BASS High School State Championship

My name is Trey Richardson, I am a high school angler who competitively bass fishes with my teammate, Reid Luckett. Just recently, we were able to compete in the BASS High School State Championship, which was held at Deep Creek Lake in October. This event was such a blast and we were able to finish second with a 5 bass limit of 12.16 lbs. The state tournament is always a fun time because you get to make relationships with the other fishermen in the state. For example, the night before the tournament, the Garrett Bass Slayers, the local high school bass club, held a dinner that allowed us to socialize with the other teams.  That was a really fun time and all the guys are really great. This year, the tournament will be held on the Potomac River which is one of my personal favorite places to fish!   Fishing in the state championship gives me and Reid an opportunity to compete in the Bassmaster High School National Championship, which we were fortunate enough to attend last year on Lake Hartwell, South Carolina. 

The Bassmaster High School National Championship truly lets you compete at the highest level against teams from all over the country! Last year, there were over 480 teams in the tournament which was crazy to see. Fishing Lake Hartwell was an awesome experience especially since the Bassmaster Classic was held there just a few years before. The lake is an awesome fishery and is a blast to learn about. We practice-fished for 3 days for this tournament and, in that time, put together a really good game plan for the tournament. After the practice days, we had a day off, where the tournament directors declared fishing off-limits. This is when we went to the angler registration and each got a grab bag of lures and other fun stuff. We also had a meeting at the registration where we got to meet other teams and prepare for the tournament the next day. The tournament days were so much fun and we were able to place 98th out of 481 other teams! It was such an awesome experience to take off in the morning and see 481 other boats in the water around us! Tournament bass fishing like this truly is a thrill as it is a fight against the clock to catch the biggest bass you can that day to do well or possibly win. 

Our area offers some of the best bass fishing in the country. Both the Upper Chesapeake Bay, and Upper Potomac River are amazing areas to bass fish, and both regularly have tournaments including our own state high school tournament. We also have Deep Creek Lake, Conowingo Reservoir, and many other small lakes and ponds in our area which offer great fishing.