Chambers and Koon from the Arizona Bass Busters sealed the deal today with a sweet victory at the second annual, 2011 High School Fishing World Finals on Lake Dardanelle.
Both walked away with scholaship offers of $4,000/yr, renewable for up to four years totaling $16,000 a piece/$32,000 from Bethel University, spots on the Bethel University Varsity Fishing team, $500 Cabela’s gift cards, new Compaq laptops, plus some heavy jewelry and the esteemed Worlds Champion titles. In addition the two anglers will represent High School Anglers nnationwide with an invitation to fish the 2012 ACA BoatsUS Collegiate National Championship out of a custom wrapped Ranger Boat! The team will compete right along side the top college anglers in the US!
Today the weights were zeroed for the final day of competition, making the playing field level and the weigh-in that much more intense. With yesterday’s tournament leaders last to the scales and the largest tournament stringer just weighed, tension mounted as the scales turned the fates. Chambers and Koon’s 19lb 8ounce stringer held the top spot and named the anglers all the way from Arizona the 2011 High School Fishing World Finals Champions.
“We went out looking for a good spot and we just got there and hit them up and within about an hour we had a limit of about 16lbs and by late afternoon we were culling three pounders,” Koon said. “At the end of the day we weren’t doing 
anything but hunting for the big fish, all the fish we were catching were 2 to 3lbs and they couldn’t do anything for us.” A slow start on day one with only 6lb 3ounces left the anglers a bit on edge. “Well it scared me at first that first day, but second day we came out and it started out slow and then we found that spot and just hit them up hard,” Koon said. “And then we knew; we knew we had a chance at it.” “We weren’t too sure, I know I was nervous about it after the first day, the spots we pre-fished we were getting all kinds of fish and the first day we went to all those spots and we found very few fish at all. It was making me kinda nervous about how we were going to do,” Chambers said. Chambers and Koon came up short at last year’s contest with a second place finish and pounded them hard this week to claim those champion titles. “It feels so great to win, even better to just go out there and have such a great day of fishing like that; I mean it’s just crazy that we won,” Koon said. “Yea, it’s awesome I don’t even know how to explain how it feels to have a great day of fishing like that and win what we did.”
There are no entry fees to any TBF High School event. All prizes are in the form of scholarship or items that any High School or future college student could use. So the winning team was not the only team who won big; the remaining top six teams did not leave for home empty-handed. The second place finishers, Kendall Goates and Cody Chesser of Dover High School, Arkansas caught five fish weighing 16lb 8ounces today and were awarded trophies, $300 Cabela’s gift cards for each angler, $100 Berkley Prize Package and Flat Screen HD TVs for both as well! The third place team was Kristopher and Chelsey Queen representing Bandys High School Trojans from North Carolina. They caught five fish weighing 12lbs 2ounces andalso received trophies, Cabela’s gift cards, Berkley Prize Package, Large Dorm room refrigerators and a Russellville Tourism prize package. In fourth, the Greenbrier Panthers, Devin Baxley and TJ Miller with five fish that weighed 8lb 11ounces recieved Cabela’s gift cards, Berkley Prize Package and Kodak Watersport Cameras. In fifth, Cody Mecalo and Cody Seats from North Pulaski High School had four fish weighing 7lbs 9ounces that earned them Cabela’s gift cards, Berkley Prize Package and LG Blu-ray disc players. Stephen Compton and Curt Lindsey came in sixth and received Cabela’s gift cards, Berkley Prize Package and two IPOD nanos. In seventh, are the brothers from the BCCC Youth Bass Team, Cody and Trevor Jeffers. They too received Cabela’s gift cards, Berkley Prize Package, as well as Amazon Kindles.
Full Final Standings can be seen HERE
