DAYTON, Tenn. — After wrapping up practice for the Strike King Bassmaster High School National Championship at Chickamauga Lake presented by Bill Dance Signature Lakes, Rex Reagan and Max Moody knew they had a chance at catching big bags of largemouth if the right conditions presented themselves.
On Day 2, those conditions came to fruition, and the Pickett County High teammates landed a three-bass limit measuring 21 pounds, 5 ounces to jump into the lead with a two-day total of 27-8.
Their Day 2 bag, which included largemouth weighing 8-3 and 7-1, is not only the big bag of the tournament, but the biggest bag caught between the two High School Championships held on Chickamauga Lake. Banks Shaw and Gage King held the previous mark, a three-bass limit of 20-11 they caught on the final day of the 2021 event.
“This feels nice. We are pretty excited. We are going to try and go out there and do it again,” Moody said.
Entering the day in 119th with 6-3, Reagan and Moody now hold a 7-ounce advantage over Fisher Anaya from Brewer High School in Alabama. Hunter Owens and Clayton Kelley from Karns High School are third with a two-day total of 25-12.
Reagan and Moody live about two hours away from Dayton, Tenn., at Dale Hollow Reservoir, but they make several trips to Chickamauga Lake every year. While the fisheries set up differently, Reagan said Dale Hollow has helped him learn how to use forward-facing sonar.
“We come here often,” Reagan said. “I know this lake okay. Not as well as some people, but I like it. It is a fun lake to come to.”
During their practice period, Reagan and Moody were able to locate quality bass using forward-facing sonar, catching 16 pounds two of their three days of practice. Their worst day of practice they only caught 8 pounds, and those were the conditions they ended up facing on Day 1.
“Yesterday they didn’t set up right, the way I wanted them to. I didn’t see them. Today they did,” Reagan said. “Something about the current didn’t set up those fish right. But today it happened. We knew in practice if they set up right we were going to catch them.”
All of the bass Reagan and Moody are seeing on forward-facing sonar are in 10 to 15 feet of water. Two baits as well as forward-facing sonar were responsible for their Day 2 catch.
“They are just sitting on top of the ledges,” Reagan said. “You can see them stacked in one spot. It is just trying to get the right one to bite. They are really random. You don’t catch that many, but we are fishing for big ones. It is not easy.”
“It is quality over quantity for sure,” Moody added.
The duo opened the morning by catching a 5-pounder, which turned out to be their smallest bass of the day. From there, they filled out their limit.
“We got kind of worried. But then he landed that 8-pounder and we got pretty excited,” Moody said.
Reagan said it was a rodeo trying to get that bass in the boat.
“It went from the trolling motor to behind the boat, back to the trolling motor and around (Moody’s) line,” he explained. “Finally, that thing came up and he got the net under it.”
From there, the Pickett County team landed the 7-pounder and checked in an hour early. If conditions are correct, Reagan and Moody expect they will have a chance at another big bag.
Meanwhile, Anaya backed up his 15-12 Day 1 mark with 11-5 to finish the day in second with a two-day total of 27-1. On Day 1, he spent most of his time using forward-facing sonar to hunt individual fish relating to stumps, brush and bait balls. While he incorporated that strategy again today, he also caught bass out of a school using worms, jigs and a scrounger head.
The morning did not start particularly well for the Alabama native, as he didn’t catch his first keeper until 11 a.m.
“I kind of scrambled around,” he said. “I went to a school I knew was there but knew weren’t very big. I caught 8 pounds there and then hopped around. The current was a lot slower today, and the wind blowing like it did today didn’t help. I couldn’t hardly stay on them.”
Around 1:30, Anaya landed two 4-pounders on back-to-back casts to bolster his bag, and knowing he probably had enough to make the final day, he went looking for new areas.
“It was tough. It looked good on paper, but if you rode around in the boat with me, you’d think he wasn’t catching them (very well).
“The weights are really up and down, so being consistent will be key,” Anaya said. “If I can catch 14 pounds tomorrow, I’ll have a good shot at it.”
Owens and Kelley also mounted a major comeback on Day 2, adding 18-5 to their 7-7 performance from the first day. The Knoxville, Tenn., anglers anchored their bag with an 8-9 largemouth, the biggest bass of Day 2. Every bass they have caught this week they saw on forward-facing sonar.
“We tried out a whole new spot today,” Kelley said. “Today was just a lot better overall.”
The duo struggled to find an open spot to start the morning but managed to catch a small limit on their second stop of the day. After adding a 4-pounder to their livewell, they rotated through several different spots before landing a 4 ½-pounder.
Then in the last hour, the Karns High School anglers landed their 8-pounder, which they believed was a catfish. They also lost another bass about the same size in the same area.
“When I hooked it, it started shaking its head so hard I thought it was a catfish,” Owens said. “But when it started coming up, I knew it had to be a big one. I put my rod tip in the water, and we ended up getting it in the boat.”
Levi Stanley and Colton Hackney from the Triangle Bass Club in North Carolina continue to hold Big Bass of the Tournament honors with an 8-11 largemouth they landed on Day 1.
The Top 12 teams will take off from Lakeshore Drive Boat Launch beginning at 6:30 a.m. ET and return for weigh-in at 2:30 p.m. ET. The winning team will earn $10,000 in scholarship money toward a college of their choice. Weigh-in will be available for livestream at 2:30 p.m.
The City of Dayton is hosting the tournament.
