FRANKLIN – A Franklin bass angler can chuckle now at his faux paux during a recent Louisiana Bass Anglers tournament out of Fairfax Foster Bailey Memorial Landing.

However, Tony Sinitiere was doing anything but laughing right after he cast a white swim jig at a stump and got a solid hit from a heavy bass about an hour before noon on May 11. Before he slammed the hook home on the hookset, though, his thumb inadvertently hit the button again.

A colossal backlash was the result but the fish, of unknown size at the moment, still was hooked and making a beeline for the middle of the canal. Sinitiere, who was fishing by himself, worked on the rat’s nest feverishly and when he picked it clean spooled the loose line, played the bass to the boat and boat-flipped it.

The 4.26-pounder joined his five-bass limit on a day he caught 20 keeper bass. Those five bass that made the trip to the weigh-in tipped the digital scale at 13.51 pounds, more than enough to claim first place on an otherwise tough day for the rest of the LBAs.

Sinitiere, 57, who had back-to-back bass club wins at this time last year, enjoyed this one in particular because he’s recovering from a critical cancer surgery at the end of 2023.

“I am still getting my body back in shape and it is a challenge to fish all day. I am OK. Everything is all gone for now,” he said via text message. “This was my first win of the year. I finished third at our last tournament (April 13 out of Myette Point in the Atchafalaya Basin).”

The Quail Tools maintenance supervisor got back on the winning track the second week of May using a double willowleaf-bladed white spinnerbait and that white swim jig, fishing for the first few hours in the Quintana Oilfield until about 10:30 a.m., then traveling to some of his favorite canals and pockets off the Baldwin Cut. The 4.26-pounder, plus his second-biggest bass, was hooked and boated in the latter.

Phil Ransonet of New Iberia, also fishing by himself, finished second with five bass weighing 11.85 pounds.

Another bass club angler fishing solo, Louis Daigle, was third with 9.96 pounds.

The next Louisiana Bass Anglers tournament is scheduled to be held June 22.