East Hall High School wins high school fishing championship on Lake Lanier

GAINESVILLE – The East Hall High School duo of Tristan Thomas and Dakota Crumley from Gainesville, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Saturday weighing 12 pounds, 3 ounces, to win the 2015 TBF/FLW High School Fishing Southeastern Conference Championship tournament on Lake Lanier. The win named the team the Southeastern Conference champions and the opportunity to advance to the 2016 High School Fishing National championship, held next spring at a location yet to be announced.
 
A field of 51 teams from eight states qualified to compete in this conference championship. The winning East Hall High duo said that they concentrated on fishing blowdowns for the majority of the day with a shaky-head rig with a green-pumpkin Reaction Innovations Flirt Worm to catch the majority of their fish. Fifteen of the 45 teams that entered brought five-bass limits to the scale.
 
The top five teams on Lake Lanier that advanced to the 2016 High School Fishing National Championship were:
 
  1st:       East Hall High School, Gainesville, Ga. – Tristan Thomas and Dakota Crumley, (five bass, 12-3)
  2nd:      Hazel Green High School, Hazel Green, Ala. – Zeke Gossett and Ryan Shields, (five bass, 12-2)
  3rd:       Evans High School, Evans, Ga. – Blake Stephenson and Tyler Matthews, (five bass, 11-15)
  4th:       Berkeley High School, Moncks Corner, S.C. – Eric Glenn and Nathan McPherson, (five bass, 11-7)
  4th:       Abbeville High School, Abbeville, S.C. – Daelyn Whaley and Carter McNeil, (five bass, 11-7)
 
Rounding out the top 10 teams were:
 
  6th:       Madisonville North Hopkins High School, Madisonville, Ky. – Alex Tomblinson and Hunter Purdy, (five bass, 11-2)
  7th:       Headland High School, Headland, Ala. – Cole Burdeshaw and Jacob Hartzog, (five bass, 10-13)
  8th:       Georgia Student Angler Federation – Nathan Ragsdale, Fayetteville, Ga., and Joshua Bennett, Kennesaw, Ga., (five bass, 10-12)
  9th:       Auburndale High School, Auburndale, Fla. – Jackson Williams and Bryce Goff, (five bass, 10-7)
  10th:     Dickson County High School, Dickson, Tenn. – Dylan Dunnagan and Shader Brown, (five bass, 10-3)
 
Complete results and photos from the event can be found at HighSchoolFishing.org.
 
The 2015 TBF/FLW High School Fishing Southeastern Conference Championship was a two-person (team) event for students in grades 7-12. The top 10 percent of each conference championship field will advance to the High School Fishing National Championship, coinciding with the TBF National Championship and an FLW Tour stop in the spring of 2016. The High School Fishing national champions will each receive a $5,000 college scholarship to the school of their choice.
 
In addition to the High School Fishing National Championship, all High School Fishing anglers nationwide automatically qualify for the world’s largest high school bass tournament, the 2016 High School Fishing World Finals. At the 2015 World Finals more than $20,000 in scholarships and prizes were awarded. Visit HighSchoolFishing.org for details.