Bass fishing is in its fourth year of competition as a GHSA sanctioned sport. Bass fishing is one of the most unique sports that the GHSA sponsors, a sport that many people inside and outside the state do not understand.
Qualifying for the state championship is done through four qualifying tournaments at Lake Seminole, Lake Oconee, West Point Lake, and Lake Hartwell. Teams qualify by boat not by school. Schools can have multiple boats, but each boat competes independently from each other. The number of boats that qualify from each tournament varies based on the number of boats in each tournament. A minimum of 15 boats qualify for the state tournament, and an additional boat qualifies for state for every 10 boats over 100. For example, 29 boats qualified for state from this year’s qualifying tournament at Lake Seminole 15 as automatic qualifiers and 14 from the 243 boats that entered the tournament.
Boats are scored by how much their catch weighs. Anglers can keep up to five fish that are a minimum of 12 inches or the size of a legal bass, depending on the regulation of the lake being fished. Bass must be brought to the weigh-in alive, or an eight ounce penalty will be assessed for every dead fish presented.
This season, 97 teams have already qualified for the state tournaments in the first three qualifying tournaments. The final tournament at Lake Hartwell on April 20 will be any remaining team’s final chance to qualify for the state tournament. The first three qualifying tournaments were won by Bainbridge’s Hayden Reynolds and Caleb Logue won the qualifying tournament at Lake Seminole with a five fish weight of 19 pounds 10 ounces. The tournament at Lake Oconee was won by Oconee County’s Churchill Harris and Campbell Patterson with a five fish weight of 13 pounds 15 ounces. The third tournament at West Point Lake was won by Trion’s Rayne Melton and Cohen Blaschke, who had a five fish weight of 19 pounds five ounces.
The state championship will be held at Clarks Hill Lake just north of Augusta. The state tournament is going into its third year at the lake after spending its inaugural year at Lake Lanier. The three past championships have been won by Evans’ Jayden Faulkner and Davis Madden in 2021 with a five-fish weight of 20 pounds three ounces, Bainbridge’s Bowynn Brown and Shane Dill in 2022 with a three-fish weight of 16 pounds 12 ounces, and Lanier’s Bryson Dover and Angel Cornejo in 2023 with a five-fish weight of 20 pounds eight ounces.
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