Bennett Fontenot and Braxton Speyrer reflect on incredible high school fishing season
The sting of a very forgettable bass tournament result last summer in South Carolina inspired two Port Barre High School Fishing Team members to change their ways on their return visit a few months ago to challenging Lake Hartwell.
Bennett Fontenot of Krotz Springs and Braxton Speyrer of Leonville decided to do what they’re comfortable doing back home, especially around Port Barre. It worked good enough to finish a mere 2 ounces shy of winning the 15th annual TBF High School Fishing World Finals, featuring more than 400 teams from Canada to South Africa, in June. They earned a berth in the 30-boat World Finals with an 11th-place finish a few days earlier in MLF’s Abu Garcia High School National Championship.
“We knew what we did wrong last time,” Braxton said. “We did what we know how to do. We ended up fishing shallow stuff and we ended up catching.”
Bennett agreed and said, “It all started last year. We didn’t do great over there. Going in (return trip) we had confidence in what we were going to do.”
What they did in practice was look for bass around bridges with flats and shade. Bennett’s expertise with forward facing sonar made a big difference. It paid off during the tournament with two 6-pound class bass, a 5-pounder and a 4-pounder that helped net $300,000 worth of scholarships.
“What keyed us into that was I caught an almost 9-pounder in practice,” Bennett, a junior playing defensive tackle for the PBHS Red Devils, said.
“It was payback on that lake because we didn’t do well (the previous year),” he said. “We had plenty of community support going out to Hartwell. It means a lot to a lot of people not just us.”
An outstanding season
In the World Semifinals, the Louisianans finished seventh with 9 pounds to gain a spot in the World Finals Championship. They went out the next day and came back with 12 pounds, 14 ounces, just 2 ounces less than the first-place team from George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester, Kentucky.
That showing as world runners-up capped an outstanding 2023-24 season for Bennett and Braxton, one that included a win at Henderson Lake; a second at Caney Lake; two fourth-place finishes at Toledo Bend (one of them the MLF state championship), and a seventh at Bayou Segnette.
“Yeah, they had a good year,” said Derrick Fontenot, Bennett’s dad. “Second place in world high school finals is good for them. This (high school fishing) is a good opportunity for him (Braxton) and Bennett.”
There’s a reason for their success.
“As a matter of fact, we’re best friends,” Bennett said. “We get along real well in the boat. We can joke around with each other. We can take each other’s criticism. We make each other better.”
“That’s exactly right,” Braxton said. “We just clicked and did good.”
The Henderson Lake win “meant a lot to me,” Braxton said. “That’s where my dad brought me when I was a little kid. It meant a lot to win a high school deal there.”
Fittingly, his father, Kevin Speyrer, was the captain for that win at Henderson Lake.
November favorites
Bennett’s favorite place to fish around home in November is Two O’clock Bayou in the northern reaches of the Atchafalaya Basin. When leaves fall in the water they suck oxygen in the shallow drains, sloughs and holes along the bayou. As a result, bass pour into the main bayou where it’s deeper.
“So we go to the bayou and absolutely smash ‘em” on chartreuse/white Jackhammer Chatterbaits, said the junior who’s dream is to fish for the LSU-S Fishing Team.
Braxton’s favorite local fishin’ hole in November is a toss up between Chicot Lake and Henderson Lake.
“I like Henderson a lot but the last couple years it’s been dry a lot,” he said, which swings his preference to Chicot Lake.
Shad are plentiful and active then, he said. It’s a time when bass chomp Senkos and/or Chatterbaits while some big bass inhale plastic frogs.
His first win as a high schooler, before he started fishing with Bennett, was at Chicot Lake.
Braxton, a senior homeschooled via Louisiana Virtual Charter Academy, said he plans to study fisheries biology in college, perhaps at LSU-Eunice, with hopes of a career with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. If the college he chooses has his preferred curriculum and a bass fishing team, he said.