Louviere finds a slow approach key to nailing big bass for big W
Published 6:00 am Saturday, February 25, 2023
- This 5.26-pound bass helped Mike Louviere of Jeanerette win his second straight Louisiana Bass Anglers tournament when the bass club fished Feb. 18 at Lake Martin. Louviere's five-bass limit weibghed 14.45 pounds.
BREAUX BRIDGE – Two down. Eight to go.
Mike Louviere of Jeanerette won his second straight Louisiana Bass Anglers tournament Feb. 18 at Lake Martin. His five-bass limit weighed an unbeatable 14.45 pounds, including the biggest bass of the day, a 5.26-pounder.
That big bass, his second keeper of the day, was the key to back-to-back wins in the highly competitive bass club, Louviere said.
“I’m glad I caught her when I did because it kind of made me slow down,” he said after fishing alone.
That slowdown and a special spinnerbait led to finally getting five keepers in the boat by 11a.m., then three more. There was no particular pattern.
“I was just throwing the right spinnerbait,” he said, declining to any info on color or blades.
The 5.26-pounder sure liked it.
“When I threw out there and set the hook I said, ‘Uh, this is not a small fish.’ I went to the back and flipped her in. I said, ‘Dang, I don’t need a culling clip for this one,’ ” he said.
With eight derbies left (the Toledo Bend tournament March 17-18 counts as two tournaments as does the Lake Sam Rayburn tournament Sept. 15-16), Louviere has said he wants to win as many as possible. He’s on a mission, he said after the first W.
“It feels good. I’m trying, you know,” to win Angler of the Year, he said.
“I’ve got my work cut out for me. Dicky (Dicky Fitzgerald) has won three in a row,” he said.
Phil Ransonet, also fishing by himself in the second bass club tournament of the year, finished nearly 2 pounds behind the winner with a limit at 12.76 pounds.
Johnny Hester and Levi Louviere were third with five bass weighing 12.75 pounds.
A fourth-place tie was shared between the teams of Travis Harmon/Al Falcon and three-time defending bass club champion Dicky Fitzgerald and Bubbie Lopez. The two boats came back with limits pegging the digital scale at 11.67 pounds.
Louviere, 43, who was born and raised in Loreauville, won the bass club’s season-opening tournament Jan. 22 while fishing with Tabitha Landry out of Amelia Landing. They pocketed the win with 11.67 pounds.
He fished the second bass club tournament of the year by himself at the little lake in St. Martin Parish. The cypress tree-lined body of water has been known to give up big bass, even double-digit bass, in the spring.