Gabbard Brothers Lead Madison Central to State Championship
Logan and Ethan Gabbard understand how the SAF High School Fishing program works and for the second year in a row they were the first team to register for the Kentucky SAF State Championship thus giving them boat position number one and first crack at their favorite fishing spots for the day. Since boat take off position is determined by registration date the two brothers and their boat captain (dad) led the 86 boat field out of Conley Bottom Marina on beautiful Lake Cumberland and they never looked back as they brought in a five fish limit that weighed in at 18lbs 3oz to win the Kentucky SAF State Championship and a trip to the Southeast Conference Regional at Lake Lanier in Georgia later this fall.
“We caught most of our fish on a combination of shaky heads and crank baits today” stated Logan, a senior who is the elder statesman of the brother duo. “We made a 30 minute run toward the dam first thing this morning trying to find a little cleaner water” added Logan. Ethan, who is a freshman, caught their largest fish in the bag, a 6lb 3oz largemouth which also happened to be the Lew’s Big Bass winner of the day on a shaky head.
The duo then took advantage of a size limit exemption that was granted to the event by Kentucky Fish and Wildlife which allowed the high school anglers to weigh-in both smallmouth and largemouth bass at the 15” size limit. The pair added a nice mix of both species to complete their winning bag. “We really want to thank Kentucky fish and Wildlife for doing that for us” stated Ethan. “We might not have won had that exemption not been in place”.
Finishing second was Logan Martin and Kyler Petrey from South Laurel High School who also put together a nice limit of fish that weighed in at 14lb 6oz to claim the runner-up spot and an invitation to the fall regional event in Georgia. Marcus Davis and Dalton Wooten from Corbin High School took the third spot with four nice Lake Cumberland Bass that weighed in at 12lb 13oz. The fourth place slot was also secured Corbin High School teammates Tanner Jordan and Christian Warren who had a limit of five that weighed in at 11lb 4oz to narrowly edge out the Madison Central duo of Ronald Neal and Ashton Glasscock who had 11lb 3oz to claim the fifth position. Sixth place went to Logan Lakes and Tristan Turner of Madison Southern High School who had four fish that weighed in at 11lbs, while the number seven spot went to another Corbin team of Tristan Jordan and Don Taylor who were right behind them with a 4 fish bag that weighed 10lb 10oz.
The eighth and final qualifying turned out to be an interesting situation in itself as the team of Will Blakenship and Brandon Huntzinger from Madison Central and Jeremy and Jordon Elliot from Corbin High School tied with 10lbs even. Both of those teams will advance to the regional completion with that fine effort.
The TBF/FLW State Championship Series advances the top 10% of each state championship field to the Regional Conference Championships. The top 10% of those regional fields will advance to the 2016 High School National Championship.
A special thanks goes out to Conley Bottom Marina and the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife for their efforts to work with High School anglers and help in the effort to grow high school fishing across the state.
for full results check out the results page CLICK HERE
