ZWOLLE – Four- to 5-pound bass were right where a young Loreauville bass angler wanted ’em Feb. 21 for the first tournament of the Louisiana B.A.S.S. Nation Spring Qualifier at Toledo Bend.

Hunter Neuville prefished the lake over the previous two days in his bid to regain a coveted spot on the Louisiana B.A.S.S. Nation State Team. Things didn’t go so well for several hours on the water during practice, however.

“I found them the last day of practice. I was only able to scout Wednesday and Thursday. I found them the last day in the last hour of practice, Neuville said Sunday evening, Feb. 23, the day after he won the first tournament with an eye-opening 19.32 pounds, then followed up with a disappointing 21st-place finish the next day in the second qualifying tournament to finish third overall with a two-day total of 29.47 pounds.

“I caught a 3-pounder (while prefishing late Thursday). Then I fished a different area that set up similar and caught my new PB, a 7-pounder (actually, 6.87),” the 22-year-old Loreauville outdoorsman said about the bass bonanza he discovered that afternoon while scouting in creek arms with rocks and cypress trees along deeper areas.

Neuville never will forget that Friday. He caught nine keepers with the biggest five bass ruling the day in the 62-angler Boater Division field that descended on San Miguel Park. There were 58 anglers in the Co-Angler Division.

“Nine (good-sized keepers) was a lot for this week. It was tough. I had two about the same size. When I went to weigh for big bass, I just picked one of them, 5.04,” he said, proudly.

He pointed out the air temp was below freezing until around 1 p.m. At least, he said, that was when the fishing rod’s guides quit freezing solid. Water temps started out around 47 degrees.

Neuville had his five-bass limit before 11 a.m. His smallest bass the first day was a 2.74-pounder.

The composite tech for Bell Helicopter was elated by his first Louisiana B.A.S.S. Nation tournament win after an accomplished high school career that took him all the way to nationals. His peers were just as happy.

“Everybody was pumped up for me, for sure. They were congratulating me and wishing me good luck. A lot of people were trying to figure out what I was doing.” he said.

What he was doing was cranking 5- to 8-foot depths where bass apparently were staging before moving up to spawn, according to Neuville. He threw two Rapala crank baits in two different hues of red, a square bill crank bait and a DT6.

He tried a red lipless crank bait but it didn’t produce, he said.

Neuville had a chance to do as good or better the next day in the second tournament. Lady Luck wasn’t on his side as two estimated 4-plus pound class bass became unbuttoned on a day he weighed three bass for 10.15 pounds and finished 21st.

Also, he didn’t catch his first keeper until 11 a.m. Saturday whereas a day earlier he had his fifth keeper by then.

At approximately 1:30 p.m., he left his hotspot that cooled off to go “run new water” in the same area.

“I just found more similar stretches to what I was catching on,” he said.

He slammed the hook home and got his hands on a 3.61-pound bass. Minutes after that catch, he had a bite from an even bigger bass.

“It was running to the boat. I couldn’t tell how big it was.. The other one was at least 4, 4 ½. It did the same thing – ran straight to the boat. I couldn’t keep up with it and it got off right on the side of the boat. Aw, it makes me sick,” he said.

Tyler Casteel with the Poor Boys Bass Club won the second tournament with five bass weighing 21.05 pounds. Less than 2 pounds behind him was Matt Noble with the Ascension Bassmasters, whose 19.87-pound limit gave him a two-day total of 35.17 pounds and first place overall.

Mike Louviere of Jeanerette, who was born and raised in Loreauville, finished 18th overall after the two tournaments with 22.37 pounds. His four bass the first tournament weighed 10.49 pounds for 20th while his limit the second tipped the digital scale to 11.88 pounds for 15th.

Neuville and Louviere, Atchafalaya Bassmaster members, punched their respective tickets in the Spring and Fall Qualifiers last year to compete in the upcoming 2025 B.A.S.S. Nation Central Divisional scheduled for April 9-11 at Lake Eufaula in Oklahoma.