LOREAUVILLE — That winning feeling in a bass tournament, no matter what level, was almost an indescribable one Wednesday night for Dean Charpentier and his son, Ian.

Almost. 

“It’s unreal. It was amazing to win that tournament. I can’t describe the feeling … being on the water, doing something I love to do. It was awesome,” Ian, a junior at Catholic High School, said Thursday evening about winning the third Original Hawg Fight of the season on Lake Fausse Pointe.

The Charpentiers culled to a three-bass limit that weighed an unbeatable 7.67 pounds and won $150. They also boasted the biggest bass of the day, a 3.41-pound worth another $50.

Michel Fox and Ricky Watkins, both of New Iberia, cashed in with a second-place finish in the nine-boat field. The Original Hawg Fight managers, who kept the circuit going when they took it over in 2017, were runners-up with three bass weighing 6.59 pounds for $90.

Todd Citrano and Preston Lopez finished third with three bass weighing 6.39 pounds worth $50.

“It was one of the best feelings when we got back to the landing” with a good limit of bass, Ian Charpentier said.

“We had the biggest smiles on our faces,” the teenager said, remembering the period from when they docked, put the boat on the boat trailer and got ready to weigh their catch.

As the weigh-in got underway, he realized the bass they had caught were bigger than the ones being put on the scale.

“We had a 3½ and two 2s in the bag. I was nervous. But I was so confident in what we had,” he said.

“When they said ‘7.67,’ I was like ‘OK, OK, that’s a good number.’ They weighed our biggest fish and I said, OK, OK, good,’ ” he said.

And then he started “jumping around.” It was time to celebrate.

His father never saw it coming. He had a little game plan before the takeoff.

“We started off, we’re in a Pro-Drive, I told him we don’t have much time, 2 ½ hours, and we can’t run all over,” he said.

The original plan was to head straight to a borrow pit along the West Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee, stay there and fish before returning for the weigh-in at Marsh Field Boat Landing. The plans changed when the elder Charpentier, a self-described weekend warrior who never fished a bass tournament before Wednesday, saw the water color change on the way around the lake and he ducked into Sampson’s Cove. His son asked about the change in the game plan and he pointed out the clear water around cypress trees.

It didn’t take long for the younger bass angler to hook up while fishing with a black/blue Berkley Havoc soft plastic crawworm. Fishing cypress trees was right up his alley.

“On that boy’s second cast, he caught a 2-pounder. I said, ‘Look, we don’t have to go anywhere else,’ ” the elder Charpentier said.

And they didn’t. They stayed in the area, eventually moving away from a drain, and caught about nine bass, including “six real nice fish.” They culled to the winning stringer, one anchored by the one he caught, the 3.41-pounder.

The big bass was the highlight of their short stay on stay on the water, Ian said.

He caught bass on a black/blue Berkley Havoc soft plastic crawworm and his  father caught on a black/blue Missile Bait soft plastic creature bait, he said. 

“They just wanted that Texas-rigged crawfish so bad,” the teen said, noting he tried a spinnerbait several times but the winning pattern was pitching the soft plastic against the base of the cypress tree three or four times each to get a bite.

The next Original Hawg Fight is scheduled to be held May 2.