NC Western Series–Lake Norman
Details By: Zander Monk
The fourth stop on the BASS NC Youth Western Series was on Saturday Feb. 1 at Lake Norman! There was no shortage of people who came out to fish and support the fisherman as we had 67 High School teams and 9 Junior High teams competing! The anglers were met at blast off with temperatures around freezing and cloudy but not windy conditions. The low temps and snow received the day prior caused a 45 minute delay at take off. Once the kids and their captains were sent it was off to the races and the boys and girls were catching plenty of fish!
Weigh In was met with a beautiful afternoon sky with sunshine and temps up in the 50’s. The stage was set and the crowd was ready to see some fish weighed… and weighed they did! For the high school division, there were a total of 179 fish caught totaling almost 293 pounds of Lake Norman bass! That equates to an average fish weight of 1.64 pounds. Taking home the win for the very first time this season was brothers Mike and Max Pierlott from Riley’s Catch with a four fish limit worth 11.75 pounds! In second place also from Riley’s Catch was Riley Christensen and Jeffrey Lotierzo with a four fish limit worth 10.60 pounds which was anchored by a 5.39 largemouth and won big fish for the day! Taking home the 3rd place prize was another brother duo Drake and Grant Sturgill from Rowan County Youth Fishing. They weighed five fish worth 10.04 pounds.
Our Junior High division caught lots of fish too! Heading home with the win for the first time this year was Jake Duckett and Connor Medley from Gaffney Fishing Team with three fish weighing 4.41 pounds! Teammates Wesley Poole and Jaythan Carr were trailing just behind with two fish worth 4.08 pounds! And last but certainly not least, taking the third place spot was River Ennis and Reid Miller from Cape Fear Christian Academy and they had three fish worth 3.00 even pounds.
As always, thank you to all the families and anglers that participate in the trail! It wouldn’t be possible without you all and the trail’s wonderful sponsors including but not limited to: UNCC Bass Fishing Team, Elevation Church, Scott Clark Toyota, Clifton Larson Allen, Favorite Fishing International, Googan Baits, and K9 Fishing.
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