EVANS, Ga. — Hot and sunny conditions once again greeted 248 of the nation’s best high school anglers on Clarks Hill Lake as they battle it out for the Top 25 spots. Today being the notorious “moving day” anglers will be looking to back up a solid start or adjust for a comeback. The Top 25 will go out on Championship Saturday to determine who will take home top honors at the Strike King Bassmaster High School Championship at Clarks Hill Lake.
The conclusion of Day 2 weigh-in showed weights stacking up with only a slight decrease in average weights from Day 1. A 13 pound, 1 ounce Day 2 bag brought a familiar duo of Rex Reagan and Max Moody from Picket County High School Fishing Team to the top of the leaderboard. Reagan and Moody are the reigning 2024 Bassmaster High School National Champions who are looking to go back to back just as college anglers Andrew Blanton and Garrett Smith did just a few short weeks ago.
Reagan and Moody won last year prestigious title as freshman and are setting themselves up to have another shot very early in their careers. Consequently enough the duo also took the lead on Day 2 on Chickamauga Lake and never looked back.
“It’s a pretty awesome feeling, you don’t really expect to do it especially being lower classmen and with all the crazy stuff that’s happened to us that’s tried to hinder us from being here,” said Moody, “But it’s a pretty great feeling to be leading again”
The duo faced some adversity the morning of Day 2 when they realized their trolling batteries didn’t charge after a solid Day 1. Thankfully with the help of some buddies they were able to fish a full day.
“Last year showed us that we can compete with anybody and showed us what we are capable of and gave us more confidence that we can make it,” said Reagan. “I know Tucker Smith (now a Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series angler) won it three times and I’ve always thought, why can’t I do it?”
The sophomore team had a consistent practice leading up to the tournament catching bags of 11 to 13 pounds each day. While weights are good, the duo says they are only catching three big ones a day. “The first day we actually caught quite a few fish, but today it slacked off a bit,” said Moody. “We think that’s why there’s been so many boats,” added Reagan. “We counted 42 boats fishing around us.”
The duo is very optimistic about tomorrow mentioning that there’s still a bunch of fish in the area, however the fishing pressure is making it tougher to get bites. Their main key to success has been to move extremely fast and cover as much water as possible. “We’re putting the Garmin trolling motor on fast and literally draining the trolling batteries every single day,” said Reagan.
Trailing just 4 ounces behind is Lipscomb Academy anglers Cordin Bornstein and Thomas James who posted weights of 12-15 and 12-11 on Days 1 and 2 respectively.
“We caught about what we had each day of the tournament in practice and thought we could maybe do it one day of the tournament,” said Bornstein. “We didn’t expect it to hold for two but hopefully it will hold one more day.”
The duo from Nashville, Tenn., has also been fishing around a lot of other competitors. While only 25 teams will be on the water tomorrow, weekend boating traffic will pose another challenge.
“We are fishing strictly for three bites. We have not caught numbers each day, we’ve focused on throwing a bigger bait around the bigger bass in the groups,” said Bornstein.
Being tough for numbers seems to be relative as James mentions, “We’ve been catching 10 to 15 keepers a day, it’s been pretty tough, but the ones we’ve been catching have been good ones.”
Thomas James graduated high school this past spring while Corbin Bornstein is going into his senior year. The team would love nothing more than to take home the prodigious title.
“We’ve got a shot, but so does everyone else, it’s anybody’s ball game in the Top 15,” said Bornstein. “The weights are so tight its crazy”
James added, “Someone in 15th could easily catch a bag tomorrow and win the tournament.”
While some teams have posted a 5-plus pound kicker over the two days of competition Bornstein and James have had all very solid fish. “It’s mostly been good average for us over one big bite.”
Several big Clarks Hill fish did hit the scales today from the field including a 8 pound, 8 ounce giant caught by George Jenkins Bassmasters angler Trent Allen who fished the tournament solo.
The Top 25 teams will launch tomorrow from Wildwood Park beginning at 6 a.m. ET and will return for weigh-in starting at 2 p.m. where a High School National Champion will be crowned. Stay tuned to Bassmaster.com for all the action.
Visit Columbia County is hosting the events.
