Team pockets $12,000 for winning the 2013 tournament held in conjunction with the Louisiana Sportsman Show.
Life is ever changing, and that’s never more true than in tournament bass fishing. And the 2013 Louisiana Sportsman Bass Championship is a prime example of just how much of a difference the turning of the heavens can make.
St. Martinsville’s Andre F. Cazelot and Brooke Morrison of Youngsville put in a solid performance on the first day of the event, logging a fourth-place 16.31 pounds to stay within 1 ½ pounds of the first-day leaders.
That was yesterday, when the skies were clear and the wind howled most of the day.
Today, when clouds obscured the sun for much of the day and the wind laid, the team made a last-minute adjustment and knew they had a real chance at the $12,000 top prize when they put their second fish in the boat.
Of course, the first bass weighed 8.34 pounds, and the second fish was over 6 pounds. That never hurts.
Cazelot and Morrison capitalized and added three fish to their stringer before heading back to Doiron’s Landing and making the hour-long drive to the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center for the weigh-in — where the scales settled at 21.82 pounds.
“We went to our first spot, and we lost a 3-pounder,” Morrison said. “I thought, ‘Oh, it’s going to be this kind of a day.’ And then we didn’t get anything for an hour.
“We decided to go back to where we were catching fish yesterday, and passed a spot we had practiced in and decided we’d save that; and then we decided to go ahead and fish it.”
That instinctive call was spot on.
“On the first tree, we caught the 8(-pounder),” Morrison said. “The next tree, we caught the next-biggest one.
“We figured we had 14 pounds with two fish, so we figured it was our tournament to lose.”
Their five-fish limit drove their two-day total to 38.13 pounds.
In addition to winning the first-place check, Cazelot and Morrison also pocketed $2,000 for bringing the heaviest bass to the scales today.
Kevin Voisin and Bill McCarty ended in the same position they held yesterday — second — on the strength of a 13.72-pound stringer today that pushed their two-day total to 31.43 pounds.
Rounding out the top five were Brooks Webre and Cory Champagne with 29.92 pounds, Levi Louvier and Trey Hebert with 29.09, and Jim Gaspard and Hayden Pinell with 28.66 pounds.
Morrison said they fished in Lake Jeanerette near Fausse Point, and caught all but one of their fish during the two-day event on june bug/red Zoom Brush Hogs, with the other fish coming on a Humdinger spinnerbait.
The water in the lake was muddy, but the pattern was pretty basic: The pair worked the area pitching their baits to cypress trees, laydowns and undercut banks.
Morrison used a ⅜-ounce weight over his Brush Hog and used Sunline fluorocarbon line, while Cazelot worked his soft-plastic lure under a ¾-ounce weight with Lynch braided line.
The terminal tackle was rigged on Shimano reels and Powell rods.
The challenge was getting their baits in front of fish in thick cover strewn about by tropical storms rolling through the Basin.
“It’s a jungle where we were fishing,” Cazelot said.
They said they were fishing very shallow, targeting spawning fish.
“We couldn’t see them,” Cazelot said. “But we assumed that’s what they were doing.”
Morrison said wind was really an issue yesterday, and the water actually dropped overnight.
That put the fish in a different mood when the team showed up today.
“Today they got real subtle,” Morrison said. “Yesterday they were eating.”
Second-place big bass for the day was a 5.14-pounder caught by Webre and Champagne. They earned $800 for that fish.
Click here to read the first-day story.
The top 25 teams, their daily weights, total weights and payout were:
1. Cazelot/Morrison — 21.82, 38.13, $14,000
2. Voisin/McCarty — 13.72, 31.43, $5,200
3. Webre/Champagne — 16.27, 29.92, $2,800
4. Louvier/Hebert — 13.21, 29.09, $1,900
5. Gaspard/Pinell — 13.29, 28.66, $2,600
6. Zach Brazda/Neil Robin — 15.05, 28.45, $1,600
7. Eric Weaver/Jack Villar — 12.22, 26.0, $1,500
8. Dwain Chaney/Trevor Jeansonne — 11.42, 25.59, $1,400
9. Duane Blanco/Owen Plaisance — 8.63, 25.36, $1,300
10. Garrett Strickland/Gilbert Fortenberry — 9.64, 25.22, $1,025
10. Joey Zimmer/Joey Louque — 10.74, 25.22, $1,025
12. Willie Couch Jr./Willie Couch III — 12.06, 24.08, $825
13. Paul Carmouche/Jamie Laiche — 9.59, 23.88, $800
14. Craig S. Walker/Brent Bonadona — 8.67, 22.47, $775
15. Spenser Gremillion/Patrick Rachel — 9.2, 21.99, $750
16. Jacob Breaux/Tracy Gautreaux — 5.74, 21.62, $725
17. Tommy Fay/Tommy Robicheaux — 7.77, 20.83, $700
18. Ryan Young/Luke Billiu — 1.67, 19.90, $675
19. Freddy Geiger/Josh Sheets — 5.32, 17.24, $650
20. Bobby Templet/Terry Blackmon — 3.98, 16.75, $625
21. Anthony Granier/O.T. Fears — 1.82, 16.52, $600
22. Jimmy Charbonnet/Charles Gudry — 3.22, 15.31, $575
23. Tate Molea/S.J. Laiche — 1.74, 13.71, $550
24. Dayvis Niclous/Barry Delaune Jr. — 1.60, 13.44, $525
25. Peter Matassa/Vic Calvaruso — 0.0, 11.8, $500
