DAYTON — Recent Cherokee graduates Jacob Berryhill and Isaac Chandler are gearing up for the granddaddy of high school fishing tournaments — and they won’t have to travel too far to compete in it.
For the second time, Chickamauga Lake will welcome some of the best youth anglers from across the country to compete in the Strike King Bassmaster High School National Championship presented by Bill Dance Signature Lakes and the Bassmaster Junior National Championship.
It’s the second year in a row that Berryhill has been part of a Cherokee team that’s qualified for the national championship. The high school anglers finished third on the Tennessee Open Trail to earn their spot in next weekend’s event.
Their boat captain is Randy Berryhill.
West Greene’s Johnathon Harris and Maci Golden have also earned a spot in the 2024 Bassmaster Junior National Championship, which will be held this weekend at Chickamauga.
Elite Series pro Jacob Foutz expected both tournaments to produce big bass.
“The lake has been fishing good this year,” the Tennessee native said. “The weights have been fairly consistent with what they have been the last few years. It took 42 pounds to win a local tournament in March. I was out the other day and I caught 50 or 60 in an eight-hour day. Twenty pounds a day should be pretty good.”
The Junior Championship was held July 26-27. The high schoolers take center stage Aug. 1-3. The city of Dayton is hosting both events, with daily takeoffs and weigh-ins held at Dayton Boat Dock.
The youth teams that qualified for this event did so with top finishes in the four regular-season high school or junior events or in state-qualifying events through the B.A.S.S. Nation. Each junior team competes for the entire duration of the tournament, while the high school field will be cut to the top 12 after Day 2.
Known for big bass, Chickamauga has turned into one of the most popular destinations on the Tennessee River system. In recent years, the youth series has visited the fishery several times. Carson Falk and Trey Blackmon III won the 2023 High School Series regular-season event with a one-day, five-bass limit of 25 pounds, 3 ounces. In 2021, Banks Shaw and Gage King won the first High School National Championship held at Chickamauga in late July with a three-day total of 45-6.
With summer reaching its peak in the southern part of the country, Foutz believes several different bites will come into play.
“There will be a few things going on. They will be catching the tail end of the ledge bite, while the grass bite is starting to get into full swing. Brush piles are always good,” Foutz said. “You have a plethora of options. You’ve got bluff walls, and you can run up some of the rivers and flip wood and docks.”
For Foutz, late July into early August is his favorite time to start targeting the grass on Chickamauga. There are several different types of grass in the lake right now, including hydrilla, milfoil, eelgrass and coon-tail.
“It will be topped out in some places, but most of it will be submerged,” he said. “You can catch them flipping a jig in some of the deeper clumps and there are places you can punch through it. You can catch them on a topwater, ChatterBait and on a worm, too.”
On the ledges, some of the bigger schools will still be gathered in the community areas of the lake. Foutz said he tries to find several smaller groups of bass to avoid some of the pressure.
Foutz expects topwaters, ChatterBaits and worms like a Zoom Ol’ Monster to play the most during this tournament, as well as a Damiki rig for anglers confident with their forward-facing sonar.
The Cherokee team sponsors include Tom’s Marine (Martha Miller, Debbie Seaborn Morris), Tom’s Sporting Goods (Lowell Lakes), Huff’s German Creek Marina (Rex Huff, Nick Huff), Carpenters Logging (Joyce Carpenter), Dewayne Wilson-Dixie Custom Rods, Smokey Mountain Storage Barns (Angel Short), Short Mountain English, Pappy and Nana, Martell Bible, Bucks N Bass, Bobcat Bumpkin Custom Lures, Fisherman Fuzz (Get Fuzzed) baits, Southeast Tackle and L&J Custom Jigs (Jeffrey Smith).
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