Hunter Neuville of Loreauville had the right touch when it counted while fishing the TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Central Regional Championship at Grand Lake in Oklahoma. Bass like this one helped him finished 15th in the Co-Angler Division and fourth on Team Louisiana.

GROVE, Okla. — Two Teche Area bass anglers did more than make the cut to fish the third and final day of the TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Central Region Championship at the end of a rainy week in northeast Oklahoma.

Damein Clements of Abbeville, formerly of Franklin, vying for the title in the Angler Division, and Hunter Neuville of Loreauville, fishing the Co-Angler Division, helped Team Louisiana reel in the team title in an eight-state field, including host state Oklahoma. While Clements and Neuville missed in their bid for a berth in the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship, their bass-catching ability complemented the other Anglers and Co-Anglers from the Sportsman’s Paradise.

Team Louisiana dominated the tale at the scale the first two days, May 4-5, on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees with bass from its 10 Anglers and 10 Co-Anglers weighing 368 pounds, 15 ounces, to win $5,000. The Louisianans easily topped runner-up Arkansas’ 317-14, worth $3,000, and third-place Kansas with 317.

“I mean, whenever you pull up to a tournament like that up there, and drop weight like that on the first day, it opens a lot of eyes,” Clements said about the team’s first-day total weight of 189 pounds, 2 ounces. “We did well as a team, as a state. Louisiana as a whole, we’ve had more Bassmaster Classic qualifiers come out of Louisiana the last couple of years, I would say, than any other state.”

Louisiana, Arkansas and Kansas were followed in the team standings by Oklahoma, 302-2; Missouri, 290-6; Texas, 288-13; Colorado, 282-7, and New Mexico, 253-12.

Clements’ ultimate goal is to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic via the B.A.S.S. Nation route, like his close friend, Caleb Sumrall of New Iberia, did in mid-October 2017 with an unforgettable win in the Angler Division at Lake Hartwell in South Carolina.

Clements and Neuville prefished together for three days at Grand Lake. They made the state team through two Louisiana B.A.S.S. Nation qualifiers in 2021 and both had their sights set on advancing to the TNT Fireworks BA.S.S. Nation Championship on Nov. 9-11 at Pickwick Lake in Alabama.

An Angler or Co-Angler qualifies for nationals by either winning his or her division or by finishing first on his or her state team.

Clements was in the hunt throughout on Grand Lake. The 34-year-old Franklin native finished eighth overall and third on his state team in the Angler Division (five-bass daily limit) with a three-day total of 38 pounds, 15 ounces.

“Even though I didn’t win, it’s a win in my heart with all the dedication that goes into it,” he said.

Neuville, meanwhile, after flirting with the lead most of the first two days, carved out a 15th-place overall finish and a fourth-place finish on the state team with 18 pounds, 5 ounces, in the Co-Angler Division (three-bass daily limit).

“I fished hard every second. I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed. I did what I had to do. I didn’t didn’t get bites. I can’t be disappointed,” he said.

Despite prolonged rainy weather, which pushed the lake up 5 feet, Clements and Neuville enjoyed three days of productive practice. The Abbeville bass angler scoured a map of the lake and pinpointed a deep feeder creek near where the river channel took a hard left turn.

Based on his experience as a fishing guide on Toledo Bend, the DC Fishing Services LLC owner decided to start scouting in appropriately deep feeder creek, Ketchum Creek. He started on the first point they saw and offered a wacky-rigged V&M Chopstick.

“Honestly, five minutes into practice I knew where my starting spot (for the tournament) was. The first fish in the boat was a 3 ½-pounder,” Clements said.

“They were on beds for the first day of practice. The rise moved them. They were still there but in deeper water.”

The area bass anglers looked for similar patterns on the first point in every creek running north back to Wolf Creek Part and Boating Facility.

Clements bagged his biggest limit of the event the first day at 15 pounds, 12 ounces, after taking a dead fish penalty. He followed up the second day with another limit weighing 13-1 for a two-day total of 28-13.

For Clements, catching bass wasn’t a problem. Catching bass big enough to make a difference was the difficult part, he said.

Toward the end of the second day, however, he realized he was catching fewer and fewer bass. His area was running out of bass.

He put together a limit, by the hardest, at 10 pounds, 2 ounces, on the third and final day.

“Yeah. I guess with the field we had, you can’t slip up and I did. Another 15-pound day on Day 3 and I would have won the thing,” Clements said. “It wasn’t so much catching up to the leaders. I had to catch up with the fish.”

Neuville, who graduated last May from Highland Baptist Christian School, said as a Co-Angler he rode with three good Boaters. He was paired with Paul Willet of Blue Eye, Missouri, on Day 1; John Sanner of Magnolia, Arkansas, on Day 2, and Drew Porto of Greenbrier, Arkansas, on Day 3.

Like Clements, Neuville’s best day was Day 1 with three for 9 pounds, 11 ounces, while fishing with Willett.

“I really enjoyed fishing with him. He was a really nice guy. Every Boater I had was a nice guy,” he said.

Neuville, who won the B.A.S.S. Nation Central Regional Championship’s Co-Angler Division last year at Milford Lake in Kansas, caught at least eight keepers and culled a few times the first day on a green pumpkin Cajun Lures Baton on a Shakey Head Jig. He fished the midlake area along steeper bluffs in fingers off the main lake.

His three-fish limit the second day weighed 6-5.

“I wouldn’t say it got tougher. I’d say we weren’t around bigger fish the second day. We couldn’t get bigger bites, me or my boater. I had one 2 ¼, 2 ½ ,” he said.

Porto took Neuville to docks and points on the lower end of the lake. Aside from the lone keeper for 2-5, which bit a Kajun Boss spinnerbait, he caught two non-keepers and broke off twice Day 3.

“It happens. You can’t do good in all of them, especially as a Co-Angler,” he said. “Oh. It was fun for sure. I mean, it’s an awesome lake. Down here we don’t do a lot of finesse fishing but spinning rod with light line is one of my favorite things to do.”