Seventeen High School Teams showed up for the 2024 TBF Virginia Student Angler Federation State Championship on Smith Mountain Lake in Huddleston Va. The Anglers were greeted with a cold front that blew through overnight bringing in a cold rain that dropped the water temperature overnight. The Teams were still positive that they would catch them as they blasted off in light rain.  When the Teams returned, they reported fishing was tough as the pre-fishing bite had disappeared. Eight Teams brought fish to the scales with the Team of Blaine Miller and Hunter Musick dropping 10 lbs 15ozs on the scales to take the win. This is Blaine’s second State Championship win. Coming in 2^nd place with 4lbs 12ozs was the Team of Caden Hash and Owen Parnell followed by the Team of Garrett Taylor and Parker Taylor with 4lbs 3ozs. Blaine and Hunter are looking forward to fishing the 2024 District 12 TBF National Semifinal on Kerr Reservoir in September.

The 2024 Mississippi high school state championship on Lake Ross Barnett sponsored by ExploreRidgeland/Ridgeland, MS got off to slow start with an hour and a half fog delay. However, that did not slow down the winning team of Carter Townsend and Jameson Rayner. Carter and Jameson weighed in an impressive Crush City five live bag of fish at 20 pounds 10 ounces. Townsend and Rayner also won the Lew’s Big Bass award at 8 pounds 15 ounces winning them a set of Lew’s reels from our sponsor Lew’s and Strike King.

Second place, with a Rapala Crushing Conservation five live fish, went to the D’Iberville Warriors team of Ryker Reed and Cooper Rouse. They weighed in a five fish limit with 15 pounds 12 ounces.

Coming in with 14 pounds and 8 ounces for third place was William Morgan and Landen Wheat from Petal High School.

Rounding out the field in fourth place was Brody Barnett and Carson Henderson with 12 pounds and 12 ounces. All of the top four teams have secured a spot to the 15^th Annual High School Fishing World Finals and National Championship. The 15^th Annual World Finals and National Championship will be held June 19-22, 2024 on Lake Hartwell in Anderson, South Carolina. Don’t forget to get registered on-line at www.highschoolfishing.org

The Student Angler Federation would like to thank Explore Ridgeland and all the volunteers that helped make this a great event for the anglers. For full results and photos of this event CLICK HERE

For the first time in a couple of years we were able to get the Georgia SAF High School State Championship in without any rain.  We had a beautiful morning for the take-off and the first half of the day was calm as glass.  However, that changed as the noon hour approached and the winds showed up in force.  Some teams reported that the winds made the fish bite better, while other teams said the bite slowed down as soon as the wind started blowing.  Either way we had a great event with over one hundred High School teams participating and most of them all weighed in fish.

The Adairsville team of William Altizer and Kasin West bested the field to claim the victory with a limit that weighed 17-03 pounds.  Finishing in second place was Caden O’Neal and Matthew Wright with 14-13 pounds.  Third place belonged to the South Forsyth War Eagle team of Reese Mutter and Charles Roberts with a nice limit of 13-15 pounds.  Rounding out the top five teams were Owen Wiggins and Bill Gaines with 13-11 pounds and the Newnan Cougar team of Gage Smith and Tayson Harrison with 12-14 pounds.

The Lew’s Big Bass award also went to the winners, William Altizer and Kadin West for their 5-08 lunker largemouth.  They each received a Lew’s Reel for their efforts.

West Point Lake seemed to fish pretty well as 73 of the 103 teams weighed in at least one fish.  The most popular method of catching them seemed to be fishing off-shore in about 8-15 feet of water.  Ned Rigs, Drop Shots and Carolina Rigs were the popular choices on places like long sloping points and channel swings that ran up close to the banks.  Other teams caught fish on crawfish-colored crankbaits, jerkbaits, chatterbaits and spinnerbaits.

For full tournament results and pictures CLICK HERE.