ST. MARTINVILLE — When the door opened on a golden opportunity
to defend his bass club title, Paul Resweber took advantage.
“I got lucky. Cory Champagne was ahead of me and he fell sick
for the last tournament, so I was able to pass him up,” Resweber
said.
The St. Martinville bass angler won the regular-season finale in
a 3-7:30 p.m. tournament Sept. 10 in the Atchafalaya Basin and
captured his second straight, and third overall, Bass Angler of the
Year title in the Catahoula Bass Association.
Resweber, 46-year-old owner of Haroil Construction Co., an
oilfield gauging and production company, went out in style with a
three-fish limit weighing 8.42 pounds while fishing with his son
Braxton Resweber, 14. That made the victory and overall
championship even sweeter, he said.
Resweber finished the season with 614.74 points. Jason Courville
also leapfrogged past the absent Champagne, finishing fifth in the
tournament and runner-up in the Angler of the Year race with 550.65
points.
“Oh, it feels good. Any time you win it’s better than the
alternative, losing. So it always feels good,” Resweber said.
Champagne, meanwhile, who opened the year with an impressive
tournament victory Feb. 20, slipped to third in the overall
standings with 536.81 points.
“We were on the same fish, so it was fortunate for me he didn’t
show up because I don’t know If I could have beat him by 30 or so
points to overtake him,” Resweber said. “I was expecting him to be
there. There were a lot of fish caught. We had 8.42 and there were
a lot of 7-pound stringers.”
For the tournament Sept. 10, the Reswebers went to his favorite
fishin’ hole when the nation’s last overflow swamp gets low each
year. It’s in the Grevemberg area, he said without providing
further details.
They also used a “hot bait” of his that would remain a secret,
too, he said.
“This time of year is the only time we really catch on it. I
tried it in the spring. It just doesn’t work as good. It’s a hot
summertime bait. It’s just using the right bait the right way. I’ll
give you a hint ... it looks like a sexy shad,” he said.
Resweber won three bass club tournaments this year, including a
July tournament in the Atchafalaya Basin and also one he fished
with his son at Toledo Bend. He also had a third-place finish in a
tournament.
The avid angler, who also likes to chase speckled trout, teamed
up with Mike O’Brien of New Iberia this year to win a second
straight title on the Lipari Outdoors Adventures Hawg circuit based
in New Iberia.
Fishing with his son was lagniappe, he said.
“Braxton’s a real good fisherman. I mean, he can set the hook
with the best of them. He’ll go on his own when we go to to camp,
take the boat and find some fish. That’s what he really likes to
do,” he said.