BREAUX BRIDGE –- A veteran New Iberia bass angler knows what an 8-pound, 2-ounce, bass feels like on the other end of the fishing line after landing one in 2019 at Toledo Bend.

Wilfred “Tuppy” Gary’s memory was refreshed five years later while prefishing for a Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series tournament at Lake Martin. Gary was in his red Skeeter bass boat with his cousin, Corey Romero, on a late afternoon bass fishing trip April 6, the Friday before the third Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series tournament of 2024.

Gary and Romero launched around 4 p.m. and headed to the left of the boat landing to start fishing just after the last “cut” before the bird sanctuary. Gary worked a black/blue Z-Man Jackhammer around outer cypress trees and isolated wood structure when he got another bite of a lifetime.

“It wasn’t long after we got there, right before 4:15. She was in deeper water, the outside trees,” he said.

“She” bit softly.

“She hit me between a stump and the boat about 20 feet away, in the middle of nothing. Whenever I was reeling in, I didn’t really feel a bite. The line just stopped, got heavy. At first I thought it was some grass. When I first set the hook she was coming in. She didn’t really put up a fight,” Gary said.

“Whenever she broke the water, we saw what a monster she was. Once I got her to the boat, she was just kind of splashing around. I dropped with my pole onto the front deck, leaned down and grabbed her by the mouth. I don’t think we had the net out.”

The sight of the 8-pound, 2-ounce, bass – the same size as his personal best recorded in ’19 – got the two bass anglers all shook up.

“We had adrenalin for an hour,” Gary said.

They took a few photos, then weighed the hawg, before a couple in a nearby boat trolled over and asked to take photos and also weighed it.

“They might have been more excited than I was,” Gary said.

Then, a few minutes after it was hooked and boated, he stood up with the big bass, reached over and released it while his cousin videoed the special moment.

Gary, 41-year-old quality specialist for PPI Quality Engineering, said he had no qualms about releasing the bass that tied his PB.

“Oh, no doubt. I put her right back where she came from,” he said.

The big bass he released without a second thought didn’t bite for him or anyone else during the WN Hawg Fights BTS tournament five days later on April 10. However, Amy caught one even bigger – a 9.22-pounder – on his way to winning the mini-bass tournament with Craig Duval of Portage. The fish easily was Amy’s PB.

Gary and Romero scratched out two small keepers in the night of the Hawg Fight weighing 3.38 pounds to finish seventh in the 21-boat field that fished the scenic little lake in St. Martin Parish.

Gary said he was proud he got the latest 8-2 closer to home but wouldn’t mind catching a bass bigger than either of his two PBs. Wherever that may be.

“I hope to top it sooner or later, a double-digit. I know they have monsters in there (Lake Martin). And Lake Dauterive-Fausse Pointe, too,” he said.