Early AM thunderstorms raced through the area on the eve of the AR High School State championship on Lake Dardanelle. By 6:30 am the skies had begun to clear as the front pushed off to the south. Post frontal conditions didn’t shut down the bite on the Arkansas river as anglers took to the waters in search for the Rapala crushing conservation five live fish limit.

North Arkansas team of Alex Coyner and partner Lucas Mars topped the scales with five fish, a Rapala’s Crush City’s crushing conservation limit weighing 13 pounds and 15 ounces. The team took home the big Win and a berth to the 15^th annual High School Fishing World Finals & National Championship.

Second Place by the Tie breakers also weighing 13 pounds and 15 ounces was Jackson Roumbanis and Lawson Lewis. Roumbanis and Lewis also secured their ticket to compete in the 2024 National Championship this June on Lake Hartwell in Anderson, SC.

Third place was Cohen Duncan and Dante Snowden with a five live limit at 13 pounds and 14 ounces. The third-place team also won the Lew’s big Bass award with a set of Lew’s reels for their efforts.

Congratulations to all of the top teams for their success and we want to thank each of the SAF students who came out and competed on Lake Dardanelle.

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!