MYETTE POINT – When two fishin’ buddies needed a good start they hoped would end their respective winless streaks in the Louisiana Bass Anglers, the slump buster turned out to be a black hollow body plastic frog, a Spro Bronzeye Frog Jr.

Bubbie Lopez saw to that July 20 in the Franklin-based bass club’s eighth tournament of the season. The Centerville outdoorsman, a Franklin native, hooked and boated their first two bass of the day on that bogus hopper and both happened to be the biggest and second-biggest as they started on a five-bass limit.

“Yeah, the first two big ones were on a frog, a 2.93 and the other one like 2 ¾. That was our first two fish. I said, ‘That’s the way to start,’ ” Lopez said after he and Johnny Hester of Lafayette, formerly of Franklin, finished ahead of the pack with 10.57 pounds, plus the tournament’s lunker bass, in the Atchafalaya Basin out of Myette Point Landing.

Lopez was relieved the slump got busted by their limit, a 2-plus pound average despite a rising Atchafalaya River.

“It felt good. I’ve been struggling all year. Normally, I’ve got two or three first place(s) by now. I’ve got a second, a third and a first place. I was thrilled. That was a good way to start the day with decent fish like that,” he said.

The winners were in Hester’s 20-foot long Sportsman’s Fabrication aluminum bass boat built by Casey St. Roman of Morgan City. Coincidentally, the tournament’s runners-up and third place teams also were riding in the same brand.

Louis Daigle and his son, Jessie Daigle, finished second with 8.50 pounds while Dicky Fitzgerald of Charenton and Tony Sinitiere of Franklin were third with 8.30 pounds.

Lopez and Hester did their homework and prefished extensively. They both scouted their primary and backup spots, which included the Duck Lake area, according to Lopez, a 58-year-old production operator for Perdido Energy LLC.

Lopez got those first two bass bites by throwing the plastic frog as far as feasible to retrieve it around cypress knees.

“They were choking it, too, all the way down in their throat,” he said.

Hester, 70, retired rig superintendent for Hunt Oil Co., was all for the early fireworks ignited by his tournament partner’s Spro Bronzeye Jr.

“I was very surprised. I mean, I throw it and don’t get a bite. He throws it and gets the two biggest bites. He (Lopez) went in there with the mindset to throw a frog. I threw everything else to back him up and never got a bite there,” he said.

Lopez said after those early bites and eventually after a change of scenery, their second destination, they flipped soft plastics that got the desired results around cypress trees. They culled a 1.05, a 1.03 and a 1.08 on their way to catching 10 keeper bass, according to Lopez.

Hester, an accomplished flippin’ machine and particularly deadly with a june bug Zoom Speed Craw, was ecstatic after the hard-earned W. His top two bass club tournament results this season were both seconds, one with Lopez in April.

“You know, when you have a plan and it works, you can’t ask for any better than that,” he said, noting the tournament slump has been a frustrating experience. “It’s funny. Friday night my wife was laughing at me (while he prepared fishing tackle, boat, etc.). She tells me, ‘Tomorrow night when you come home, you better have a smile on your face.’ It’s nice at our age we can still enjoy bass fishing.”

He wore a big smile into the house Saturday evening.