The weather has not been our friend over the last several weeks for fishing tournaments.  Once again this weekend, severe weather moved through the area on Friday and left some tough fishing conditions for the anglers that came to the SAF Tennessee High School State Championship at Kentucky Lake at Beech River Pearl Harbor Ramp.  Even with the windy conditions we still had two great events for the Tennessee Youth Program.

On the Junior side, the West TN Student Bass Trail team of Westin Carver and Allison Carter won the Junior State Championship with 6-13 pounds.  Their limit was anchored with a chunky 3-11 lunker for Big Bass Honors as well.  Finishing second was the Upper Cumberland Junior Bass Team of Carson Everley and Gunner Robbins with 2-03 pounds.  Congratulations to those Junior teams.

On the High School side, the Brighton Cardinal team of Jaxon Sherfield and Jack Rushing put a massive sack of 22-10 on the scales with a 7-02 Lew’s Big Bass Lunker to win the High School State Championship for Tennessee.

Another good limit of 15-08 finishing second was the West TN Student Bass Trail team of Lloyd Moore and Hayden Ramsey.  Another West TN Student Bass Trail team of Hunter Sims and Harrison Overman placed third with 8-14.  Luke Benson and Mason McCLintock finished fourth with 7-09 and Ticker Wollney and Carter Smith finished fifth with 5-04 pounds.  Anglers reported catching their fish on mostly crawfish colored crankbaits, Red Eye Shad boats and chatterbaits.

To see all the results and pictures from this event CLICK HERE

We had another tremendous turn out at the recent GHSA Qualifier on West Point Lake.  For the third event in a row, there were more than 240 teams registered to participate.  Even when the weather changed drastically on Friday, the anglers still hit the water Saturday morning, eager to chase the winning limit of fish.  The Savannah Christian team of Matthew and Luke Gunn figured out the winning pattern and landed 12-15 to barely edge out the second-place team.  Just six ounces behind, the Elbert Blue Devil Team of Bradley Vaughn and Adrian Harris captured 12-09 for the runner-up spot.  Third place belonged to Tyler Williams and Jack Aydelott, from Perry High School with 12-04 pounds.  Fourth place went to the Lambert Longhorn team of Dylan Johnson and Patrick Coppinger with 11-08 pounds.  Fifth place was a tie that went to Jackson Thomas and Cole Bradley along with Hudson Hyatt and Jackson Ellis for their 10-12 catches.

As usual there were many patterns that caught fish during the event.  Spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, rattletraps and crankbaits all caught fish.  Various stles of plastics also produced aw well.  Then some anglers were fishing deeper to catch most of their spotted bass.  They were using jerkbaits, Ned Rigs, Alabama Rigs, drop shots and shakey heads to catch fish as deep as 40-60 feet.

The big bass of the event went to Dylan Johnson and Patrick Coppinger from the Lambert Longhorns for their 5-12 lunker.  They received GHSA Big Bass Medals for their efforts.

The last GHSA Qualifying event is coming up shortly on April 15 at Tugaloo State Park on Lake Hartwell.  After these qualifiers are added to the previous three events, the Championship will be set.  The GHSA Finals will be on May 20 at Clarks Hill Lake at Wildwood Park.

For full results and photos from West Point CLICK HERE

It was a great day of fishing in Arizona for the SAF State Championship at Roosevelt Lake. The anglers had to navigate muddy waters and modify strategies to compete with the curveballs thrown by the recent rains and snowmelt. In true fashion, these high school anglers put their heads down and went to work.  The first-place team brought a bass of a lifetime, which weighed in at a whopping 10.11 pounds and anchored their 16.51-pound bag.  Tanner Despain caught the lunker first thing in the morning using a Critter’s Custom Spinnerbait. As the bass jumped 4 to 5 times, their captain felt the heart attack coming on. Luckily, they were able to land it and take it for a ride all the way to the scales.

The excitement was in the air as Tanner and Creek Johnson vibrated across the stage. Showing true sportsmanship, our second-place team of James Murphy Jr. and Dash Dawson shared in the excitement and amazement as they congratulated their peers. James and Dash filled their bounty of 10.97 pounds by covering water and flipping Yamamoto Senkos until their arms fell off. Rounding out the top 3 was John Waters and Carter Bogle, with a close 3^rd of 10.76.