Junior title stays in Tennessee

DAYTON — The 2024 Bassmaster Junior National Championship won’t be leaving Tennessee.

Despite falling one bass short of their limit on the final day, the Soddy Daisy Junior High duo of William Collins and Kyler Jenkins claimed the 2024 Bassmaster Junior National Championship title with a two-day total of 20 pounds, 9 ounces this weekend on Lake Chickamauga.

The Strike King Bassmaster High School National Championship presented by Bill Dance Signature Lakes will also be held there Aug. 1-3. The City of Dayton hosts both tournaments. Rogersville and the state of Tennessee will be represented in the high school tournament by Jacob Berryhill and Isaac Chandler.

In the Bassmaster Junior National Championship, Collins and Jenkins — both rising freshmen — led the tournament after the first day with a three-bass limit weighing 14-4 and anchored that bag with a 6-14 largemouth.

On Day 2, they landed just two bass weighing 6-5, but it was just enough to edge out the second-place Cumberland Elite Junior Anglers team of Damian Gumm and Brock Stevens.

Gumm and Stevens finished with a two-day total of 20-4 followed by the Southwest Louisiana Junior Anglers team of Joseph Childers and Bray Youngblood in third with 19-8.

Kerry Johnson and Mavrick Grove from the Creekwood Redhawks fishing team caught the Big Bass of the Tournament, an 8-14 largemouth.