Rooksby Gordon and Fisher Deason_.jpg
Rooksby Gordon and Fisher Deason of Alabama’s American Christian Academy are leading after Day 1 of the 2022 Bassmaster Junior National Championship on
Carroll County 1000 Acre Recreational Lake with 11 pounds, 7 ounces.

Photo by Laura Agee/B.A.S.S.

July 29, 2022

HUNTINGDON, Tenn. — An early opportunity and a stellar save allowed Rooksby Gordon and Fisher Deason of American Christian Academy to turn in a limit of 11 pounds, 7 ounces and lead Day 1 of the Bassmaster Junior National Championship at the Carroll County 1000 Acre Recreational Lake.

Starting on the lake’s upper end, the anglers began their day by flipping cover in about 7 to 8 feet. After the anglers boated a couple of smaller fish, Gordon hooked what turned out to be one of the day’s biggest bass — a 4-13.

“When I hooked the fish, it swam right into a log,” Gordon said. “I thought it was going to come off, but I put the trolling motor on high and went over to it.

“The fish came off before we got to it, but (Deason) netted it before it got away.”

With a thunderstorm passing through central Tennessee this morning, the scheduled 5:45 a.m. takeoff was postponed 35 minutes due to lightning. Once the hazardous weather passed, anglers fished in rain for most of the morning.

Deason said this proved beneficial, as it complemented their overall game plan.

“We tried to find some deeper wood because the water temperature would be cooler,” Deason said. “We think the rain was an advantage for us because it cooled the water down.”

Gordon said he and Deason caught their bass on a mix of reaction baits and slower presentations.

“We were using the slower bait offshore on the deep wood and we were using the reaction baits shallow in the early morning,” Gordon said.

As Deason explained, dialing in spots with large bluegill populations was essential to their game plan. In their view, the fish feeding on the larger forage would likely be the size they wanted.

“We tried to present our baits with a lot of action,” Deason said. “We tried to (entice) the fish better.”

After securing their limit by mid-morning, the leaders upgraded a couple times throughout the day. With significantly less chance of rain in Saturday’s forecast, Gordon said he believes he and Deason will need to work at a faster pace.

“I feel like we’ll need to catch our fish faster tomorrow, because once the sun comes out, it will slow down,” he said.

Deason agreed and added this: “I feel like today, with the rain, they were on a feeding frenzy.”

Mark Cerja Jr. and Gus Richardson of the Lone Star Jr. Bassmasters are in second place with 10-7. As Cerja noted, he and his partner tried to put themselves in high-percentage areas.

“We were looking at big clumps of grass,” he said. “There’s a lot of wood cover on this lake, but there’s a lot of dead water too. Docks were a big factor, brushpiles were a big factor.”

Cerja said he and his partner came into the event planning to leverage slower presentations to entice summer-weary fish. A 4-inch finesse worm, a 7-inch Berkley Power Worm and a white fluke produced all of their bass. The latter yielded their biggest fish — Richardson’s 4-7.

“I caught that fish about 5 minutes before we came in,” Richardson said. “I just saw something that looked good and cast to it. I dead-sticked the bait near a weed clump and the fish ate it.”

Owen Ray and Camdyn Cranfill of the Rhea County Eagle Anglers are in third place with 10-3. Cranfill said he and his teammate did not have much practice success, so they started with a tried-and-true summertime pattern and found success.

“We targeted docks with reaction baits because of the shade,” he said. “Most of them were in 10 feet.

“We were mostly throwing topwaters because that seemed to be the most consistent with catching bigger fish.”

Ray said the bass preferred a slower presentation in the morning, but as the day progressed, increasing retrieve speeds seemed to help.

Brothers Sullivan and Beckett Kraft of Horseheads, N.Y., lead the big bass standings with a 5-4.

Saturday’s takeoff is scheduled for 5:45 a.m. CT at the Carroll County Lake Launch. The weigh-in will be held at 19463 West Main Street at 2:15 p.m.

2022 Bassmaster Junior National Championship – Carroll County Lake 7/29-7/30
Carroll County One Thousand Acre Recreational Lake, Huntingdon TN.
(BOATER) Standings Day 1

Angler Club/School Pts

1. Rooksby Gordon – Fisher Deason American Christian Academy – AL 0
Day 1: 5 11-07 Total: 5 11-07
2. Mark Cerja Jr – Gus Richardson Lone Star Jr Bassmasters TX 0
Day 1: 5 10-07 Total: 5 10-07
3. Owen Ray – Camdyn Cranfill Rhea County Eagle Anglers 0
Day 1: 5 10-03 Total: 5 10-03
4. Hayden Mallory – Archer Dill Ohio 0
Day 1: 5 09-09 Total: 5 09-09
5. Sullivan Kraft – Beckett Kraft Horseheads NY 0
Day 1: 5 08-09 Total: 5 08-09
6. Brody Kellum – Carson Thompson Franklin County Middle School – 0
Day 1: 5 08-05 Total: 5 08-05
7. Camden Randall – Peyton Davidson Mount Pleasant TN 0
Day 1: 5 08-04 Total: 5 08-04
8. Ander Cowan – Alex Fitzpatrick PA Bassin Juniors 0
Day 1: 4 07-00 Total: 4 07-00
9. Vegas Iaconelli – Maxsim Hughen Youth Division – NJ 0
Day 1: 5 06-10 Total: 5 06-10
10. Christopher Volpe – Brayden Rivest Off the Hook Bassmasters IL 0
Day 1: 5 06-07 Total: 5 06-07
11. Anderson Mesplay – Kelby Conrady Mid-Kansas Kastmasters 0
Day 1: 3 06-06 Total: 3 06-06
12. Boone Baxter – Hunter Stewart Fort Jennings Crestview OH 0
Day 1: 5 06-00 Total: 5 06-00
13. Tristan Stewart – DJ Johnson III Mount Pleasant TN 0
Day 1: 5 06-00 Total: 5 06-00
14. Wyatt Reynolds – Peyton Roland Foothills Youth Anglers VA 0
Day 1: 5 05-14 Total: 5 05-14
15. Luke Stewart – Austin Craze Southern WV Jr Bassmasters 0
Day 1: 5 05-08 Total: 5 05-08
16. Mitchell Henderson – Joseph Frierson Laurence Manning Academy SC 0
Day 1: 5 05-04 Total: 5 05-04
17. Nic Sitton – Dawson Cooper Melbourne AR 0
Day 1: 5 05-02 Total: 5 05-02
18. Foster Hall – Caden Hall Hall Academy KY 0
Day 1: 5 05-02 Total: 5 05-02
19. Kieran Stephenson – Grady Stanley Fuquay Varina Middle School NC 0
Day 1: 5 05-00 Total: 5 05-00
20. Caleb Logue – Hayden Reynolds Three Rivers Bassmasters GA 0
Day 1: 5 04-14 Total: 5 04-14
21. Jack Varnado – Dylan Johnson Jr. Southwest Bassmasters of Den 0
Day 1: 5 04-13 Total: 5 04-13
22. Zac Arnold – Ross Clark Good Hope Fishing Team AL 0
Day 1: 5 04-11 Total: 5 04-11
22. Jaylin White – Colden Baker Lugoff-Elgin Middle SC 0
Day 1: 5 04-11 Total: 5 04-11
24. Elijah Ambrose – Landon Hinkle Jr. Potomac River Bassmasters PA 0
Day 1: 5 04-10 Total: 5 04-10
24. Caleb Jackson – Evrett Hunter Nassau Christian Bass Club FL 0
Day 1: 5 04-10 Total: 5 04-10
24. Cameron Prokop – Tommy Shumowsky New Age Bass Fishing Club IL 0
Day 1: 5 04-10 Total: 5 04-10
24. Caden Stevens – Hunter Crittenden Franklin County Jr. Bass Team TN 0
Day 1: 5 04-10 Total: 5 04-10
28. Camdon Fauver – Thomas Newman Frederick County BASS VA 0
Day 1: 5 04-07 Total: 5 04-07
29. Conner McClellan – Drew Mcclellan Indiana Jr Bassmasters 0
Day 1: 5 04-06 Total: 5 04-06
29. Nolan Savage – Jake Paradis LA Jr Bassmasters ME 0
Day 1: 5 04-06 Total: 5 04-06
31. Judd Byrd – Samuel Nicholas Oak Grove MS 0
Day 1: 5 04-05 Total: 5 04-05
32. Karson Dick – Kipton Dick Wayne Middle WV 0
Day 1: 5 04-03 Total: 5 04-03
33. Mason Samson – NH Junior Bassmasters 0
Day 1: 4 04-03 Total: 4 04-03
34. Oliver Neumann – Grayden Neumann Zimmerman MN 0
Day 1: 5 04-02 Total: 5 04-02
35. Bo Hollen – Ari Clark Mon Valley Bassmaster’s WV 0
Day 1: 5 04-01 Total: 5 04-01
36. Tucker Randolph – Kaleb Smarr Warrensburg Middle School MO 0
Day 1: 4 04-01 Total: 4 04-01
37. Clayton Barry – Tanner Sikes Columbia High School FL 0
Day 1: 5 04-00 Total: 5 04-00
38. River Huffman – Rob Barter Chatuge Anglers GA 0
Day 1: 5 03-15 Total: 5 03-15
39. Landon Pierce – Korbin Neat Casey County – KY 0
Day 1: 5 03-14 Total: 5 03-14
40. Andy Stewart – Trenton Wells Pisgah MS 0
Day 1: 4 03-14 Total: 4 03-14
41. Dylan Frickey – Reid Scott Ontario Juniors 0
Day 1: 4 03-12 Total: 4 03-12
41. Jesse Lancaster – Fisher Lancaster Lancaster Academy NC 0
Day 1: 4 03-12 Total: 4 03-12
43. Sawyer Knickerbocker – Grant Williams SWLA Jr Anglers LA 0
Day 1: 5 03-11 Total: 5 03-11
44. Beau McQuade – Kahl Cordell Jr. Potomac River Bassmasters PA 0
Day 1: 5 03-09 Total: 5 03-09
45. Maverick Hardebeck – Carson Tithof Grand Haven Lakeshore Middle Sch 0
Day 1: 4 03-08 Total: 4 03-08
46. Bryce Cast – Ayden Cast St. Louis Area Bassmasters IL 0
Day 1: 4 03-05 Total: 4 03-05
47. James Barkley – Nikolas Foster New Hampshire Junior Bassmasters 0
Day 1: 5 03-03 Total: 5 03-03
48. Peter Mcdonald – Preston Hartzell Rocky Mountain High School – CO 0
Day 1: 4 03-03 Total: 4 03-03
49. Turner Tharpe – Blake James Rhea County Eagle Anglers TN 0
Day 1: 3 03-02 Total: 3 03-02
50. Parker Terrell – Port City Jr. Bassmasters NY 0
Day 1: 3 03-01 Total: 3 03-01
51. Will Oberhoffer – Max Droessler Roosevelt Middle School IA 0
Day 1: 3 02-08 Total: 3 02-08
52. Landon Gabby – Carson Bruner Southern Illinois Future Anglers 0
Day 1: 3 02-07 Total: 3 02-07
53. Caden Strawn – Drew Turner Sand Springs Clyde Boyd OK 0
Day 1: 3 02-06 Total: 3 02-06
54. Jaxton Collier – Reece Roberts South Side Anglers IN 0
Day 1: 3 02-05 Total: 3 02-05
55. Jonas Lawler-White – Cale Denney Lansing Middle School – Bobcat B 0
Day 1: 3 02-03 Total: 3 02-03
56. Lawson Gamble – Gray Hardy Headland Bass Team AL 0
Day 1: 2 01-13 Total: 2 01-13
57. Charlie Brekke – Michael Putman Fighting Fishsticks Jr Club CO 0
Day 1: 2 01-09 Total: 2 01-09
57. Bradie Talaski – Carter Osantowski Bad Axe Junior – MI 0
Day 1: 2 01-09 Total: 2 01-09
59. Ty Cooper – Landen Mclauchlin Central Florida Youth Anglers 0
Day 1: 2 01-08 Total: 2 01-08
60. Hunter Harrison – Austin Moreland Magnet Cove AR 0
Day 1: 2 01-05 Total: 2 01-05
61. Bryce Rhody – Gavin Brubaker Susquehanna Valley Fishing Team 0
Day 1: 1 00-14 Total: 1 00-14
62. Brady Harrison – Bryce Blackmon Cayuga – TX 0
Day 1: 1 00-06 Total: 1 00-06
63. Dillyn Dill – Andrew Knight Shelby County Jr Anglers AL 0
Day 1: 2 00-00 Total: 2 00-00
64. Tugger McCuistion – 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00
64. Liam Northway – Eastern Iowa Bassmasters 0
Day 1: 0 00-00 Total: 0 00-00
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Totals
Day #Limits #Fish Weight
1 38 264 283-06
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38 264 283-06