PHOTO BY GARRETT DAVIDSON |
PHOTO BY COBI PELLERITO |
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tournament he ’ d ever fished , given the long runs he made each day on a fishery he ’ d never competed on before . Figuring out the tidal timing on the fly , LeBrun focused on a stretch in the Chickahominy River with a current seam that ran around and through some docks and cypress trees . There , he rotated through a few different squarebill crankbaits and a wacky-rigged 5-inch V & M Chopstick to sack up 47-11 over the first three days and 17-9 on Day 4 to edge out fellow fourth-year pro Dakota Ebare by 1 pound , 4 ounces .
7 . HIGH SCHOOL FISHING PRESENTED BY FAVORITE FISHING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP Pickwick Lake
June 22 – 24
Fallon Clepper and Wyatt Ford jumped out to an early lead over the 416-boat field in the High School
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Bass Fishing National Championship and never relinquished control , going wire-to-wire for the win despite entering the final day of competition with just a 1-ounce lead over New Hampshire ’ s Keene High School team of Bradyn Antosiewicz and Connor Holbrook ( who went on to finish in second place ).
The Montgomery , Texas , duo boated 12 pounds , 14 ounces on the final day at Pickwick ( limits were capped at three fish for the event ), anchored by the second-largest bass weighed during the tournament – a 7-8 caught by Ford on a Zoom Trick Worm – that sealed the deal and , along with Clepper ’ s couple keepers , gave them a margin of victory of more than 5 pounds .
With the win , Clepper became the first female angler to win the National Championship and Clepper and Ford were presented with more than $ 250,000 in scholarship offers and a set of the most prestigious trophies in high school fishing .
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8 . TOYOTA SERIES PRESENTED BY A . R . E . NORTHERN DIVISION Potomac River June 23 – 25
The final day of a tournament featuring nearly 200 boats with a $ 44,000 check on the line is a pretty good day to catch the largest bag of the event . Just ask Harry Linsinbigler IV , who rallied from sixth to first on Day 3 at the Potomac with a limit of 20-14 to top Robert Henderson by just 13 ounces for his first win in MLF competition .
It was only Linsinbigler ’ s second Toyota Series event from the front of the boat , previously fishing a handful of seasons in the Phoenix Bass Fishing League and two prior seasons in the Series as a co-Angler . He felt he was ready to step up to the front deck in 2022 , and a win at the Potomac – far from his home in Dover , Florida – only confirms that .
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To earn the win , Linsinbigler spent his time around Chicamuxen , Mattawoman and Quantico Creeks fishing a mix of ellgrass and hydrilla on the outside edges of a big flat while everyone else who joined him in the area was fishing further back in the creek . At that spot , Linsinbigler employed a frog , a swim jig and a Z- Man / Evergreen ChatterBait Jack Hammer to catch his fish , which “ grew up ” on the final day as the water dropped from high tide and he boxed 19 pounds in the first two hours of the day .
Linsinbigler found himself in 46th place after Day 1 with 14-11 , and his rally on Day 2 was thanks in big part to simply crossing paths with better quality on the outside edges of his grass flats . But on Day 3 , it was hard for to Linsinbigler to avoid the right fish – he boated a 4 1 / 2- pounder and a pair of 4-pounders after having not caught a fish of that size class the prior two days .
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