Hello Friends of Seminole Junior Anglers. I normally start with a fishing forecast but this time I am going to lead with our student anglers at SJA! We had our second Fall Regional High School Bass Nation Tournament on the Harris Chain October 2nd and 3rd. We knew the fishing would be tough, but most area Florida lakes are all in this transitional period right now. To just catch a 5 fish limit is a great challenge. We have 10 Teams this year and 6 teams are brand new to SJA. It normally takes a couple of years to adjust to competitive team fishing.
At this tournament, we had great success – with Saturday being the Regional Qualifying Tournament and Sunday being the State qualifying tournament – our teams did amazing both tournament days. Bryce DiMauro and Justin Lawrence won the regional qualifier on Saturday with a 5 fish limit of just over 21 lbs. They also won Big Bass honors this day with a nice fish at 7.19 lbs. On Sunday’s State Qualifier we had 3 teams in the top six. Congratulations again to Bryce DiMauro and Justin Lawrence for their 2nd place finish with over 18 lbs, MacKenzie and Dalton Bailey got 5th place with over 17 lbs, and Thomas Wright and Carter Burdette came in 6th place with just over 17 lbs. The places were so tight…just ounces separated the top ten.
There were 170 high school teams in this event. I have always said that SJA is one of the best High School Clubs in the entire State. Thank you to all of our awesome sponsors for allowing us to put a quality program together for these anglers. We couldn’t do this without all your help. Most of our fish came off grass and hard bottom mix. A finesse or speed worm was the best lure. Typical depth we caught our fish in was 7-9 feet.
