Eat. Sleep. Fish.
The Skeeter Boats slogan sums up the life and times of 18-year-old Travis Meche Jr. Skeeter’s new slogan is even more apropos: Eat. Sleep. Fish. Dominate. The young bass angler from Branch has cashed in or won more often than not the past six years.
What is behind any success he’s had?
“The main reason is I think I try harder than everybody else,” Meche said.
After graduating in May from Summit Christian Academy, the senior plans to fish pro bass fishing circuits such as Major League Fishing. He’ll work alongside his dad, who’s in the metal building construction business, to help make ends meet, he said.
He’s ready for the next challenge.
“Man, I’ve been doing it my whole life, ever since I can remember,” Meche said. “I never did anything else. I started when I was 3. My mom would bring me to ponds all over fishing. I was too small to tie my knots. I remember my mom would have to tie on all my baits.
“Oh, yeah, I learned how to cast a baitcaster and all that. I knew all the simple stuff. I just started learning more and more. Ever since I got to go in a boat myself I learned more and more, doing what I want.”
A long tournament resume
The son of Travis Sr. and Candice Meche benefitted from more tutelage from an accomplished local bass angler, his grandfather, Neal Meche of Branch. The boy began fishing tournaments with him around age 8.
“Well, my grandpa was the one who taught me first,” he said. “He showed me a lot. My dad came in. He started getting big into it when I was about 10.”
Meche’s winning ways started when he was 12. Since his freshman year at Rayne High School, where he joined the Rayne Fishing Team, he has been an equal opportunity winner topping teens and adults in high school tournaments, bass club tournaments, evening tournaments, fundraising tournaments and hourly big bass payout contests at Chicot Lake, Henderson Lake, Mermentau River, Lake Fausse Pointe, Caney Lake, Toledo Bend, the Atchafalaya Basin and Calcasieu River.
Meche and his longtime Rayne teammate Chance Watson captured the Louisiana High School B.A.S.S. Nation’s Angler(s) of the Year title in 2024-25 and, with two tournaments left in 2025-26, were on target to repeat thanks to clutch wins at Toledo Bend on Feb. 7 and Calcasieu River on Feb. 21.
Meche’s diverse skills showed in those two tournaments.
“We won at Toledo Bend this year and we won at the Calcasieu River two different ways,” he said. “We won at Toledo ’scoping in about 25-30 feet and at Calcasieu in probably 1- to 2-foot depths on a frog.”
Meche fished alone and finished 21st in a LHSBN tournament March 14 at Caney Lake, then won a third straight Bass Tactix high school circuit tournament there the next day with Brandon Clark from Vandebilt Catholic Fishing.
“That tournament we won Sunday, I told Brandon before I cast, ‘If I can get this fish to bite, we can win this whole tournament!’ Sure enough, we won the tournament (21.14 pounds) and it was big bass (6.95 pounds),” he said.
Forward facing sonar
Meche looked forward to the LHSBN stretch run with Watson in their bid for another AOY.
“We fish well together. He’s gotten good. Like the second day at Toledo, we wouldn’t have cut a check if it wasn’t for him. He caught the biggest one,” Meche said about a 4 ½-pounder.
Their captain over the years has been Meche’s father, an accomplished basser in his own right.
Meche’s game advanced exponentially with the advent of forward facing sonar. He’s no apologist about using it.
“I don’t want to do anything else,” he said. “I love it so much. That’s my favorite thing to do. I wish there wasn’t controversy. I’m a ’scoper.
His favorite bait while ’scoping isn’t a soft plastic “minnow” on a leadhead but a “fuzzy (spiny) ball,” a pink or blue Hideup Coike Fullcast Creature Bait, which he throws on a 7-foot-3 MH fishing rod with 16-pound fluorocarbon tied to a straight shank flippin’ hook.
Travis Meche Jr.
2026 – Bass Tactix first-place tournament finish at Caney Lake with Brandon Clark
2026 – LHSBN first-place tournament finish at Toledo Bend with Chance Watson
2026 – LHSBN first-place tournament finish at Calcasieu River
2025 – Jackie Savoy Memorial Big Bass Classic champion
2025 – Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series Classic champion, plus biggest bass of the year
2025 – Rumble in the Basin biggest bass
2025 – Two Louisiana Bass Cats tournament finishes
2024-25 – LHSBN Angler(s) of the Year with Chance Watson
2023 -24 – LHSBN Angler(s) of the Year runners-up with Chance Watson
Four-time High School B.A.S.S. Nation qualifier with a Top 12 tournament finish at Lake Chickamauga
Four-time LHSBN State Championship qualifier
17 LHSBN Top 10 finishes
6 LHSBN Top 20 finishes
3 Bass Tactiz first-place finishes in a row
