HENDERSON –After a proven bass tournament angler “switched gears,” Kevin Suit of New Iberia pulled away from the 10-angler field Nov. 12 in the Louisiana Bass Cats Classic at Henderson Lake.

Suit tweaked his pattern and target area in the drawn-down lake to boat a five-bass limit weighing 11.66 pounds, just enough to top his closest challenger by a fraction of an ounce.

The 64-year-old fishing lede at Dick’s Sporting Goods won AOY titles in 1978 and 1982 in the largest, most competitive bass club in the Teche Area at the time, the Basin Boys Bass Club. He also qualified twice for the old Louisiana B.A.S.S. Federation State Team.

Following a decade or two watching his two sons play sports at different levels, he started bass fishing again and returned to competitive bass fishing in the late 2010s. He gave notice he was back by winning AOY in the Louisiana Bass Cats in 2022.

Suit hasn’t lost his competitive drive, even when it means besting either of his grown sons on the water. He proved it at Henderson Lake a few weekends after winning the bass club’s two-day regular-season finale tournament at Toledo Bend.

“It’s good to get back in the winning column. It’s good to finish on a winning streak. Winning the last two was nice, you know?” he said. “Two tournaments in a row. That’s a good way to end the year. Yeah, it is.”

This time that meant turning back Ben Suit, his oldest son who was born and raised in New Iberia. Dad bested son by the slimmest of margins as Ben, who lives in Port Arthur, Texas, had a limit tipping the digital scale at 11.46 pounds.

The winner took home $500 of the rich Classic pot for first place and another $100 for the biggest bass of the day, a 3.95-pounder. Ben Suit won $300 as runner-up.

That the last W came at the expense of his oldest son wasn’t lost on the elder Suit.

“I love my son but I like winning. I don’t go out to finish second place,” he said.

Eric Smith of Lafayette finished third in the LBC Classic with five bass weighing 10.32 pounds worth $200.

Kevin Suit acknowledged he got some valuable information from his son.

“I didn’t get the opportunity to scout. But Ben did go the day before the tournament. He just told me what he was doing and where,” he said.

“So I had a game plan going. His information kind of changed that thought process” said about a slow start the first hour or so.

He was in murkier water than he wanted to be, so traveled to where clarity was improved on the opposite side his son was fishing north of I-10.

Kevin Suit’s 3.95-pounder made a big difference around 9:30-10 a.m.

“That was fish No. 5. The rest of the day I was culling and culling,” he said.

Suit had a day, all right, a good day. All in all, he caught 25 keepers.

Most of the fish were caught on the same bladed bait that enticed two “hawgs” to bite in his previous bass club tournament at Toledo Bend. Suit and his oldest son won that tournament Oct. 28-29 with a two-day total of 24.81 pounds, most of it on Day 1 when the elder Suit reeled in a 5.75-pounder and one close to 5.

“I had to slow roll it and make multiple casts but when you’re by yourself you can do those things,” he said about his pattern at Henderson Lake. “I strictly fished laydowns. I couldn’t catch anything on stumps. I wasn’t going to spend time on something that was not productive.”

He also caught several other keepers on a jig and a crank bait but none of them made it to the weigh-in.

“I had a good feeling when I put the 4 in the livewell. Then I caught one other around 3,” he said.

He had no idea it would be a photo finish at the digital scale.

“I knew after Eric Smith weighed in, I said (to himself), ‘Well, OK, it looks like I’m going to win,’” he said.

After Ben Suit pulled four bass out of his weigh-in bag, Kevin Suit turned to go release his fish and didn’t see the fifth good-sized bass in his son’s limit.

“It was a lot closer than what I anticipated. After I saw his first four fish, I said, ‘Your last one must have been a good fish,” he said.

Now he’s ready for a break, to spend his days off fishing for redfish and speckled trout around Dulac, his late fall/early winter hotspot.

Nevertheless, he said, “I always look forward to next season even though I’m ready for Dulac.”