THE BASS FEDERATION
2023 HIGH SCHOOL FISHING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TOP 10 1 . Zachary Piescher & Cole Semler l Cambridge-Isanti HS ( MN ) l 32-7 2 . JD McBroom & Carter Pjesky l Kaneland HS ( IL ) l 32-1 3 . Carsen Adcock & Jase White l Haughton Fishing Team ( LA ) l 31-0 4 . Rhett Anderson & Jessie Green l Ruston HS ( LA ) l 28-1 5 . Jaden Hoffman & Jayden Lintner l Piedmont Academy ( GA ) l 27-4 6 . Ryder Kahny & Taylor Wagner l Star City HS ( NE ) l 27-3 7 . Rylan Hamlin & Jack Swihart l Jackson Bass Fishing ( MI ) l 26-12 8 . Andrew Jones & Carson Underwood l Hewitt-Trussville HS ( AL ) l 26-10 9 . Miles Allen & Ethan Roths l St . Xavier HS ( KY ) l 26-7 10 . Blake Edwards & Caleb Edwards l North Paulding HS ( GA ) l 25-14
“ It ’ s certainly a testament to the boat owners and volunteers and camera boat drivers , guys like that , who ’ s willing to say , ‘ Hey man , these kids got a lot on the line , I ’ ll let them use my boat until you can get a rescue boat out here for them ,’” Cartiledge said . “ But we do take precautions . ... We make the camera boat drivers , because they ’ re local a lot of times , we make them take their electronics off . Or at least they have to take their chips out or hide their waypoints . We can ’ t give them any help , other than keep them floating .”
Once the teammates made the run to Pool 7 and settled their nerves , it didn ’ t take long to pick up where they had left off catching shallow largemouth . They quickly boated a limit and culled up to 10-12 .
“ We were expecting to get them , and we could almost call our cast ,” Semler said . “ This place is something special . After the camera crew left , especially , we calmed down a lot and were able to cull two times .”
Not wanting to risk any further misfortune , Piescher and Semler returned to the boat ramp early . They knew they ’ d given themselves a chance , but didn ’ t think the abbreviated day would produce enough to take first place .
Weigh-in brought yet another twist , this one for the better . The Kaneland team brought 9-0 to the scales , which left it 6 ounces shy of Piescher and Semler ’ s three-day total .
“ For the past three days it ’ s been the most adrenalin I ’ ve ever had ,” Piescher said . “ Problems come with the good and the bad . We had a couple close calls out there , and then we win this when we weren ’ t expecting to get first .”
For their victory , Piescher and Semler each earned a $ 5,000 scholarship to the college of their choosing . They also qualified to compete as co-anglers in the 2023 MLF Toyota Series Championship , which will be held Nov . 2-4 on Missouri ’ s Table Rock Lake .
ARIZONA DUO DEFEATED LOCALS FOR WORLD FINALS WIN
TBF wasn ’ t done handing out hardware after crowning the newest national champions . Weights were zeroed and 31 boats took the water for one last day to decide who would take the win in the World Finals .
Giffen and Mladick earned the trophies by bringing two largemouth and one smallmouth weighing a combined 10-9 to the scales . That gave them a 6-ounce cushion over second-place Cole Fitzpatrick and Neil Kleinertz of nearby La Crosse Central High School .
The Arizona duo credited their pre-tournament preparation for allowing them to best competitors with more experience fishing shallow , grassy rivers — including the Upper Mississippi itself .
“ We were up here nine days before the off-limits period pre-fishing for this tournament ,” Mladick told
Jeff Giffen and Dylan Mladick
WXOW . “ It wasn ’ t out of the blue . We put in the work , and it paid off , thankfully .”
Most of the Top 10 teams received college scholarship offers and all earned prizes . Giffen and Mladick also received $ 6,000 each in scholarship money from TBF to be used at the schools of their choosing .
2023 HIGH SCHOOL FISHING WORLD FINALS TOP 10 1 . Jeff Giffen & Dylan Mladick l On Track School ( AZ ) l 10-9 2 . Cole Fitzpatrick & Neil Kleinertz l La Crosse Central HS ( WI ) l 10-3 3 . Cayden Harmon & Will Shepherd l CW Bass Club ( KS ) l 10-0 4 . Carsen Adcock & Jase White l Haughton Fishing Team ( LA ) l 9-15 5 . Logan Bullinger & Ryan Bullinger l Century HS ( ND ) l 9-14 6 . JD McBroom & Carter Pjesky l Kaneland HS ( IL ) l 9-7 7 . Miles Allen & Ethan Roths l St . Xavier HS ( KY ) l 9-4 8 . Brett Boswell & Dylan Thayer l Winder-Barrow HS ( GA ) l 9-3 9 . Carson Dewald & Alex Martel l Jamestown HS ( ND ) l 9-3 10 . Rylan Hamlin & Jack Swihart l Jackson Bass Fishing ( MI ) l 8-13
92 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2023