plastic frogs. He said spinnerbaits and plastic frogs topped the list in the Atchafalaya Basin. At Toledo Bend, a black buzz bait with a black Zoom Horny Toad, a Zoom Speed Worm and a C-rigged watermelon/red Zoom Super Fluke got the most bites.

The turning point in the 2024 season was on May 19 when Amy and his father, Troy Amy of New Iberia, carried five giant bass to the digital scale at Chicot Lake. The Amys topped a 14-boat field with a whopping 21 pounds, 10 ounces, including the day’s biggest bass, a 6-15.

Amy said, “I tell you what, the first tournament me and dad fished, that one pretty much put me at the top at that point. I was already there. I just needed to keep up after.”

And he did more than keep up. Amy and Romero, who paired up and grabbed the AOY title in the 2024 Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series, also fished three bass club tournaments together this year, including the last two-day derby at Toledo Bend.

Their approach to competitive bassin’ is the same.

“The main thing is, whenever me and Donald are fishing together — ‘We need to put five in the livewell.’ Then we go and look for bigger (bass),” Amy said, noting the key to success over the long haul is to come back with a limit every time.

“It’ll hurt you if you don’t put five fish in the livewell. You’re going to be struggling.”