GSHA goes hard for bass fishing — hook, line and sinker

And Soles, that same persistent kid who kept pushing to start a team, partnered with J.T. Brooks to win the state championship in 2024. The defending champs will be among the teams in the field when the state championship is held on Saturday at Lake Lanier.

“It has really grown exponentially over the first five years,” Marsh said.

This is the fifth season the GHSA has conducted a state championship in bass fishing. The sport has experienced tremendous growth; there were 82 boats that qualified for state in 2023, 126 in ’24 and 111 this year.

The growth has extended to colleges. Soles recently signed with Montevallo, a school in central Alabama that has won four consecutive Abu Garcia national championships.

Participants earn their spot in the GHSA championship through participation in one of the area qualifying tournaments. (The qualifier in January was canceled because of the icy conditions.) Each school may enter up to six boats, with two anglers per boat. The top 15 boats at each regional qualify for state. Additional boats qualify depending on the number of entries.

The qualifier at Lake Oconee on Feb. 8 drew 184 boats and was won by the Coffee team of Hoyt English and Jake Grantham with a total of 17 pounds, 10 ounces.

The qualifier at Clarks Hill Lake on March 8 drew 129 boats and was won by Maddox Ferrell and Finley Edwards of South Forsyth with a total of 19 pounds, 3 ounces.

The qualifier at West Point Lake on April 5 drew 151 boats and was won by the Morgan County team of Nolan Holloway and Ben Lanford at 19 pounds, 2 ounces.

Each boat is allowed to catch five bass with a minimum of 14 inches per fish. The bass — other species like crappie, bream or catfish don’t count — are released after being weighed at the end of the day. Last year, West Laurens won it with a total catch of 20 pounds, 12 ounces, which set a record for high school events held at Clarks Hill Lake and beat the runner-up team from Lanier by three pounds.

Bass fishing is unlike any other sport. Being bigger, stronger and faster doesn’t really help. But being smarter, having more fish-savvy and experience can play a huge difference in success.

“I’m an average fisherman, but over the course of my experience and watching my team from last year, what really separates the individuals is having the knowledge of the breakdown of what fishing is,” Marsh said. “A lot of people think fishing is just luck, but you can go into as deep as you want.”

That also means potentially spending hundreds or thousands of dollars to own and master the most high-tech equipment and the top-of-the-line rods and reels. It also means participating in other tournaments and fishing in a variety of conditions that require anglers to adapt — sort of like making adjustments at halftime of a football game.

For example, Soles and his father, Rodney Soles, have competed in tournaments and fished everywhere from Lake Okeechobee in Florida to the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair in Michigan.

“They have a lot of knowledge to draw from in the situation they’re dealing with, to try to figure out how to catch that five-fish limit and win a tournament,” Marsh said.

Fishermen must also learn to deal with the weather. The forecast for Saturday’s championship isn’t great, with rain expected for at least part of the day.

“We won it last year in the middle of a thunderstorm and the weather raising Cain,” Marsh said. “So maybe it’s just the Good Lord trying to tell us we’re supposed to win it again in the thunder and the pouring rain.”