MANY – With age comes patience, which Mike Sinitiere showed during a successful but prolonged bid to clinch his sixth Louisiana Bass Cats Angler of the Year title.

Sinitiere was fishing the seventh and final bass club tournament the last weekend of October at Toledo Bend. It probably felt like an eternity to get the first keeper bass in his Skeeter, the one that would seal the deal.

After an anxious 1-1 ½ hours after sunrise, that coveted bass bit his fishin’ buddy’s buzz bait and was deposited in the livewell. The 2023 AOY was delivered at that moment.

“It’s been a couple years since I did it (won AOY), so it was one of my goals for this year, to win it,” said Sinitiere, who joined the bass club in 2008 and won five previous AOYs, including back-to-back-to-back in the mid-2010s.

He was proud of the recent title.

“Well, it’s probably getting more special, getting tougher the older I get. I don’t move like I used to. I’m going against guys half my age now or younger,” he said.

The youngsters, et al, had to play catch up against Sinitiere from the very start of 2023. Sinitiere and his WN Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series partner Mike O’Brien teamed up to win the bass club’s opener, the Louisiana Bass Cats Open on Feb. 19.

“I’ve had great partners. Of course, me and Mike started off the year with a win in the Open. That 7-pound plus bass sure helped,” Sinitiere said about the 7.13-pounder hooked and boated on O’Brien’s third cast in Lake Fausse Pointe.

Sinitiere had one other bass club win, which he delivered himself by catching the day’s biggest bass in the waning minutes at Amelia while fishing with Tony Sinitiere on July 16.

He also had two seconds and a pair of third-place finishes in the seven tournaments. The last third-place showing was Oct. 28-29 in the regular-season finale at Toledo Bend.

All he and his tournament partner, guest Don Shoopman, had to do was catch one keeper bass that weekend to seal AOY.

“I was pretty confident in catching one keeper in two days. If I couldn’t do that, I probably didn’t deserve to be AOY,” Sinitiere said.

After three fair to good days prefishing the lake, the 62-year-old business development manager for Coca-Cola United was fairly confident of getting that order of business out of the way early on Day 1. It took longer than he thought it would after a safe daylight start.

“All we needed to do was catch one keeper fish. The team. It was tough. Tougher than I thought it would be. Good thing for my partner,” he said.

His partner boated the first six keepers, mostly on buzz baits, and Sinitiere landed one keeper late as the team forged a limit weighing 9.78 pounds to go into the second day in fifth place behind brothers Gerard Dupuis and Dan Dupuis (9.90 pounds) and Zack Suit and Jacob Shoopman (9.84 pounds).

That Day 1 catch and eventual third-place showing were all Sinitiere needed to finish with a total of 673 points, comfortably ahead of Kevin Suit, 2022 AOY who finished runner-up in the 2023 AOY race with 650 points.

“Mike had a really great year. I’ll give kudos to him. I fell way behind early in the year,” Kevin Suit said.

Still, Kevin Suit, who fished with his oldest son, Ben Suit, a former AOY in the Louisiana Bass Cats, had a good weekend at the border lake shared by Louisiana and Texas. He caught the tournament’s biggest bass, a 5.74-pounder, on the first day and the father-and-son team held on to win the tournament with a two-day total of 24.81 pounds.

Eric Smith, who finished eighth in AOY, fished with a guest, Chad Babineaux, at Toledo Bend. After busting a 17.02-pound limit the first day, Smith and Babineaux caught four keepers for 6.72 pounds on Sunday and finished second with 23.74 pounds.

Sinitiere and Shoopman were third with limits both days for 18.94 pounds.

The 2023 AOY welcomed the end of a bustling bass tournament season for him.

“It’s time for a little break. Of course, we have the Classic coming up in two weeks at Henderson,” Sinitiere said. “I had a busy schedule this year between the Bass Cats, Hawg Fights and Doiron’s Team Bass Challenge (with Brooke Morrison). I spent a lot of time on the water,” he said, noting that was the key to winning it all in the bass club.

His latest Louisiana Bass Cats title didn’t come easy, he emphasized.

“The competition is great in the Bass Cats. The Bass Cats always have great competition and the competition’s getting stiffer,” he said.

His top confidence baits this year were a ¼-ounce chartreuse/white Humdinger and a June bug/red Zoom Ultra-Vibe Speed Craw.

His mastery with a Speed Craw paid big dividends July 1 in the season’s fourth tournament July 16 out of Amelia Landing. The Sinitieres had a small limit, around 9 to 10 pounds, and decided to fish the last few minutes within sight of the public boat ramp.

Mike Sinitiere got a bite from a big fish but it was a 7-pound catfish. He wasn’t expecting much on the next bite but was pleasantly surprised when he got the fish away from the trolling motor it was a 3.42-pound bass that anchored what turned out to be the winning limit weighing 11.58 pounds.

“That one I caught with about 10 minutes to go right by the landing, that was exciting. That was an important one. That was pivotal,” he said.