MOULTRIE – The three Colquitt County entries in last Saturday’s GHSA Bass Fishing State Championships had high hopes of securing a berth in in the high school nationals.
But the weather changed drastically late Friday night and early Saturday at Lake Lanier in Gainesville and the Packer bass fishermen could not recover.
“We had two of the best practices we ever had,” said coach Will Stuckey of his team’s success on the lake the previous days.
Then, late Friday, severe storms that spawned a tornado, lightning and hail hit the area.
The start of the 109 boats in GHSA’s fifth state tournament was delayed a half-hour by the weather. It was cloudy with intermittent showers the rest of the day.
“We were all disappointed,” Stuckey said. “It was super overcast and the fish spread out on us.
“But sometimes you have to adapt and it was hard to do. We caught some fish, but they were just not big enough.”
The Greenbrier High team of Tripp Tamasi and Mathew Johnson took first place with five fish totaling 20 pounds, 9 ounces.
They also caught the biggest fish of the day.
Colquitt County’s top finishers were Walker Story and Brayden Bell who caught five fish for 10 pounds, 13 ounces, good for 66th place
Haydyn Glass and Andrew Stanford had two fish for 6 pounds.
John Davis Summerlin and Hayden Hamm had three fish for 5 pounds, 10 ounces.
Story and Bell had qualified for the state finals at West Point; Glass and Stanford at Clarks Hill; and Summerlin and Hamm at Lake Oconee.
The state tournament was the first held since the June 2024 death of Colquitt County’s Kevin Giddens, who was instrumental in starting the GHSA program in 2021.
Giddens built the program into the largest of its kind in the country.
The success of the program led to Georgia receiving 10 national championship berths rather than the expected six.
“They’ve done a good job of keeping it the way coach Giddens had it,” Stuckey said of the GHSA program.
Student Angler Federation’s Joey Bray, the tournament director, spoke at the championship ceremony, “and he got a little emotional,” Stuckey said.
Members of the Colquitt County bass fishing team wore jerseys this season with Giddens’ initials displayed on the front.