Avery Derouen, left, and Hunter Neuville are shown during the two-day state tournament they won in May out of Doiron's Landing, Stephensville. They captured the state title and qualified for this week's Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School National Championship at Chickamauga Lake near Dayton, Tennessee.

Avery Derouen of New Iberia is starting to favor offshore fishing in the Gulf of Mexico perhaps more than bass fishing in and around the Atchafalaya Basin. In fact, he’d like to be a charter boat captain or deckhand.

Derouen likely will get a chance to do some offshore fishing of a different kind this week when he and Hunter Neuville of Loreauville compete in the 2021 Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School National Championship at Chickamauga Lake near Dayton, Tennessee.

Neuville, the son of Tony and Donna Neuville, and Derouen, the son of Ronnie and Liz Derouen, planned to arrive in Tennessee on Saturday for their last outing representing Highland Baptist Christian School, where they graduated in May.

The 18-year-old all-around outdoorsmen and their respective families booked a place to stay this week along the Hiwassee River, which flows into the huge lake at Hiawassee Island, just north of Tennessee Highway 60. They were scheduled to leave around 6 a.m. Saturday and settle in today for a long, challenging week in Tennessee.

Neuville and Derouen comprise one of 17 high school teams from Louisiana heading to The Chick. The Teche Area bass anglers and their boat captain plan to get on the 58.9-mile lake Monday, the first day of prefishing.

According to a story April 27 on bassmaster.com, as many as 275 two-man teams are expected to compete in the three-day tournament starting Thursday.

Hank Weldon, Bassmasters High School & Youth Series senior manager, said, “They are the best of the best among 13,000 high school B.A.S.S. members representing more than 1,300 high school fishing clubs nationwide. We are thrilled to give these high school anglers an opportunity to tackle Chickamauga — a fishery with a reputation for producing giant bass — as they compete for a national title.”

Neuville and Derouen qualified for nationals by winning the state title May 8-9 at the Louisiana High School B.A.S.S. Nation State Championship held out of Doiron’s Landing in Stephensville. They led wire-to-wire.

Neuville’s father, a 34-year-old machinist at Neuville Machine Shop, will continue his role as boat captain, as he has done much of his son’s bass fishing career at HBCS.

“Oh, he helps me out a lot, everything,” Neuville said about his dad.

Derouen said, “He’s really good. I know I couldn’t sit in a boat that long and not fish. He’s a very patient man. I couldn’t do it. It’s a sacrifice of time. And he’s very safe.”

Neuville tuned up for the national tournament by bringing in a heavy limit July 17 in an annual E.P. Breaux Electrical LLC fishing tournament, a “trailer anywhere” event for freshwater and saltwater anglers with the weigh-in at E.P. Breaux. Neuville. Neuville and his cousin, Trace Waguespack of Youngsville, won with five bass weighing 15.70 pounds after launching at Myette Point.

“He’s been doing pretty good, winning local tournaments. I heard he just won one. He really figures out what to do,” Derouen said.

“It’s been a real good year. Hopefully, it’s not the end of a good year. Hopefully, I can keep it going,” Neuville said.

How good has bass tournament fishing been for Neuville?

As Derouen noted, Neuville has won local derbies but shocked the nation by claiming the Non-Boater Division title April 21-23 in the TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Central Regional tournament at Milford Lake in Kansas. He qualified to fish the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship on Nov. 3-5 at the Ouachita River in Monroe.

Neuville will be able to stay in-state then to fish for a national title and he has plenty of time to prepare.

Neuville and his teammate from high school have three days to figure out how to get bass to bite on The Chick.

“We know what you can catch up there. Without fishing (before) up there, something different, we’re going to have to learn the minute we get up there. We’re going to have to give it our best,” Derouen said. “It’s going to be an experience to fish a different lake. We’ve never fished something like this before.”

“I have the right idea what we’ve got to do — offshore fishing, ledges and stuff. We’re going to try a few shallow things but I think we’re going to spend most of the time a little deeper. I pretty much have an area I kind of already figured out that is a better area for deep fishing,” Neuville said.

“I mean, we’re just going to go fish. Whatever happens, happens. I’m just going to go enjoy it.”

It’ll be a different kind of offshore fishing for Derouen, who said, “I’ve been offshore fishing (in the Gulf) the last couple of years. I’m more into saltwater.”

They’ll be using deep-diving crank baits, spoons, shaky heads, Ned rigs, Senkos, “a little bit of everything.” They went on a mini-shopping spree a week ago today at Academy Sports + Outdoors and Country Station.

Neuville, who works part-time at S&E Collision Repair LLC, recently fished a fundraising tournament for him and Derouen, who’s working part-time Derouen’s Electrical Services Inc. Twenty-four teams, including Neuville and his WN Hawg Fights BTS partner Andre Weber, participated in the event July 10 at Myette Point Boat Landing.

“It was nice to get the support and the help that we needed. It could have been a better turnout if the river wasn’t rising and they didn’t have other tournaments going on. But I’m happy with it,” Neuville said.