STATE BOUND: Dustin Jones, Zach Spears qualify for state bass fishing championships
Published 2:10 pm Friday, April 28, 2017
- LINCOLN COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL’S Dustin Jones, left, and Zach Spears show off their catch during the KHSAA Region 3 Tournament at Lake Cumberland. The Lincoln duo qualified for the upcoming state bass fishing championships with their five-fish haul of 12 pounds, 11 ounces.
The Lincoln County High School bass fishing team’s Dustin Jones and Zach Spears have earned the right to compete in the 2017 KHSAA Bass Fishing State Championships.
Jones and Spears were among 95 teams that competed at the 2017 Region 3 Tournament Saturday on Lake Cumberland at Conley Bottom Marina in Monticello.
The duo caught five bass weighing 12 pounds 11 ounces to finish 16th overall, earning them the final qualifying spot for the state championships, which will be held May 11-13 at Kentucky Lake in Gilbertsville. Jones and Spears’ big fish in the competition weighed 3 pounds, 11 ounces.
Sam Clark and Daniel Notter of Boyle County High School, the seventh-place team overall, had the daily big bass, 4 pounds, 9 ounces.
The South Laurel High School team of Jackson Douglas and Hunter Jones claimed the regional championship trophy with the day’s big haul of five bass tipping the scales at 15 pounds, 14 ounces.
The region’s top five teams all reeled in over 14 pounds of fish. Zachary Patterson and Cameron Vaughn of Knox Central took the runner-up spot with five bass weighing 15 pounds, 12 ounces and Bradley Dunagan and Tray Hardwick of Wayne County High were right on their heels in third place with five bass weighing 15 pounds, 11 ounces. The fourth-place team of Jordan Cassidy and Austin Williams of North Laurel High caught five bass at 14 pounds, 12 ounces and the fifth-place team of Cameron Goodin and Jacob Goodin of Marion County High had a weight total of 14 pounds, 6 ounces.
Jones and Spears were just one of five Lincoln teams competing at regionals. Mason Moore and Dylan Cooper teamed up for the Patriots, Wyatt Hon and Benton McKnight set out on another boat as did the teams of Sawyer Carrier/Bryson Yaden and Tucker Smith/Zane Rousey.
Moore and Cooper had Lincoln’s second best catch of the day, hauling in five bass at 11 pounds, 2 ounces to place them 29th overall, while Hon and McKnight finished 78th overall with one bass weighing 1 pound, 14 ounces.
The Carrier/Yaden and Smith/Rousey teams came away without a single catch.
