Loreauville’s Hunter Neuville holds the five bass weighing 19.03 pounds he caught March 13 during the Louisiana High School B.A.S.S. Nation North Division Spring Qualifier tournament at Caney Lake. The Highland Baptist Christian School Bass Fishing team founder fished alone and finished sixth in the 113-boat field on his first-ever trip to Caney Lake.

CHATHAM — The Teche Area’s winningest high school bass angler overcame the odds fishing by himself on a body of water he never fished before to finish sixth March 13 in the Louisiana High School B.A.S.S. Nation North Division Spring Qualifier at Caney Lake.

Following a day of prefishing that was nothing to write home about, Hunter Neuville of Loreauville left the next day to fish against 111 boats carrying high school bass anglers, most with two high schoolers per boat. Neuville returned to Jimmie Davis State Park with a five-bass limit weighing 19.03 pounds.

The Highland Baptist Christian School senior later said he went out of his “comfort zone” — i.e. the shallow-water patterns that work so well in and around the Atchafalaya Basin — to catch the heaviest limit ever of his high school career.

“I was happy about it for my first time over there. I wasn’t expecting to do that good,” Neuville said.

Walker High School Fishing’s Tyler Covington and Brantley Tate were first with 23.58 pounds, including a 7.04-pounder. Wade Roberts and Zachary Lambert with the Barbe High School Fishing Club finished runners-up with five bass weighing 22.28 pounds. Ponchatoula High School Fishing’s Peyton Waller and C.J. Gatlin were third with 22.12 pounds.

The tournament, also billed as the inaugural Caney Lake High School Hawg Fest, lived up to its billing when the fourth-place team from Southside High School dropped an 8.03-pound bass on the scale, the biggest of the tournament. That “hawg” anchored Jackson Crouch and Landon Miller’s 19.51-pound catch.

Neuville, who has double-qualified for the state championship tournament, was right up there with them. His father, Tony Neuville, was the boat captain.

Their destination after the tournament began was one of two shallow areas he checked out Friday. There were eight boats on the spot. They stayed 1 ½ hours.

“After that we went run some main lake deeper spots, mostly fishing 5- to 10-foot of water, just fishing points. I don’t normally fish that,” Neuville said.

He is glad he went against the grain. He threw a chrome/black Rapala Shad Rap, a jerkbait that covered the depths starting around mid-morning.

“The first spot I went to, maybe 15 minutes in, I caught a 5. Ten minutes after that I caught like a 3 ½. I ended up spending the rest of the day doing that. They were eating it good,” he said, happily. “After I caught the first two good ones, I told my dad, ‘Don’t let me leave this spot the rest of the day.’”

Neuville said he hooked and boated about nine keepers in the 30-yard stretch in front of a deeper shoreline right next to a point.

He has a busy schedule ahead. This weekend he’s fishing a Centerville-based Louisiana Bass Anglers at Toledo Bend.

On March 28 he’ll fish a Louisiana High School B.A.S.S. Nation tournament at Toledo Bend.

Then he has a B.A.S.S. Nation Cental Regional April 21-23 at Milford Lake in Junction City, Kansas. He qualified last year as a co-angler.

He also plans to fish two other high school qualifying tournaments in April.