Three Teche Area bass clubs are hopeful of reeling in a state title when the two-day Louisiana Best Six Bass Fishing Championship begins Friday at Toledo Bend.

The Louisiana Bass Anglers are eager to improve on their eighth-place finish in the state tournament last year. The Franklin-based bass club also finished ahead of two other area bass clubs, the Louisiana Bass Cats and the Atchafalaya Stump Jumpers.

All three return this week to try to unseat the defending champ and finish ahead of the other two bass clubs from the heart of Acadiana.

“We’re ready to go. We look forward to this tournament,” Dicky Fitzgerald said Tuesday as he looked forward to serving as team captain for the second straight year by winning the Louisiana Bass Anglers’ Angler of the Year title in 2020 and 2021.

Fitzgerald and his good friend Bubby Lopez of Centerville will be in one of the bass club’s three boats. Seth Comeaux of Youngsville, formerly of Franklin, and Tim Curry of New Iberia, formerly of Centerville, make up another team. Levi Louviere of Youngsville, a former Franklin resident, and Gerald Buck of Centerville team up to complete the Louisiana Bass Anglers’ Best Six.

Fitzgerald, Lopez, Louviere and Buck fished on last year’s team that finished eighth, two places inside the money.

Buck and Curry are alternates replacing Marcus Curry and Hunter Neuville, who finished in the top six in 2021.

Fitzgerald and Lopez headed to the big lake Friday to start prefishing Saturday. The others plan to go up Tuesday and scout Wednesday and Thursday.

They are staying at a rental camp on the Louisiana side near 1215, Fiztgerald said.

“We’ll go see what’s happening. I think the bass are in transition right now. We’ll figure it out. That’s why we’re going early,” the team captain said.

The key is to go to the lake with no preconceived patterns, Fitzgerald said.

“It’s a big lake with a lot of options, you know,” he said.

The 2021 Louisiana Best Six Bass Fishing Championship winner was the Lake Area Bass Club #2, which had 38.70 pounds the second and final day to finish with an unbeatable 63.31 pounds. The winning team was followed by Toledo Bend Bass Club #19, with 61.92 pounds, and Diehard Bass Club, with 61.32 pounds.

The original ALBC/Bayou Bassmasters of Alexandria’s Louisiana Top Six Bass Tournament, born in 1970, gave way approximately three decades later to the ALBC’s Louisiana Best Six Bass Fishing Championship. In its heyday, the Top Six was THE tournament to fish, an inspiration for bass club anglers to finish in the top six in his bass club.

More than 100 bass clubs across the state would send Top Six teams to Toledo Bend each May.

Participation has dwindled in the Louisiana Best Six Bass Fishing Championship. Fifty bass clubs put their respective two-man teams on the water for bragging rights in 2021.

One goal for all is to finish highest among the bass clubs from their region, which is what Louisiana Bass Anglers did in 2021. The LBA rallied on the second day to finish eighth with a total of 58.83 pounds.

Fitzgerald recalled his team had 33.94 pounds on Saturday after weighing 24.89 pounds on Friday.

It remains a prestigious tournament, he said about the Best Six.

“Well, you know, first off, you go as a reward. You earned it. Of course, we’re competitive and try to win for sure but it’s hard to compete against locals, clubs who fish it all the time, who stay on the fish. It’s all good fishermen at this point,” he said.

The New Iberia-based Louisiana Bass Cats want to put two good days together this year, according to team captain and president Mike Sinitiere of New Iberia. The 2021 AOY said the team’s objective “is to be in the money.”

“We’re looking forward to it,” Sinitiere said last week.

He’s fishing with Kevin Suit of New Iberia while brothers Ben Suit of Port Arthur, Texas, formerly of New Iberia, and Zach Suit of Denton, Texas, another ex-New Iberian, join forces again while Jordy Russo and Hagen Riche, both of Youngsville, round out the team.

The LBC’s 2021 team was in eighth place after the first day but slipped to 11th, just out of the money, on the second day in 2021.

“Yeah, last year we had a strong first day because Ben and Zach did some damage. We’ve just got to be more consistent the second day,” Sinitiere said.

The Suit brothers won the bass club’s recent tournament at Toledo Bend. Their two five-fish limits weighed 33.46 pounds.

Sintiere said Ben Suit, back-to-back AOY in 2018-19, has been spending a lot of time fishing tournaments at Toledo Bend. Each team member has experience there, he said.

“We’ve just got to put something together. We’re going to go out there and do our best,” he said. “We did have a good tournament (Sinitiere and the oldest Suit finished second behind the Suit and Suit brothers) but that was during the spawn and now it’s the post-spawn.”

The St. Martinville-based Atchafalaya Stump Jumpers Bass Club, 14th in the 2021 Best Six, also are taking their rods and reels to Toledo Bend.

Paul Resweber of St. Martinville, spokesman for the bass club that was born at a boucherie in 2019, and his teammates return to the scene of glory. The Stump Jumpers were first after one day in the 2019 tournament but finished sixth for a remarkable debut.

Resweber is scheduled to fish with Gavin Savoy of Catahoula but may have to work and, if he does, will be replaced by alternate Mike Louviere of Loreauville. Cousins Corey Champagne of Breaux Bridge, formerly of St. Martinville, and Larry Champagne of Catahoula are fishing together as are Resweber’s son, Braxton Resweber, and Austin Theriot, also cousins and both from St. Martinville.

The elder Resweber said his son and a friend, Greer Billeaud of Lafayette, “did well” this past weekend at Toledo Bend. Also, he said, he and Mike O’Brien of New Iberia had two strong days there in the recent Louisiana Oilman’s Bass Invitational and finished 12th.

“That’s a big lake. That’s what’s good about it. Fish are moving up and down all the time. We’re going to go look to find a decent shad spawn,” he said.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.