After a wild ride from spring to the present, the 2014 bass season is officially over and the newly established NBS Power Rankings are official. Covington tournament angler, Jason Pittman has earned the title of Northshore Bass Angler of the Year!

Joined by his team mate and son, Trenton Pittman, Jason has put together a late string of first place victories across the Northshore throughout the late summer and early fall timespan and says tournament fishing with his father is how it all started when he was a young boy. “My dad and my uncle were fishing a lot of team circuits together but as we were growing up they stopped fishing those so they could fish with the kids. Just being on the water with him was what I was really excited about,” Jason says. Pittman was born in Pineville, Louisiana and can recall fishing on something he called Cleco Lake. “My dad Floyd worked for the electric company Cleco. They had a power plant lake just outside of Alexandria call Lake Rodermaker, and they had a private area and launch for the employees. As early as I can remember the weekends were spent up there with him, whether we were catfishing under some lights or bass fishing or bream fishing,” Pittman says. Jason says he was about 6 years old when he fished his first tournament with his father and like most fishing memories, his can still remember vividly the day he caught his first lunker. “He had a fish that was a little over 8 lbs. that he caught on Toledo Bend in ’79 and he had that fish mounted and I always told him that I wanted one mounted like his. Well I couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7 years old and he told me if I catch one over 4 lbs. that he would mount it. Sure enough one weekend I was fishing on Cleco Lake and I was throwing a spinner-bait on a little Zebco 33. Well I caught 2 fish that weighed over 4 lbs., so he had someone mount both bass on the same piece of driftwood. That was our time - either fishing or in a duck blind growing up,” he says. 

Jason moved to the Northshore in 1987 and says he can remember winning his first tournament on the Tchefuncte River when he was 18 years old. It was a Wednesday Evening Tournament on the river and Jason says it was a huge boost in his confidence when he won and says that he can distinctively remember who “the guys to beat” were.  “Every river has it go-to people and you want to excel and compete against the best. Anybody you talk to that has been on the Tchefuncte River in the last 25 years knows the name Ronnie Bell. He was probably the most noted fisherman on that river,” Jason says.  
 

It didn’t take Jason long to turn his passion into much more than a hobby and after graduating from Slidell High School in 1994 Pittman was able to secure sponsors at a ridiculously young age of 19. Jason says that’s when  he got to fish in his first professional tournament. “That was on the Arkansas River in what they used to call the Bass Master Invitationals. To be fishing and sitting around before blast off and see heroes- Rick Clun, Gary Klein, Kevin VanDam, Jay Yellis – I mean I basically grew up with those guys on that tour. It was a surreal deal,” Pittman says. From 1996 to 2003 Jason was fishing full time on the circuit and credits George Ricks, who is now a saltwater guide out of Hopedale, for helping him get his foot in the door at a young age. “I became really good friends with George and he helped open some doors and got me pointed in the right direction on the national scene right out of high school. He was fishing a lot of bass stuff in the Delacroix area and basically steered me in the direction that I needed to go. Everything that my dad had taught me up to that point was what I needed and then George showed me how to be a professional angler. He showed me how to carry myself and how to interact with sponsors. He may not understand that he did it but he was definitely tremendously helpful to me in the beginning,” he says.

Jason has recently refocused on fishing the local tournaments on the Northshore and says the Pearl River system is his favorite area to bass fish. “It’s got the versatility of marsh fishing as well as power fishing such as wood, trees, laydowns, and mats. If I had to draw up a great area to fish on the Northshore it would be the Pearl River system – The West, the Middle, and the East. I’ve grown up on reservoirs catching fish in thirty feet of water and then to come here and learn how to fish tidal and current has just been great,” Jason says. When it comes to the tournament fishing on the Pearl, Jason credits a lot of his knowledge to a major tournament contender on the river. “I was fortunate that Mark Mohr saw something in me at a young age and he taught me a lot about what I need to be looking for as far as the Pearl goes,” he says.

  As far as his least favorite, Pittman says Bayou Lacombe can be a tough place to compete. “It’s such a finicky place. Don’t get me wrong, there’s good fish to be caught, but just the size of it I think puts a lot of pressure on those fish,” he says.  Jason also says the Tchefuncte can be perplexing at times also. “I don’t think you can theoretically say anything good about the Tchefuncte because that thing is like the Dead Sea. If you can figure them out on the Tchefuncte you’ve accomplished something. It’s such a finicky place and a lot of that’s got to do with the pleasure boaters and tide influences but if somebody can consistently catch five fish, they’re going to be in the mix no matter what,” Pittman says. Jason reiterates that it’s not that there is a lack of fish on the river but he thinks the size of it makes it hard to locate the bass. “To be such a long river it still fishes small because there are only certain areas that hold concentrations of fish. I feel confident in the areas that we fish but there may be fifteen areas that we have to hit in eight hours in order to catch five at the end of the day.  I’m not sure that we caught more than three keepers in one area this year on the Tchefuncte,” Pittman says. 

In the bassworld, there are benchmarks that anglers aspire to reach and a double-digit weight is definitely a goal for most guys on the water.  Jason says his biggest fish to date was a bruiser that he caught on Lake Toho in Florida. That fished tipped the scales at 10.8 lbs. Pittman’s biggest fish this year was caught on Bayou Liberty. The 6.2 lb. lunker propelled him to win the Bass Assassins tournament in February in which 43 anglers competed. 

In competitive bass fishing there are strengths and weaknesses that are part of the equation that make up each tournament angler. Jason believes his biggest strength is keeping his thoughts on the task at hand.  “Whether it’s making a move or making a bait switch. There’s a lot of guys out there that feel like they aren’t able to compete when other guys show up. It works to the people’s advantage who are on that hot streak to where if somebody is thinking about how somebody else is doing – they’re done mentally. We used to joke about it but when certain people show up to the tournament and you’ll hear  ‘Oh well, we’re fishing for second now!’ They make joke about it, but if they are saying it, it’s in their mind. So if fifteen boats show up and six of them are nervous, you’re only fishing against nine others,” Jason says. Pittman says that he thinks a lot of tournament anglers also suffer from thinking about “the one that got away.” “Get over a fish! If you lose a fish, get over it. There’s nothing you can do about after it’s gone. It’s not going to do any good two hours later when you put your head down and say ‘man I can’t believe I lost that fish!” he says.

 Pittman says decision making is a crucial part of tournament fishing and he believes that too many bass anglers overthink things while on the water. “It’s important to listen to both your head and your gut. If you’re going down a stretch of bank and you think in your head that you should have caught more fish or have had better quality, then your gut will start saying ‘hey let’s either eat a sandwich or make a move because this ain’t workin!” Pittman chuckles at the question of whether or not overthinking things hurts a lot of guys when tournament fishing.  “Does it hurt a lot of guys!  All you have to do is look on the deck of somebody’s boat and if they’ve got more than five rod’s out? They- are- scrambling! And they have overthought what needs to happen. Pittman recalls a day on the water where overthinking things has gotten the better of him. “I’ve been guilty of it! We joke about it often. When fishing nationals one day,  I ended the day of practice with twenty rods on the deck and when I got back to the hotel, my roommate sees me  and asks ‘ohhhh - one of those days huh?’ Pittman says to try and keep things simple when bass fishing. “The best thing to do is to just keep it simple. You can’t round off the wheel any more than it’s already rounded. The wheel is round- you can’t reinvent a round wheel! If you’ve been catching fish flippin’ for a month and all of a sudden you go down that stretch of bank and you don’t get as many bites and you think ‘I wonder if they’ll hit a big swimbait?’ That’s when people start overthinking it instead of doing what comes natural,” Jason says.

For now, Jason says he will continue to concentrate on the fishing the local tournaments on the Northshore where he can continue to spend time with his family. “There’s no doubt in my mind, in 15 - 20 years I’ll make a run at it again. I’ve dabbled in it here and there but I would much rather go and fish a one day tournament with my son or daughters, than go spend a week in Oklahoma and hope to win $50,000,” Pittman says. 


The 2015 NBS Season will begin in January where Jason will try and repeat as the NBS’ Northshore Bass Angler of the Year and says he’s excited to be a part of the competition on such a local scene. 

Webster’s Dictionary defines the word favorite as “a person, team, etc., that is considered most likely to win” When it comes to bass fishing tournaments held on the Tchefuncte River  these days there is clearly a favorite. 23 year old Kyle Hills has been on one hell of a tear when it comes to winning bass tournaments on the Tchefuncte. In 2014 he has already claimed 4 first place victories and 5 big fish awards and it’s only June. If he keeps up this pace he will earn a whopping 8 first place victories and 10 big fish victories by the end of the year. Those finishes are mind boggling given the level of competition on the river system.

 Kyle is by no means a newcomer to the Tchefuncte River. He learned how to fish early with his dad, Calvin Hills, when he used to fish for perch on the Tickfaw River but says it was one trip to the Rice Field Canal that he specifically remembers that got him hooked on bass fishing. “My first lunker came when I was fishing from land at the bridge going over the Rice Field Canal. I was fishing for sac-a-lait in the winter and was using grass shrimp actually. I hooked that thing and probably fought it for a good few minutes before a random stranger had to help me land it. It wasn’t huge but it was the biggest I’ve ever caught,” Hills says. Kyle’s fish weighed in at 3.12 lbs. and that was all it took to get him out on the water targeting bigger bass. Kyle says he prefers the Tchefuncte River because he thinks it hold the biggest fish. “I like the Tchefuncte because of the amount of quality fish. It has the highest quantity of biggest fish,” Kyle says. 

The Ponchatoula High graduate has always been competitive so tournament fishing was right up his alley. “My brother Dylan and I were usually pretty competitive when we would fish. I’m a little TOO competitive when I fish,” he says. When Kyle was 18 his father let him take the boat out on his own. Kyle fished that tournament by himself and talks about that day. “My first tournament was the Strawberry Festival tournament out of Manchac. I thought I knew something and headed out there with a lot of confidence but it turned out I really didn’t know anything. I pretty much struck out that day,” Hills says. Kyle scouted that river before the tournament and he says he has come to learn to never pre-fish. “I’ve learned a valuable lesson and that is to never scout a river! Never scout rivers! It definitely works against you. A lot of it has to do with the history of the river and what you’ve done in past years and not what you’ve done yesterday,” he says.

What may set Kyle apart from the crowd are the conditions he likes to fish. Kyle says he thrives in bad weather during these tournaments. “Give me the absolute worse conditions you can possibly imagine. I believe it’s easier for me to out fish somebody in bad weather than to beat them with good conditions. That’s what it’s been mostly this year – bad weather falling on tournament days – that’s given me the edge so far this year,” Hills says. 


A decision that most anglers struggle with is the weather or not to make long runs from the weigh-in. While he is totally capable of making those runs out of his 20 ft. Stratus with a 150 VMax, he prefers to use that time to fish instead of traveling. “I like to stay close but if I have to make a run I will. I feel the more casts I can make, the better my chances of winning are,” he says. Kyle says he fishes faster than anyone he knows and it’s actually getting to the point where he getting too impatient. “I’m starting to loose patience as I get older. I’m starting to fish faster and faster - trolling motor battery is dead by the end of a trip,” he says.

As far as fishing style goes, Kyle says top-water is definitely one of his strengths and braided line is a must for him. “Any top-water bait I am throwing, I’m using Power Pro Braided line. I try and stay away from mono. I hardly ever use fluorocarbon or mono – it’s all braid for me.  There’s hardly any error with it. I have hardly any line breaks with a lot more sensitivity,” Kyle says. 

While most bass fishermen concentrate on catching big bass during the spawn, Kyle prefers the fishing the pre-spawn. Early spring and late winter- It’s a lot easier for me to catch them in a specific area rather than having to drift the whole river,” He says. 

Eliminating mistakes no matter how small is important for any tournament angler to improve his game and Kyle says that’s what he has been working on improving. “I tend not to make the same mistake twice. Any little thing that can turn into a mistake I try and think about it before it happens, whether it’s line angles or landing a fish. I can’t remember the last time I’ve lost a big fish,” he says. 

The Tchfuncte isn’t the only river that Kyle excels on. He says the Tangipahoa holds a high concentration of large fish also.  He looks up to one particular competitor that really knows what he is doing on the Tangi. “Jaylon Wilde is almost unbeatable on that river when it comes to a tournament. He knows everything about it. He is the king of the Tangipahoa,” Hills says.

I’d like to introduce a new segment that will be added to the NBS page called the NBS Spotlight Angler. This will be a series of articles that will shine the light on some of the best bass fisherman on the Northshore.  Our first spotlight will be on an angler that has been on fire as of late. Charles Dauzat has won three tournaments on the Pearl River within the past month and has vaulted to the 1st place spot in the NBS Power Rankings. His first victory came when he fished the Marsh & Bayou Outfitters Tournament. Charles took advantage of the high muddy water on Pearl and brought in a limit that tipped the scales at 14.05 lbs. He then followed that win up with another 1st place win on the Pearl when he competed in the Liars & Lunkers Tournament on the muddy river. His latest victory came when he teamed up with Mark Mohr in the Pearl River Team Trails Tournament. They weighed in a stringer of 10.14 lbs edging out Rustin Beaudette and Ben Williams by 3 ounces.

  Dauzat was born in Bogalusa on a dairy farm but moved to Slidell when he was just a boy.  As a youngster, his great grandmother got him hooked on fishing. “My great grandmother was full blooded Cherokee Indian. She would take me down to the pond and we would catch fish - take them back to the house and fry them up.  She would cook grits then pour it over the fried fish and we would eat that for breakfast,” Charles said.  Duazat started fishing bass tournaments at the age of 17 when he fished his first tournament on Bayou Lacombe and says that first tournament was all it took to hook him. “I started with the Bayou Lacombe guys fishing the Wednesday Evening Bass Anglers. I met a few guys out their fishing one day and they asked me if I wanted to fish the tournaments on Wednesday afternoons - and that was it right there! That’s how it all started,” said Duazat. Charles says he was intimidated at first but it’s all a state of mind. “When I first started fishing these tournaments it was a lot of pressure. You pull up to the launch and you see all these guys with big boats but after about 10 or 15 years you realize that you just love fishing. After a period of time you learn that everybody has the same equipment and what really separates people is their mental capabilities – having a positive attitude – staying focused, and not getting distracted when you lose fish. If you keep a positive attitude you’ve beaten half the field already,” says Dauzat. Charles enjoyed the tournament feel so much he started holding his own.” I’ve been running tournaments here in the Slidell area since 1986. My wife and I started the Monday evening tournaments on Bayou liberty and the Wednesday evening tournaments out on the Pearl River for four or five years,” he said. While fishing these tournaments there was one particular bass fisherman that comes to mind when he thinks back on his younger years competing. “There was on guy named Randy Jenkins from Ponchatoula that fished the Tangipahoa a lot.  I used to say I wanted to be like Randy Jenkins. He was the most consistent fisherman I’d ever met. He had the ability to bring in 10 or 11 lbs. no matter what the river was doing. He was just so consistent. There was other guys that brought in bigger stringers but never consistent like he was. His key to success was fishing a lot of small water. He fished out of a small 14 ft. flat that allowed him to fish a lot of pressured areas,” Charles says. It’s because of those old timers that Charles established his very own bass tournament on the Pearl River. “That’s why we started the tournament was to try and get all the older guys back out here.” Charles and his wife Jennifer directs the Pearl River Team Trails Tournament on the Pearl River. The tournament has a 100% payout. They give out trophies to the top six teams after five tournaments. That’s a total of 24 plaques total awarded. “Our goal is to have $1,000 payout for first place every month,” Dauzat says.  

The secret to Dauzat’s success in these tournaments is his versatility. “I’m a dirty water fisherman but I am very versatile. I can fish 20 ft. of water- I can fish 2 ft. of water- I can fish clean water- it doesn’t matter. Over the years I have tried to learn every technique there is out there,” he says.

Charles says fishing the Pearl can be tricky because of the many different aspects of it.  “The river is affected by salinity because it is so close to Lake Borgne. It’s also affected by the tide and the normal river fluctuation,” Dauzat says. The Pearl has always been a tough river to fish but ever since Katrina, the river has been a jigsaw puzzle. One of the main reasons for this has been the closing off the MRGO. “It used to be a lot easier figuring this river out but the river has changed ever since they blocked off the MRGO. The tide doesn’t do what you think it’s going to do. It may be falling in one area of the river and then you’ll see it coming in on another area,” Charles says.  One of the biggest complaints about the Pearl is the muddy water but Charles says you need to take that and use it to your advantage especially when targeting big bass. “In clean water the big fish are going to move to the deeper holes where they are harder to catch, but when the water is dirty those big bass will move into the shallows. You can cover a couple miles of shoreline in a short period of time and better your chances of catching a larger fish,” he says. Charles has been fishing the river for over 30 years and says one of the most common mistakes he sees from guys who fish the river is anglers trying to find clean water. “I think the mistake I see guys making is they tend to run to clean water - they want to find clean water. It’s good to go to the clean water to get your five fish but when you get your five fish you need to go to dirty water where the bigger fish pull up shallow. In clean water the bigger fish are going to go to the deeper water and they are going to congregate there. When the waters dirty the fish are going to move shallow,” Dauzat says. 

 Charles says another trick he uses when fishing dirty water is adding sound to his lures. “I’ll take a skirt off of a jig that has the little hooks on it where you can attach the rattles and I’ll slide that on to my spinner-bait. I fished a tournament over there on the blind river where I had to put five rattles on a jig because that’s how dirty the water was,” he says. 

Charles says it's important to always know whats going on with the water levels on the Pearl. “Typically, the Pearl fluctuates during the spring. The water may be up at times and down at others. Charles says to watch the levels and when the water is on a rise, look out! “It has something to do with the speed of the water. Every time that river rises and you get a big rise it has something to do with the speed of that river. When that river gets to a certain speed they pull up to the banks. That’s when you can bust ‘em! All my big stringers over the years have always come on a rising river especially if there’s a full moon. If there’s a full moon and you pair it with a rising river – its lights out! These big fish pull up shallow and they have their eyes peeled up to the top of the water and they are easy to catch. Now you can do the same on a falling river, but the river needs to be out of the woods – it needs to be out of the swamp where the fish have to be out of the woods. Then you get enough current flow in the river where the fish have to pull up,” he says. These fish can tolerate a heavy current but Charles says they can’t do it for long. “River bass don’t store fat in their bodies like a Florida strain bass. They can swim in that current for a little while but when it gets up to certain speed they are going to pull up on that bank and they are going to get into those trees and roots.

Charles is not the only top dog on the river however. He speaks highly of his teammate. “My fishing partner Mark Mohr is probably the last of the older power-houses out here. He’s a little bit older than me and we've won a lot of tournaments over the years. Mark Mohr and Steve Hadley would be the two top competitors that are left out here. These guys have been fishing this river for 30+ years.” He says. 

Special thanks goes out to the following sponsors of the Pearl River Team Trails Tournament - 

Tommy St.Clair Designs  985-869-0165
Indian Village Trading Post  985-643-8161
East Gause GOODYEAR  985-643-9175
Beaudette's Welding and Fabrication 985-516-6297
The A/C Man Inc  985-781-6061