Two New Iberia neighbors proved to be an unbeatable team last year on the Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series. Simply, they complemented each other.

Donald Romero and Bo Amy, who joined forces full-time to win the circuit’s coveted Angler(s) of the Year title, hope for a repeat performance in 2025. They begin defense of their title when the season opens March 19 at Lake Fausse Pointe out of Marsh Field Landing.

Both of them can’t wait for the start of one of the oldest evening circuits in the region. Twelve tournaments are on tap in the regular season with the WN Hawg Fights BTS Classic scheduled for Sept. 7.

The rest of the regular-season schedule: April 2, April 16, April 30, May 14, May 28, June 11, June 25, July 9, July 23, Aug. 6 and Aug. 20.

Weigh-in time, i.e., when each boat’s chip must be on the board, will be announced before each takeoff at 5:30 a.m. Entry fee is $60 per boat and must be paid at the launch site before 5 a.m.

New Iberia neighbors Bo Amy, left, and Donald Romero relied on three-bass limits like this one to reel in an Angler of the Year title in 2024 on the Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series. Amy learned the Atchafalaya Basin more from Romero and Romero learned how to flip like a boss from Amy.
DON SHOOPMAN / THE DAILY IBERIAN FILES

“I love fishing it. It gives me something to look forward to every other week,” Amy said, noting he enjoys fishing bass tournaments so much he also competes in two local bass clubs, the Louisiana Bass Anglers and Louisiana Bass Cats.

As long as he has been bass fishing, Amy’s best catches consistently came from Lake Fausse Pointe. He knows the lake well after spending many years on it.

On the other hand, Romero has fished the nation’s last great overflow swamp most of his life. His expertise made all the difference in the world during their 2024 run to AOY.

“I always hated fishing the Basin. I never fished a lot of bass (mostly bream and sac-a-lait) in the Basin growing up,” Amy said, noting his partner showed him the ins and outs of the nation’s last great overflow swamp and it paid off with an AOY.

The script was flipped as the eventual winners mostly stumbled in the lake last season but shined in the Basin.

Amy, 38, a thread rep for VAM USA, and Romero won two tournaments and placed in two other Hawg Fights. Their final three outings sealed the deal as they finished third in the Atchafalaya Basin out of Myette Point Landing, second two weeks later in the Atchafalaya Basin out of Bayou Benoit Landing, then first in the regular-season finale on Aug. 14 in Lake Fausse Pointe.

“It felt great. Oh, it was an honor. Fishing with Bo made it all the more exciting. We kept telling each other, we said, ‘We’ve just got to keep giving the effort,’ ’” Romero said. “We did it doing a lot of flippin’. I didn’t know that (the technique). Bo took the time and effort to teach me and I’m getting better. It does work. Bo can flip that bait 30 yards and under a tree.”

It was a three-team race for the AOY title for most of the season. Brad Romero and Raven Owens, with two wins while cashing in seven times during the campaign, came the closest to the champions with 1,005 points. The father-son team of Don Shoopman and Jacob Shoopman, Hawg Fight AOYs in 2015 and 2020, finished third with 994 points, including back-to-back wins in July in the Atchafalaya Basin.

Those teams are chomping at the bit for another shot at the title as are accomplished veterans of the circuit such as Mike O’Brien, Mike Sinitiere, John Gordon, Danny Bulliard, Rusty Owens, Carroll Delahoussaye, Corey Romero, Wilfred “Tuppy” Gary, Austin Theriot, Gavin Savoy, Blaine Miller, Brandon Sellers, Johnny Hester, Chris Vedrines, Keith Price, Buddy Fleming, and others.

Donald Romero welcomes any and all challengers to their hard-earned title.

The 69-year-old retired owner of Romero Fishing & Rentals, an oilfield fishing tools business, said, “It was an honor winning it last year and an honor to fish for it again. They’ve got a lot of great fishermen fishing that Hawg Fight, you know?”

Amy agreed and said, “It’s definitely going to be different. It was different last year to actually compete against the people we fish against.”

He meant during his five or six previous years while competing every other Wednesday he was unable to fish the entire slate of tournaments and couldn’t practice consistently due to business considerations and other obligations. He tipped his cap to his partner, who practiced diligently and also fished alone, and won, the June 19 tournament out of Myette Point Landing.

“I missed one and Donald was able to help out. That’s the good thing about being there all the time and he picked up the slack like he did,” Amy said.

And Donald Romero showed him around the Spillway and that was the key, according to Amy, the coup de grace on a double-edged sword.