A New Iberia bass angler with more than five decades of experience set his goal a few months to be within striking distance of his first bass club title since 1982.

Kevin Suit got enough strikes to do just that Sept. 17-18 as he maintained his lead atop the Louisiana Bass Cats standings going into the regular-season finale Oct. 15-16 at Toledo Bend. Suit, who fished the two-day tournament with Blain “Moon” Griffon of Lafayette has a 27-pound lead over Mike Sinitiere, 576-549, in his bid for Angler of the Year.

Suit, whose last AOY came with the now-defunct Basin Boys Bass Club, where he won the title in 1978 and 1982, won his second straight LBC tournament. He and his oldest son, Ben Suit of Port Arthur, formerly of New Iberia, finished first on Aug. 21 at Henderson Lake.

“It was a nice win. It was that. It helped winning this one, that’s for sure,” Suit said about his most recent victory.

Can he wrap up a long-awaited AOY?

“I hope. You never know what will happen. I’ve got to go out and finish the job. Like I always said, it’s not over until the last cast, the last tournament of the year,” he said. “Mike’s a good fisherman. I have to go perform.”

Suit, 63-year-old lead fishing at Field & Stream in Lafayette, and Griffon’s 12.45-pound limit the second day sealed the deal last weekend as it gave the winning team a two-day total of 21.96 pounds worth $450. Suit gave the credit to his guest, a close friend widely known as a conservative talk show host heard on KPEL 96.5 FM in Lafayette.

“I told him, ‘Moon, whatever you do, Henderson’s on you.’ He fishes out there a lot and he’s a good fisherman,” he said, noting the strategy was staying on the move hitting key spots. “He told me, ‘Kevin, my fishing’s going to be running and gunning.’”

“He had a good little game plan. We made adjustments during the day and that made the difference. We work well together as a team.”

They fished main lake points early and successfully, including Griffon’s 3 ½-pounder, then ran to the Phillips Canal area, where they fished the main channel and had their limit by 9:30 a.m. There was work to do, though, because other than the nice bass in the livewell they had some 1 ½s to replace.

Before Griffon, 61, and Suit, fishing in the latter’s familiar old Ranger, headed to the points along Interstate 10, Suit fired a jig across the canal they were fishing to a point and nailed another 3-pound class bass.

They fine-tuned their pattern to probe 6- to 10-foot depths while fishing I-10.

Sure, Suit said, they nailed plenty of schoolies but also knew how the bigger bass were chomping. They consistently boated those bigger bass on jigs, Moon with a black/blue/orange model and Suit with a black/blue/purple model but their biggest bit a Chatterbait.

To get 9.51 pounds Saturday, the first day of the tournament, they caught bass “all around Mud Cove and in the Crew Boat Chute area,” according to Suit. But toward the end of the day, as he was backing up, the boat bumped a stump, Griffon lost his balance on the back deck and fell in, injuring his leg in the process.

“He said, ‘Kevin, I think I cut my leg pretty bad,’” Suit said, noting he trolling motored to shallow water so his partner could climb aboard. Unfortunately, Griffon had a gash in his left leg, so they hurried back to Myette Point Boat Landing.

After Griffon said he could drive himself to the hospital, Suit headed back out, fished the last 20 minutes near the landing and caught two keepers, including a cull fish.

Sinitiere and Hagen Riche led after the first day with five bass weighing 12.16 pounds. Their limit the second day on Henderson Lake weighed 8.28 pounds for a two-day total of 20.44 pounds worth $270.

Ben Suit and Max Stevens, who experienced outboard motor trouble the first day and had to be towed out of an area, finished third in the tournament with a total of 19.50 pounds for $180.