LOREAUVILLE — A winning blend of experience and the high-tech learning capabilities of exuberant youth made the slimmest of a difference in the 11th Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series.

Danny Bulliard of St. Martinville and his grandson, Matthew Bulliard of Breaux Bridge, teamed up to win the evening tournament Wednesday. On a drizzly evening that followed a stormy afternoon, the Bulliards complemented each other on Lake Fausse Pointe.

They finished atop a 15-boat field with three bass weighing 6.23 pounds worth $338. The Bulliards also boasted the evening’s biggest bass, which weighed 3.38 pounds and netted another $75.

While the evening belonged to the Bulliards, Angler(s) of the Year leaders Braxton Resweber and Austin Theriot, cousins who are neighbors in St. Martinville, maintained a fairly comfortable lead in the standings. They weighed in one bass at 1.84 pounds to push their point total to 967.

Going into the next-to-last tournament this past week, their closest challengers, Brandon Sellers of New Iberia and Blaine Miller of Loreauville, trailed the St. Martinville bass anglers 878-846. They closed the gap Wednesday to 30 points, 967-937.

The 12th and final tournament of the season is scheduled Aug. 25 at Bayou Benoit Boat Landing in the Atchafalaya Basin. The WN Hawg Fights BTS Classic is set for Sept. 12 at a site to be determined later by a vote among qualifiers.

Danny Bulliard tuned up for the stretch run with a substitute tournament partner. His years-long buddy and tournament partner, Carroll Delahoussaye of St. Martinville, is recovering from an injury so Bulliard turned to Matthew Bulliard.

The grandfather-grandson team fished a borrow pit along the West Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee, said the elder Bulliard. His preferred starting point turned out to be a real bummer so he resorted to Plan B.

“I found the fish Sunday, but I found a lot more than we caught. I think lightning had something to do with it because where I found fish I didn’t get a bite there,” he said, noting he hooked and boated beaucoup bass while prefishing three days earlier with Whopper Ploppers.

The borrowed pit’s bass apparently were spooked, too, by the stormy weather that rolled through the area. But at least some fish cooperated.

Bulliard said he caught two keeper bass on a green pumpkin/chartreuse Zoom Baby Brush Hog before his grandson landed the haymaker by catching the 3.38-pounder on a green pumpkin/chartreuse Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver. That clutch bass bit about 20 minutes before they had to go back to Marsh Field Boat Landing.

“Those bass were under thick stuff, around old branches with a few leaves on it,” he said.

Bulliard, 73-year-old plant manager at Cajun Chef Products, was impressed with his grandson. But he wasn’t surprised by the teen’s bass fishing ability because he has been the high school bass angler’s boat captain the past two years while Matthew fished for Teurlings Catholic Rebel Fishing Team.

“Oh, he’s so far ahead of me fishing when I was his age. You know, he’s fishing everything. He embarrasses me with all the baits he uses. He must stay on the Internet” learning the ins and out of modern bass fishing tackle, techniques and tactics, Bulliard said.

The veteran bass angler chuckled as he pointed out the high school junior also brings 20 fishing rod-and-reel combinations on an outing.

The winners needed every fraction of an ounce to turn back the runners-up team of Brad Romero and Chad Falterman. With a limit anchored by a 2.47-pounder, they returned for the 8:15 p.m. weigh-in with three bass that tipped the scale to 6.22 pounds.

A father-son team that earned the 2020 AOY title cashed in for the first time in 2021. Don Shoopman and Jacob Shoopman’s three bass weighed 5.87 pounds, including a 2 ¾- pounder that smashed a Super Bait buzz bait thrown in the last 10 minutes by Jacob.