MANY – For Ben Suit and his dad, Kevin Suit, it was a blissful slugfest one day followed by a nerve-wracking snoozefest the next day on their way to winning a Louisiana Bass Cats two-day tournament at Toledo Bend.

Naturally, the Suits enjoyed Day 1 after culling to a five-fish limit weighing a whopping 18.12 pounds a heckuva lot more than they did Day 2 when they carried four bass for 6.69 pounds to the scale at Bridge Bay Resort. Their 24.81-pound total ruled the weekend.

The spotlight was on Oct. 28, the Saturday they carried the heaviest five-bass limit to the digital scale for 18.12 pounds. Among those bass in the bag was a 5 ¾-pounder and one just shy of 4 pounds, both caught by Kevin Suit, 64-year-old fishing lede at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Lafayette.

“As far as catching them, I hadn’t caught two 5-pounders in a long time. I was excited. I was just in the right place at the right time. (But) I promise you, I was not nearly as excited as that 10-pounder last year that Ben caught,” Kevin Suit said, referring to the 10.75-pound bass his oldest son caught in mid-October 2022 during another regular-season finale at Toledo Bend, a “hawg” that fueled a comeback win, gave the elder Suit his third straight W at the end of last season and wrapped up his hard-earned AOY.

Fast forward to this year’s last Saturday in October.

That fast start in Housen Creek gave the Suits what proved to be an insurmountable lead over their closest challengers, Eric Smith and his guest, Chad Babineaux, who checked in with a limit weighing 17.02 pounds on Day 1. Like the Suits, Smith and Babineaux could muster just four keepers on the second day for 6.72 pounds for a two-day total of 23.74 pounds.

“Any time you get to go weigh in 18(-plus) pounds it’s a good day. They (Smith and Babineaux) definitely made it close. I will tip my hat to Eric,” Ben said.

Mike Sinitiere, who wrapped up his bid for another AOY, and his guest, Don Shoopman, finished third with 9.78 pounds on Day 1 and 9.16 pounds on Day 2 for a two-day total of 18.94 pounds. They brought in a limit both days, the only team to do so.

The winners’ bass got everyone’s attention during the first day’s weigh-in.

“It was a good day. It wasn’t fast and furious. We just caught fish consistently throughout the day,” Ben said.

“When we left the first spot, we had four fish, including one of the better ones. We ended up checking other things and ended up catching one of the 5-pounders. At that point, we knew we had a good bag,” he said.

The elder Suit’s 5.74-pounder bit on a bladed jig, according to Ben, near a point in full view of his youngest son, Zach Suit, who was fishing with Jacob Shoopman. Ben’s Skeeter arrived at the spot 30 seconds before the Suit family’s old reliable Ranger.

“We were just ahead of Zack and Jacob. We got there ahead of them. They got to see us catch the biggest fish of the day. Kevin caught that, too, his second big one of the day. He had a really good day,” Ben said.

The hookup and ensuing action to get the fish to the boat went flawlessly, he said, all the way up to the death grip lip job he put on the bass.

“Everything was pretty smooth. It (the bass) ate it good. Kevin did a good job not horsin’ the fish around, letting it wear out. When it got to the boat, I got a fistful of bass mouth and got it in the boat,” he said.

Kevin said there were two keys to getting bit – putting the boat in 12- to 15-foot depths and throwing to the hard edges of grass beds, then slowly pulling the moving bait through the grass rather than jerking it out of the hydrilla. Bass turned their nose up at the latter tactic, he said.

He credited Ben’s prefishing success for the big day on the water.

“He spent a lot of time out there and had a pattern that we fine-tuned,” Kevin said.

Ben, 33, who opened Ben Suit State Farm Agency a few years ago in Orange, Texas, said he put the pattern together in a creek with little or no vegetation – Patroon Bayou. Later, he found it produced in Housen.

Day 2 was frustrating for both the dad and his son.

“It definitely was nerve-wracking,” he said, noting there were many emotions over a W on Sunday.

“I was pleasantly surprised. I figured we had second-place minimum locked up based on weights the day before. When you don’t have a fifth fish, you don’t think you won when it’s tough,” he said.