High School and Junior Anglers earned spot in Tournament
July 2018
Dayton, TN — Recently I meet with four members of the Rhea County High and Junior High Anglers who are headed to National Tournament on two different lakes next month. The High School Bassmaster Fishing National Championship will be on Kentucky Lake in Tennessee. Austin Goins and Bryar Goins will be returning to the over 160,000 acre lake for a second time. They will be looking to improve on their finish last year which was a top 100 but not a top 10 finish. They qualified for the tournament based on their overall consistency this season.
First day launch for the two day tournament will be at 5:45 am cst from Paris Landing State Park on beautiful and spacious Kentucky Lake. Weigh In will be at 2:30 pm on August 2 and 3 will be at Paris Landing State Park. Final Day 3 weigh in will be in downtown Paris, Tennessee. This will be the third year in a row that the Eagles’ team has been represented at Nationals.
Junior Anglers Ben Hester and Karson Jenkins, who earlier this year won the State Championship on Watts Bar Lake, will be competing in the Junior National Championships on Carroll County One Thousand Acre Recreational Lake. The tournament The launch for that tournament is July 31st at 6:00 am CST at 405 Boyd’s Landing Road in
Huntingdon, Tennessee. Weigh in on July 31 and August 1 will be at 1:30 pm daily. The Junior Angler Program in Rhea County is only in its third year. The program has grown from four members in first year to 16 last year and Coach Derlak is expecting even bigger numbers for upcoming season.
Coach Brian Derlak said, “I am very blessed to be part of the program and very proud of our anglers that will be competing in the tournaments.”
Derlak began the program seven years ago and the program has grown and is one of the largest teams in the state and nation with almost 50 members. Last year’s team was comprised of 32 anglers.
Most of these four young men began fishing at early age and they also like hunting, but Bryar Goins also likes blacksmithing(not your standard hobby for young men these days). When asked they listed Andy Morgan as the angler they look up to and being that Andy is a very successful angler from Rhea County, that would probably be expected
When asked about getting up at 3 am(an earlier sometimes) to go fishing, Austin Goins said, “No problem at all. Now if it was for a job, then probably won’t like it that much. Fishing is fun.”
Austin Goins is headed to fish for the Bryan College team next year. Brother Bryar at present doesn’t have firm plans for beyond high school. Ben and Karson still have time to think about those plans. Click on link for article about Austin’s signing with Bryan.