The East Hall High School duo of Tristan Thomas and Dakota Crumley from Gainesville, Georgia, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Saturday weighing 12 pounds, 3 ounces, to win the 2015 TBF/FLW High School Fishing Southeastern Conference Championship tournament on Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Georgia. The win earned the team the title of Southeastern Conference champions and advanced the team to the 2016 High School Fishing National championship, held next spring at a location yet to be announced in conjunction with the TBF National Championship and a Walmart FLW Tour event.
A field of 51 teams from eight states qualified to compete in this conference championship. The winning East Hall High duo said that they concentrated on fishing blowdowns for the majority of the day with a shaky-head rig with a green-pumpkin Reaction Innovations Flirt Worm to catch the majority of their fish. Fifteen of the 45 teams that entered brought five-bass limits to the scale.
The top five teams on Lake Lanier that advanced to the 2016 High School Fishing National Championship were:
1st: East Hall High School, Gainesville, Ga. – Tristan Thomas and Dakota Crumley, (five bass, 12-3)
2nd: Hazel Green High School, Hazel Green, Ala. – Zeke Gossett and Ryan Shields, (five bass, 12-2)
3rd: Evans High School, Evans, Ga. – Blake Stephenson and Tyler Matthews, (five bass, 11-15)
4th: Berkeley High School, Moncks Corner, S.C. – Eric Glenn and Nathan McPherson, (five bass, 11-7)
4th: Abbeville High School, Abbeville, S.C. – Daelyn Whaley and Carter McNeil, (five bass, 11-7)
Rounding out the top 10 teams were:
6th: Madisonville North Hopkins High School, Madisonville, Ky. – Alex Tomblinson and Hunter Purdy, (five bass, 11-2)
7th: Headland High School, Headland, Ala. – Cole Burdeshaw and Jacob Hartzog, (five bass, 10-13)
8th: Georgia Student Angler Federation – Nathan Ragsdale, Fayetteville, Ga., and Joshua Bennett, Kennesaw, Ga., (five bass, 10-12)
9th: Auburndale High School, Auburndale, Fla. – Jackson Williams and Bryce Goff, (five bass, 10-7)
10th: Dickson County High School, Dickson, Tenn. – Dylan Dunnagan and Shader Brown, (five bass, 10-3)
The 2015 TBF/FLW High School Fishing Southeastern Conference Championship was a two-person (team) event for students in grades 7-12. The top 10 percent of each conference championship field will advance to the High School Fishing National Championship, coinciding with the TBF National Championship and an FLW Tour stop in the spring of 2016. The High School Fishing national champions will each receive a $5,000 college scholarship to the school of their choice.
In addition to the High School Fishing National Championship, all High School Fishing anglers nationwide automatically qualify for the world’s largest high school bass tournament, the 2016 High School Fishing World Finals. At the 2015 World Finals more than $20,000 in scholarships and prizes were awarded.
ABOUT FLW
FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2015 over the course of 240 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.
ABOUT THE BASS FEDERATION
The Bass Federation Inc., (TBF) is a member of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. TBF is owned by those we serve and dedicated to the sport of fishing. The Federation is the largest and oldest, organized grassroots fishing, youth and conservation organization there is. TBF, our affiliated state federations and their member clubs conduct more than 20,000 events each year and have provided a foundation for the entire bass fishing industry for more than 45 years. TBF founded the Student Angler Federation and the National High School Fishing program in 2008 to promote clean family fun and education through fishing.
By: Brian Johnson, FLW
