The CBA team’s 14th-place showing in an 83-team field competing in the Louisiana Best 6 Bass Tournament was the highest of the six bass clubs on hand representing the Teche Area. The CBA has been in either the Louisiana Best 6 or the Louisiana Top Six since 1995.
Team captain Mac Aguillard of Loreauville, Randal Savoy of Catahoula, Roy Savoy Jr. of Coteau Holmes, and Paul Resweber, Scott Trahan and B.K. Sullivan, all of St. Martinville, enjoyed a good day of bassin’ the first day on their way to finishing with a two-day total of 53.06 pounds. They culled to a 12-fish limit weighing 32.26 pounds Saturday and followed up with an 11-fish bag weighing 20.80 pounds Sunday.
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“One more 2 1/2-pound fish (Sunday) and we would have been closer to the top 10. But we came out 14th, cashed a check (14th place was worth $300). We’re proud of that. We enjoyed it,” he said.
The West Central Bass Club of Leesville successfully defended its title of a year ago and blitzed the rest of the field when the bass they were hoping would bite turned on the second day. With 29.31 pounds the first day, the team hardly was considered a threat.
But WCBC came back strong, fishing jig-n-pigs and Carolina-rigged soft plastics in 30-foot depths, the second day. The team’s 12 biggest bass — including six 6-pound plus “hawgs” — weighed 49.26 pounds for a whopping two-day total of 78.57 pounds.
The Good Ole Boys Bass Club was second with 67.44 pounds, followed closely by the Bonne Carre Bassmasters with 67.36 pounds. (See results on Page B6).
Other Teche Area bass clubs on hand, their weight and finish were the Franklin-based Louisiana Bass Anglers, 50.55 pounds, 22nd; New Iberia-based Louisiana Bass Cats, 46.74 pounds, 32nd; Grand Marais-based Iberia B.A.S.S., 33.34 pounds; Jeanerette Lunker Hunters, 14.42 pounds, 78th, and Franklin-based Pipeliners Bass Club, 9.70 pounds, 79th.
Catahoula-based bass club members basked in the lofty finish.
Roy Savoy said, “It’s not the most weight we ever had but the highest finish. Actually, I think we had a little more fun this time. We caught more fish.”
Savoy was on a team that had more weight, including a 10-pound bass he caught, at a Louisiana Top Six contest in 1998.
Randal Savoy acknowledged that the goal is to finish higher than other teams from the area.
“That’s what we shoot for, really. It don’t matter if we finish in the money,” he said.
Aguillard said, “It felt good for us to come out as high as we did. We did what each boat wanted to do. Everybody did their own thing, found their own fish.”
Aguillard and Randal Savoy were in one boat while Roy Savoy teamed with Resweber, and Trahan and Sullivan fished together. They fished in 4- to 6-foot depths mostly with “lily pad” and watermelon red/pearl Stanley Ribbits and white Senkos.
If a fish bit and missed the plastic frog, they would throw the soft plastic jerkbait in right away as a comeback bait, Roy Savoy said. Many of the bass were caught around the islands at the mouth of San Miguel Creek, they said.
The team caught 24 keeper-sized bass the first day. Aguillard’s first two bass of the day were 4-pounders and his next one weighed 3 1/2 pounds, he said.
“It was our day,” Roy Savoy said.
“That’s probably the best time we ever had over there. We thought everybody else was catching, too.”
But everybody else wasn’t catching as well as the CBA, which was in 12th place with its 32.26 pounds at the midway point of the prestigious tournament.
To a man, CBA team members lamented the fact they failed to fill out their 12-fish limit Sunday. Some 4-pound plus bass were lost that day at the boat, they said, noting that one or more like that could have lifted them as high as the top five.
“We’re there. We can fish. It’s just our luck isn’t any good,” Roy Savoy said.
“We came up short on Sunday,” Aguillard said.
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