Athletics News
Season Preview: Bass Fishing
The TFS bass fishing team turns the page from an incredible run by recent grad Marshall Williams, who earned a bass fishing scholarship to Emmanuel College. The team finished eighth at state last spring. This season provides new faces that will lead the program, as well as a new tournament schedule/tour that they will compete in. Then, of course, are the changes that have been made in response to COVID.
"I think the biggest news is, due to COVID concerns, we are fishing with the Georgia High School Fishing Trail that is affiliated with both GHSA and the FLW," says team captain Jeff Mitchell. "This trail fishes local, reducing the need for travel in these crazy times. We will fish approximately eight tournaments but instead of traveling all over the state, we will fish Lake Lanier and Lake Hartwell."
The team returns experienced high school anglers George Ketch and Austin Zigler, and Team Mitchell comes back with Jacob (8th) and Molly (9th) Mitchell. The duo have a wealth of experience and have had much success. Ketch, Zigler, and Molly Mitchell are the three high schoolers on the roster, while the other five members are middle schoolers.
"The tentative plan for GHSA is to have three virtual tournaments this fall," adds Mitchell. "In these tournaments, anglers put in at a variety of different ramps, get inspected by a designated official at each ramp, and receive a tournament scale. When a fish is caught, we make a video of the scale being zeroed, weighing then releasing the fish. After that, the team captain logs in to the tournament official app and logs the catch."
The changes in the process reduce the exposure to crowds and are great for anyone interested in the tournament to be able to log in and see the real-time leaders in a given tournament.
The bass fishing team has already competed in one event this season, and return to action on November 8 on Lake Lanier.