VILLE PLATTE – While his son was catching bass, some “hawgs,” consistently on a black plastic frog May 19, it took quite a while for Troy Amy of New Iberia to find what was missing in his game at Chicot Lake.

“He was just telling me, ‘Daddy, you need to pull out that lucky horseshoe. We need one more good one,’ ” Amy said, remembering the brief exchange with Bo Amy of New Iberia.

The 57-year-old warehouseman for VAM/USA put down the unlucky black plastic frog he was casting and picked up his go-to black/red Zoom Ultra-Vibe Speed Craw. There was only 1 hour remaining before the Louisiana Bass Cats tournament weigh-in at 3 p.m. at the South Landing.

“He decided to do what he loves to do and ended up pitching the Speed Craw,” Bo Amy said.

A 6-pound, 15-ounce, bass cooling its fins in the shade of some dead cypress trees decided he loved the Speed Craw, too, and chomped on it. Hard. It was game on.

“I threw by a cypress tree with no leaves. My line didn’t sink like it usually does. I set the hook and it went to the right. It was braid cutting through the water,” the elder Amy said. “I said, ‘Oh, it’s a good one, a good one!’ He said, ‘Oh my God!’ When I pulled it toward the boat it came out of the water. He said, ‘Oh, Lord!’ ”

The bass came in defiantly and reluctantly, hot and heavy as they tend to do. It was thrashing and mad after Bo Amy slipped the net under it but it nearly wasn’t meant to be.

“I netted it and was lifting it into the boat. It jumped out of the net (hook disengaged) and hit the other side of the boat (50/50 on bouncing in or out) and it landed in the driver’s seat,” he said, noting he pretty much tackled it right there.

“We were fist bumping and high-fiving. I mean, we had we had some decent weight but that fish culled one 1-9. We ended up bumping up about 5 pounds.”

That big kicker, his father’s only catch of the day, anchored a five-bass limit that weighed 21 pounds, 10 ounces, more than enough to pass up 13 other boats and claim first place for $630 and big bass of the tournament worth another $140.

Their catch squeezed ahead of the second-place team of Jacob Shoopman of New Iberia and his young guest, Travis Meche Jr. of Branch. They made their bid for the W with an impressive limit weighing 19 pounds, 0.5 ounces, for a payday of $378.

Meche, a sophomore who recently finished as the Louisiana High School B.A.S.S. Nation’s East Division AOY, caught two 5-pound plus bass on a baby bass Yellow Magic, a topwater popper.

Brothers Raven Owens and Rusty Owens nailed down third place with a limit averaging a little more than 3 pounds. Their five bass weighed 15 pounds, 13.5 ounce, worth $252.

The Amys were surprised to bust a limit like they did. It was a welcome slumpbuster for Bo Amy, 37, field service rep for VAM/USA who has a few wins in the bass club since he joined around 2020. But none recently.

“I’ve been struggling, coming in fourth place by ounces. Seventh place” and so on, just missing the top three places, he said.

He welcomed the win but wasn’t expecting it. Considering his dad rents a Chicot State Park cabin for four days and three nights in February or March for the past several years and catches bass during the spawn, Bo Amy agreed they were more familiar with the lake than other Louisiana Bass Cats.

However, February or April isn’t mid-May, postspawn time. Troy Amy pointed out, “It’s a whole different time of year. (But) we went by the plan.

“We just went where we catch fish in the spawn. We figured the bigger bass wouldn’t leave,” his son said. “We didn’t know (if their patterns would work). The way we were catching, we figured everybody was doing good. They did have some good bags. Jacob (and Meche) had a real good one.”

The younger Amy started building his own heavy limit early in the day. What the father-son team wound up putting on the digital scale was the son’s heaviest winning weight in a tournament.

Using the black Spro frog and targeting cypress trees, he put two 5-plus pound class bass in the boat and wound up picking off about a dozen other keepers, culling three or four times, before his father caught the game-winner. And their 21-10 could have been higher if he wouldn’t have missed an estimated 4 ½ and a 3 ½.

“I was fishing a frog most of the time. They were blowing up on it … both hooks in the top of the mouth like they wanted to kill it,” he said.

The key was to focus on cypress trees, he said.

Troy Amy said, “We did pretty darned good today. I wasn’t expecting that. He loves it and we love to fish together.”

Thanks to the 6-15, they walked away from the scenic lake as winners. It was caught on an Ultra-Vibe Speed Craw, one just like the soft plastic he used to boat his PB, a 9.22-pounder, April 10 in a Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series on Lake Martin near Breaux Bridge.

“I’m happy he caught the big one. I’m more excited about that,” Bo Amy said.