STEPHENSVILLE — Mike Louviere and Hunter Neuville had different prior experiences, good and not so good, with Louisiana B.A.S.S. Nation before the last qualifying event of 2023.

Their respective paths have intertwined following the Fall 2023 Qualifier held Sept. 25-26 out of Doiron’s Landing. The Teche Area bass anglers qualified in the Boater Division for the next B.A.S.S. Nation Central Regional, which likely will be held in the spring of 2024.

Both love bass fishing and enjoy bass tournament fishing. With the opportunity they have earned, both have their sights set on going from there on to nationals where a win rockets them into the 2025 Bassmaster Classic and the Bassmaster Elite Series.

It’s a dream and the odds are astronomically high but Caleb Sumrall of New Iberia did just that in October 2017.

The 43-year-old Louviere, a Loreauville native who lives in Jeanerette, finished eighth after the four tournaments with 868 points. He had a consistent campaign that got off to a good start with a sixth-place tie overall at Toledo Bend in the Spring 2023 Qualifier and closed out with a seventh-place showing overall recently in the Atchafalaya Basin.

Louviere, a welder at Chart Industries Inc., said his first brush with Louisiana B.A.S.S. Nation was as a co-angler and he didn’t enjoy that tournament. He fished later as a boater but missed the first qualifier because of other demands, then fished the second qualifier.

Being named to the state team pumped him up considerably.

“I’m excited. My journey isn’t done. I’d say I got a lot ahead of me. I’ve still got regionals. I’ve still got a road ahead of me,” Louiviere said. “I’m still pumped. I fished against some of the best fishermen in the state. To be able to come out eighth in points is something to be proud of.”

Neuville, 20, was just as proud. It’s another step in his brief but remarkable career so far in B.A.S.S. Nation.

The Highlight Baptist Christian School graduate (Class of 2021), who works as a manager in production at Gator-Tail LLC in Loreauville, finished 13th in the four-tournament format with 862 points in his first year in the Boater Division. The lifelong Loreauville resident started his first season as a boater with a bang by finishing fifth with a limit for 18.15 pounds on Day 1 of the Spring 2023 Qualifier at Toledo Bend.

Neuville fished two national championship tournaments, the first with Avery Derouen in his final high school appearance at the 2021 Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School National Championship at Chickamauga Lake during July in Tennessee and again four months later as a B.A.S.S. Nation co-angler in the 2021 TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Championship Nov. 3-5 on the Ouachita River out of Monroe.

He believes qualifying for the latter tournament benefitted him significantly because he came up through the co-angler ranks — first making Team Louisiana, then winning the TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Central Regional tournament held during an unseasonably early spring freeze at Milford Lake.

“It kind of gave me an idea of the competition and how to break down different lakes you go to,” he said.

The 20-year-old outdoorsman, an avid deer hunter and duck hunter, is oh-so hopeful of repeating that feat, of qualifying for nationals, as a boater.

“That’s the only goal I have. I don’t care how I make it I just want to make it,” Neuville said.

“Ah, I’m happy with it. It could have been better but as long as I qualified that’s all that matters to me.”

Matt Noble, a member of the Ascension Area Anglers won the 2023 title in the Boater Division that began with 63 anglers showing up Feb. 24-25 for the Spring 2023 Qualifier. Noble amassed 882 points, including winning Day 1 at Toledo Bend with 20.88 pounds, on his way to finishing fourth overall with 34.94 pounds.

Jacob Beach with the Atchafalaya Bassmasters, emerged as the Co-Angler Division’s winner in 2023.

Louviere’s 2023 bass tournament season began with wins in the Bullet Bass Club and the Louisiana Bass Anglers. He rode into Toledo Bend on a high note, fished without the marine electronics so many other boats have and came out ultra-optimistic after Day 1’s 14.85 and Day 2’s 16.10. His sixth-place overall was a welcome change from previous B.A.S.S. Nations.

“A week later I said, “I really have a shot this year,’ ” he said.

That shot looked a little slimmer in his home waters of the Atchafalaya Basin the last week of September. The nation’s last great overflow swamp was very low and finding sizeable keepers was tough.

Day 1 started with a 2-plus pounder after a long run to Charenton Lake but kind of fizzled after that with two 12-inchers. He ran south to Bayou Boutte.

“I said, ‘’Let’s get out of here.’ My first fish was little bitty, as big as the bait. I pick up a Chatterbait and on my third caught I caught a 2.54,” he said, noting he filled out his limit and also replaced the two 12-inchers for around 9 1/2 pounds.

Day 2 was tougher. After dropping his first fish of the day, a 2-pound class bass, Louviere boated a small limit and culled by the hardest to finish with a two-day total of 16.70 pounds. Granted, he confided, he was “swinging for the fences.”

Neuville, who recently fished as a Non-Boater in the Bassmaster Open at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, caught beaucoup bass but only six keeper-sized bass the first day but bounced back the second day with 9 ½ pounds for a two-day total of 15.38 pounds in the Fall 2023 Qualifier.

He fared much better this spring in the Toledo Bend qualifier, especially on Day 1 when his five bass weighed 18.15 pounds. He fished like he does around home and caught bass on bladed jigs around cypress trees and bushes.

“I can’t say I did anything wrong all year. I made the right decisions … did good enough to qualify for regionals. I wish I could have done better but I can’t complain when I’m fishing against those guys,” he said, proudly.