The worst water and weather conditions imaginable brought out the best in many young bass anglers, including four two-man teams from the Catholic High School Fishing Team.

Already high, the Calcasieu River was rising fast following heavy rainfall each of the two days before the state tournament with more of the same on competition days May 4-5 during the Louisiana Youth Bass Nation State Tournament.

Bass had beaucoup more acres of water to roam, eat and, more importantly for the targeted fish, get away from the fishing pressure. It’s an understatement to say bites were at a premium.

Most CHS Fishing Team members came up with an answer and one of the two-man teams notched a Top 10 finish in the Junior Division. Three of the four boats weighed bass on the big stage along the Calcasieu River.

“Oh, yeah, I’m proud. They all did a good job in tough conditions with all the flooding going on over there,” said CHS Fishing Team coach Jacob Shoopman of Lafayette, formerly of New Iberia.

The Teche Area’s highest finishing two-man teams in each division were Erath High School’s Brayden Landry and Branson Word, who were 18th after Day 1 with two bass weighing 4.42 pounds (final results still are being verified for the High School Division), and Hollis Daigle and Vincent Soprano from the Catholic High School Fishing Team in the Junior Division.

Daigle and Soprano went out on May 4, the only day of competition for the Junior Division, and came back with two bass weighing 2.55 pounds.

Riding with captain Brock Daigle of New Iberia for the second straight year, Hollis Daigle and Soprano are hopeful of earning another trip to nationals when they head to Sam Rayburn Reservoir for the Bassmaster High School Series National Qualifier on May 19.

They have some momentum going into their last bid to get to the national tournament in July at Lake Chickamauga in Tennessee. With an hour left May 4, there wasn’t a bass swimming in their Ranger bass boat’s livewell.

The CHS Fishing Team youngsters didn’t quit. They caught two keepers back-to-back to finish inside the Top 10.

“Eighth out of 45 is pretty good. That’s a good deal. Hopefully, they’ll be able to do good at Rayburn in the national qualifier and move on,” Shoopman said.

That Roman Segura and Walker Hidalgo also hit the Junior Division leaderboard in their first-ever state tournament was encouraging, he said. Segura and Hidalgo, captained by Segura’s grandfather, Vic Segura, avoided a scratch and proudly weighed one bass at 1.12 pounds to finish 19th in the 45-boat field.

Their finish sets the stage for 2024-25, according to Shoopman, a salesman for Coca-Cola who started the CHS Fishing Team in August 2021.

“Two boats in the top half (Junior Division) is pretty good. I think he’ll be on the high school level next year so we’ll have at least two high school boats next year,” he said about Roman Segura.

Another Junior Division boat from the CHS Fishing Team enjoying a great first season on the LHSBN circuit never stopped trying to put a keeper bass in the boat. Cannon Leger and Greyson Young, captained by Leger’s father, Mark Leger, were unable to find a bass willing enough to be carried across the weigh-in stage at River Bluff Park.

Twenty-three Junior Division teams scratched.

Acadiana’s top high school team was Rayne High School’s Travis Meche Jr. and Chance Watson, who finished third with 12.49 pounds. Captained by Meche’s father, Travis Meche Sr. of Branch, the RHS boat led at the halfway point with five bass for 7.41 pounds on the Calcasieu River.

Young Meche, who cashed in four times (three hourly checks in the big bass division and a third-place check in the five-fish stringer division) a weekend earlier in the Jackie Savoy Big Bass Classic at Lake Fausse Pointe, and Watson struggled to get a limit the second day and the five small keepers dropped them two places.

Denham Springs High School’s Jordan Sibley and Caleb Roblin took advantage of the leaders’ stumble to claim the Louisiana Youth Bass Nation High School State Championship with a huge rally on Day 2. Sibley and Roblin were in seventh with five bass for 5.78 pounds after the first day but found bigger bass the next day to win with a two-day total of 14.20 pounds.

The 2024 LYBN Junior Bassmaster State Champions, Jake Ray and Max Steward from Live Oak High School, weighed four bass for 6.05 pounds. Their biggest fish tipped the scale at 1.57 pounds.

The other probable high school fishing team at CHS for next year had to solve challenging water conditions both days, of course, plus deal with an unhealthy dose of Murphy’s Law. Through it all, Jarret Baquet and Seth Switzer, juniors on the Catholic High School Fishing Team, were determined come hell or high water to carry bass to the weigh-in stage at River Bluff Park after scratching on Day 1.

Dr. Shawn Baquet, captain, was aghast at the sight of broken braces on the boat trailer’s winch bracket when he launched to go prefishing on May 3. Baquet and his wife, Jeneen, searched for a welder in the Lake Charles area for the rest of the day and into the night with the help of Dr. Todd A. Peavy of Lake Charles. Peavy came through in the clutch and welder Lane Sonnier did the work Saturday.

Dr. Baquet listened to some dock talk before the start of the tournament and decided to go far north on the Calcasieu River instead of making a long run to a spot as he planned before May 4. His son and Switzer didn’t get a bite.

The captain went to what proved to be a sweet spot on Day 2. However, after fighting a dying trolling motor for hours and finding no batteries at a store along the Sabine River in Texas, he resorted to firing up the Yamaha 250 to move the teens around canals with clear water, peppergrass and alligator grass and, more importantly, bass moving and hitting “everywhere,” according to Dr. Baquet.

The younger Baquet, who went to the CHS prom Saturday night and drove back to Lake Charles in time to start Day 2, and Switzer put two keepers in the boat and dropped a 2 ½-pound class bass. They ran back on fumes to the tournament site to discover the livewell conked out during the day.

They held their heads high and walked across the stage to weigh two dead bass and accept the penalty. They didn’t scratch.