Two young bass anglers from two of The ‘Villes in the Teche Area are taking their talents to Kansas this week to fish the 2021 TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Central Regional.

Braxton Resweber of St. Martinville, who recently competed on the University of Louisiana-Lafayette’s Ragin’ Cajun Fishing Team, and Hunter Neuville of Loreauville, who’s wrapping up his high school bass fishing career with Highland Baptist Christian School, are going to Milford Lake near Junction City, Kansas. The tournament starts Wednesday and ends Friday.

They’ll be competing on the largest lake in Kansas, a 20,000-acre lake with 163 miles of shoreline. Milford Lake is known for its fair to good smallmouth bass fishing but largemouth bass fishing success is spotty.

Participating states are host Kansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, New Mexico and Colorado. Also, anglers from Mexico, Zimbabwe and Namibia are eligible for the regional.

Kansas B.A.S.S. Nation President Richard Heflin said competitors could catch the bass spawn in full stride.

“April is an interesting time for Milford. You are kind of going to be right in the heart of the spawn. You are going to have prespawn, spawn and postspawn going on,” Heflin told B.A.S.S. Communications Manager Emily Harley.

Smallmouth bass should be at the tail end of the spawn or in early postspawn, he said, while largemouth bass ought to be locking down for the spawn.

Milford Lake boasts the Kansas state record smallmouth bass, a 6-pound, 6-ounce, “hawg” caught in early April 2010. Heflin said most anglers target smallies but he wouldn’t be surprised to see a 6-pound smallie and a 6-pound largemouth weighed the same day.

Twelve-man Central Region teams from eight states will compete. The top bass angler from each state team qualifies for the B.A.S.S. Nation National Tournament, where the top angler from each region punches a ticket to the Bassmaster Classic and the Bassmaster Elite Series. That’s what Caleb Sumrall of New Iberia did in 2017.

Resweber will be fishing in the angler, or boater, division after making the 12-man team from Louisiana. He finished seventh overall in the point standings with 871.

The tournament that sealed his spot on the team was the Louisiana B.A.S.S. Nation Louisiana Fall Qualifier held Sept. 25-26 at Toledo Bend. He weighed five bass for 11.50 pounds on the second day to give him a two-day total of 18.2 pounds and a 12th-place finish in the 44-boat field.

Now the December 2020 ULL graduate’s got bigger fish to fry, er, weigh on a bigger stage. He’s ready.

“Oh, I’m excited. I’m going to have fun and whatever happens happens. It’ll be a good learning experience just to go out and fish. I’m going to give it hell, I tell you. One hundred percent from me,” Resweber said Wednesday night.

The 24-year-old Cabinets Unlimited employee left early Saturday for Milford Lake. He plans on staying in a Milford State Park cabin with Hayden Pinho, Travis Kelehan and Neuville, and scouting the lake today, Monday and Tuesday.

He has done his homework.

“I’ve been reading and researching not just about the lake but smallmouth in general and what they do at certain times of the year. I just need some overall knowledge of the fish because I know nothing about them,” Resweber said.

He does know many of them are caught on spinning rods, which are almost foreign objects in Cajun Country.

“I’ve got three. That’s enough for me. I’ll try to avoid spinning rods as much as possible,” he said with a soft laugh.

Neuville, who qualified for regionals as a co-angler, fished the same qualifying tournament last September at Toledo Bend as Resweber. He made the co-angler, or non-boater, cut.

The HBCS senior made the most of two trying days on the water. He caught one bass, a 2.07-pounder, and missed one the first day while fishing with Justin Hymel with the Louisiana Bassholes. Neuville boated two small keepers the second day but his fishing line broke while fighting a 2 ½- to 3-pound class fish on that trip with Ross Roper with the Grandpoint Bassmasters. He’s still kicking himself for not retying.

Still, the 17-year-old Loreauville bass angler finished eighth overall in the co-angler standings with 864 points to earn a berth on the Louisiana B.A.S.S. Nation State Team. The top co-angler from each state also qualifies for the B.A.S.S. Nation National Tournament.

Neuville could be the one. He’s excited, ready and rarin’ to go.

“Oh, yeah, I mean, it’s going to be totally different. Something I’ve always wanted to do is fish a lake with smallmouth. Hopefully, I can figure them out. Around here I’m punchin’ and using frogs. Over there I’ll be using a spinning rod and 8-pound test,” Neuville said with a knowing chuckle.

“I’ve done my research. It’s pretty much finesse fishing. I wish I could go up there and punch and spinnerbait and stuff. I mean, one day I could be fishing smallmouth out deep and the next day I could be fishing largemouth,” he said.

Neuville leaves today to hook up with Travis Kelehan, a former Broussard resident who now lives around Toledo Bend. Kelehan will drive to Junction City. They plan to prefish together the next few days.

I hope Team Louisiana does well and I’m certainly pulling for Resweber and Neuville to go to the next level in B.A.S.S. Nation. They represent the area so well whenever they compete.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.