The father-and-son tandem of Don and Jacob Shoopman came out on top among many seasoned Teche Area bass fishermen and are champions of the 2015 Hawg Fight bass circuit.
The Hawg Fights are mini-bass tournaments, lasting about three hours every other Wednesday evening beginning in April of each year and ending in August. This year’s tournament series ended Aug. 19. Fishermen who participated in at least three of the 11 tournaments qualified for the Hawg Fight Classic, which took place Aug. 30 at Myette Point Boat Landing in the Atchafalaya Basin.
The Shoopmans each garnered 792 points over the series, a slim edge over the 781 points accumulated by Damon Theriot of Loreauville, who fished most of the tournaments with his cousin Spencer Gondron of Loreauville, who finished with 422 points. In third place was Ricky Watkins, with 695 points, who fished with Scott Young, who accumulated 637 points. Watkins and Young, both of New Iberia, had teamed up last year to take the tournament series.
Don, the elder of Team Shoopman, is the senior news editor and outdoors editor for The Daily Iberian. He is quick to tell you he moved to the Sportsman’s Paradise 39 years, nine months and six days ago (an easy calculation from Jan. 1, 1976) and has been in love with the beauty of Louisiana’s outdoors ever since.
The avid fisherman has participated in the Hawg Fight tournaments since they began in the late 1980s and has had many great fishing partners over the years, he said. For almost the past decade, however, Don, 62, has teamed up with his youngest son Jacob, who would begin fishing in the tournaments with his pop each summer as soon as he would return from college at Southeastern Louisiana University.
They consistently finished in or just outside the Top 10. But never No. 1.
“It’s been a unique and great experience to do something like this with Jacob because we have been fishing together since he was a little boy,” Don said. “… We’ve gotten into some interesting discussions in the boat.”
Jacob, 27, said it was awesome to win the overall title, but equal to coming out on top was spending quality time with his dad.
“He’s been waiting to do good for a long time,” the assistant coach for Catholic High School’s girls soccer team said. “It’s good to see all that hard work pay off.”
This year, the Shoopmans tried to prefish at least once before each Hawg Fight and on a few occasions Jacob scouted alone. Don was proud to say he let Jacob make the tournament-day decisions on where to go and when to move. That can be key to returning to the dock to put bass on the scale or showing up with an empty livewell. The former was a particular challenge this year as nine of the mini-bass tournaments were held in Lake Dauterive-Lake Fausse Pointe because of high water in the Atchafalaya Basin.
“We had about three spots early in the year,” where we caught bass, said Jacob, “and fortunately they stayed in those spots most of the year.”
The shallower waters of the lakes make finding the bass more difficult as scorching summer temperatures warm the lakes’ waters, he said.
Catching bass 14 inches long and larger and having the heaviest three-fish limit is key, of course, though Team Shoopman never took a first-place finish during the season. They did, however, accumulate enough points with three second-place finishes, including one tie for second, and two third-place finishes. That had Don and Jacob cashing in for five of the 11 tournaments … and not scratching, meaning they never returned to the dock empty-handed.
One trip was close. Don accidently got his spinnerbait stuck in a tree branches just above the water. When they went to retrieve it, their 21-year-old aluminum bass boat disturbed a wasp nest. Jacob couldn’t evade all of the angry insects as one stung him in the back of the head.
“It gave me a real bad headache,” Jacob said. “I don’t think we caught another fish that day.”
Fortunately, Don had snagged a keeper bass before Jacob was stung and the Shoopmans remained in the running.
Senkos and plastic frogs — Ribbits and Scum Frogs — are favorites of the Shoopmans, but their overall favorite is the Superbait buzz bait made by the elder Shoopman’s younger brother Bill of Kansas City, Missouri.
The buzz baits are their favorites “because a topwater bite is always fun,” Jacob said.
As much fun as the father-and-son team had, both had glowing words for their competitors, especially Theriot and Gondron. They were tough opponents and became good friends over the tournament series, Don said, and each would wish the other “good luck” before every Hawg Fight.
“They have guys (participating in the tournaments) who really know their stuff,” Jacob said, making the team beam with pride at the accomplishment, but respectful of the fishermen who can on any day bring back a full stringer.
And they have kind words for each other. Jacob said his most memorable moment over the 2015 series was watching his dad bring in a 3.92-pound “hawg” on a buzz bait May 6.
“Seeing it jump and hoping it would stay on (the line),” Jacob said, “that was at the third or fourth tournament on the lake. We won big bass and finished second with about 8 pounds.”
The younger Shoopman, though, Don said, has improved his bass fishing skills greatly.
“He’s gotten a lot better than me,” Don said.