Teams of anglers from all around Eastern Kentucky came together at Green River State Park to try and qualify for the KHSAA State Finals on Kentucky Lake in early May.  Once again this year, there were two differ3ent categories, an All-Female Division along with the regular High School Division.  In Region 3 there were five All Female teams that participated this year.  Each of the five female teams caught fish and punched their tickets to the Finals round.  The South Laurel Cardinal team of Hailey Anderson and Brooklynn Martin won the contest with four fish that weighed 7-10.  Emilee Curry and Mackenzi Curry of Corbin High School finished second with 3-07.  Third place was Ashlen Young and Lydia Turner who weighed 3-01.  Fourth belonged to the Boyle County team of Allie Addison and Abigail Short who weighed 2-10 and claimed Big Bass honors with that nice Spotted Bass.  Fifth place went to Michela Smith and Lorelai Prewitt with 1-01 pounds.  Congratulations and Best of Luck to all of the Female teams in the upcoming State Finals.

The other Division was won by the North Laurel Jaguar team of Carson Elza and Nick Davidson with their impressive catch of 19-06 pounds.  That massive catch was anchored by the Big Bass of the event which was a huge 6-04 lunker.  Runners up were Brayson Claunch and Cameron Owens with another big bag that weighed 18-11 pounds.  Rounding out the top three was the South Laurel team of Braydon Hodges and Landon Alexander with a 16-11 limit.  Grant Miller and Dalton Fisher took fourth with 14-05 and Keenan and Coleman Stewart took fifth with 14-00 pounds.

The talk was mostly how the fish were being caught shallow, in less than five feet of water.  Several people reported that they were sight fishing, while others said they were using electronics to find their fish.  Chatterbaits, spinnerbaits and a variety of soft plastics were most angler’s choices.  Teams reported catching fish around brush piles, chunk rocks and behind the shallow ends on boat docks.  Lots of limits were weighed and most all teams weighed in at least one fish.

To see all the results and photos CLICK HERE.

With temps in the 30’s and lots of wind, it started off as a cold and windy tournament day, but the bass were biting!  The biggest bag weighed in at 22.46 pounds to give the win to our returning ND State Champion, Ryan Bullinger, and teammate Colton Dodds from Bismarck Century High School.  2^nd Place went to Matthew Haider and Logan Miller from Mandan High School weighing in their bag at 18.44 pounds.  3^rd Place went to Tyson Lippert and Braedon Lippert from Fargo Davies High School weighing 15.96 pounds of bass.  All of the anglers did a great job at keeping all the bass alive – all bass caught were released.  Congratulations to all teams who participated and thank you to the boat captains!

The 2024 West Virginia State Championship was held April 20th on Sutton Lake.  Micah Osborne and Luke Stewart, Clay County High School, took 1st place with 11lb 19oz.

Coming in 2nd place with 10lb 41oz was Mason Grose and Drew Johnson, Nicholas County Grizzlies. Rounding out the top 3 teams was Jackson Gray and Jacob Meadows with 10lb even. For full results CLICK HERE.