The Dickson County High School team of Dylan Dunnagan and Shader Brown brought a five-bass limit to the scale Saturday weighing 18 pounds, 7 ounces to win the 2014 Tennessee State High School Fishing Open on Lake Barkley. The win advanced the team to compete in the High School Fishing Southeastern Conference Championship tournament held Sept. 28 on Nickajack Lake in Kimball, Tenn.

Neither Dunnagan nor Brown claimed extensive experience on Lake Barkley, but both had spent time on nearby Kentucky Lake.

“We did pretty good today,” said Brown. “We probably caught 20 or 30 bass.”

“We wanted to fish deep, so we fished in 25 feet of water for most of the day,” added Dunnagan.

“The first spot of the morning was a long point with a really steep drop,” Brown explained. “The fish would move up on it and were hitting shad.”

The pair said that after filling their limit with fish caught on a variety of topwater baits they culled them all fishing deeper ledges with a Strike King Pro Model 5XD crankbait, a 10-inch worm and a ¾-ounce football jig.

“We’re definitely looking forward to the Conference Championship,” said Brown. “I’ll read up on my FLW Bass Fishing magazines and look up anything I can on the lake. Hopefully we can do as well there as we did here.”

The top three teams on that advanced to the Conference Championship were:

 

1st:         Dickson County High School – Dylan Dunnagan and Shader Brown, five bass, 18-7

2nd:        Calloway County High School – Trevor Salyers and Cody Jackson, five bass, 16-9

3rd:         Obion County Central High – John Coble-Garrett and Jonathan Pool, five bass, 13-11

 

Rounding out the top 10 teams were:

 

4th:         Alabama Student Angler Federation – Mathew Hand and William Stirling, five bass, 13-0

5th:         Obion County Central High – Allen Wilson and Matt Lamastus, five bass, 11-15

6th:         Calloway County High School – Brandon Bogard and Colton Jennings, three bass, 11-10

7th:         Logan County High School – Jon Clarc-Todd and Thomas Poole, four bass, 10-10

8th:         Gallia Academy High School – Zach Graham and Hunter Martin, five bass, 10-9

9th:         Lafayette High School – Riley Cobb and Fisher Mobley, four bass, 9-0

10th:       Dover High School – Hunter Coy and Cole Keatts, three bass, 5-9

The 2014 Tennessee State High School Fishing Open was a two-person (team) event for students in grades 9-12. The top three teams from each SAF High School Fishing Open held this season will advance to a High School Fishing conference championship along with the top 10 percent of each state championship field. The top 10 percent of each conference championship field will then advance to the High School Fishing National Championship coinciding with the TBF National Championship and an FLW Tour stop in the spring of 2015. The High School Fishing national champions each receive a $5,000 college scholarship to the school of their choice.

In addition to the High School Fishing National Championship, all SAF members nationwide automatically qualify for the world’s largest high school bass tournament, the 2014 High School Fishing World Finals, held on Lake Dardanelle in Russellville, Ark., on July 15-19. At the 2013 World Finals more than $40,000 in scholarships and prizes were awarded. Visit HighSchoolFishing.org for details.