Huge Kicker Lifts Hibbit And Buzard To Bassmaster Junior Championship Lead

Ohio’s Grant Buzard and Brooks Hibbit, of the Hartley’s Hawgs Youth Fishing Club, are leading after Day 1 of the Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster Junior National Championship at Carroll County 1000 Acre Recreational Lake with 12 pounds, 1 ounce.

Photo by Emily Hand/B.A.S.S.

October 8, 2021

Huge Kicker Lifts Hibbit And Buzard To Bassmaster Junior Championship Lead

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HUNTINGDON, Tenn. — Brooks Hibbit and Grant Buzard of the Hartley’s Hawgs Youth Fishing Club used an 8-pound, 1-ounce kicker largemouth to anchor a five-bass limit of 12-1 that leads the opening round of the Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster Junior National Championship on Carroll County 1000 Acre Recreational Lake.

“That was our first fish of the day,” Hibbit said of his big catch. “We were about two hours into our day and we weren’t off to a great start. We pulled up to a new spot and I caught it on the fifth cast.

“I thought I was snagged on something at first, but then it started moving and fighting back. It swam under the boat and jumped on the other side.”

The only team with a double-digit weight, Hibbit and Buzard caught their fish on finesse baits. As Hibbit explained, their day turned out much differently than they had anticipated.

“In practice, we found a spot where we caught fish, but it didn’t seem to work today,” he said. “Then we fished another spot where we only caught a 1 1/2-pounder in practice. We thought there would be a bunch of people on it, but there was no one there.

“We sat there and fished for probably 2 1/2 hours. We actually got our limit there.”

Noting that he and Buzard caught their bass in 15 to 25 feet of water, Hibbit said knowing when to abandon an unproductive effort was key to his team’s performance.

“The fish are pretty much in their fall pattern, but (not many) are coming up shallow, they’re still hanging deep,” Hibbit said. “We thought they’d be pretty shallow because it’s still pretty warm out, but they’re not. We had to switch up and fish deeper water.

“We were marking bait on the fish finder, so we tried throwing crankbaits. It didn’t seem like crankbaits were working, so we switched to finesse and started catching fish.”

With stocked Florida-strain largemouth swimming its waters, the Carroll County 1000 Acre Recreational Lake has a reputation for producing impressive catches. Hibbit said he was thrilled the lake saved its quality for when it mattered.

“At the registration meeting last night, we heard that the lake has verified 10-pounders,” he said. “In practice, the biggest thing we caught was 1 1/2, so we thought that we were going to have maybe 6 pounds today.

“That big fish shook us up a little bit. I had to take a 10-minute break to cool down. I was getting jumpy and setting hooks on logs. I took a break and then got back to it and in the next hour and a half, we had a limit.”

Nolan Holloway and Jackson Fanning of Morgan County Middle School are in second place with 9-8. The anglers initially tried throwing reaction baits but ended up getting all their bites on slower presentations.

“We came into this event thinking a moving bite was going to work for fish that were pushing shad up, but we really couldn’t find a pattern on that, so we just moved back and forth from deep to shallow all day,” Holloway said. “We were fishing 1/4-ounce War Eagle shaky heads with Zoom Trick worms around deep brushpiles. We caught our biggest shallow fish on a Texas-rigged Zoom Old Monster worm.”

Fanning said that remaining diligent was their formula for success.

Parker Adair and Jackson Miller of the Arkansas Youth Anglers team are in third place with 9-5. While they weighed only two bass, one of them was Adair’s personal best — a 7-14 that ranked as the event’s second-heaviest bass.

Adair caught the big fish around noon by fishing a soft plastic bait with a slow presentation.

“I had just changed from a reaction bait to this slower technique,” he said. “I caught that fish in about 4 feet of water. It was close to wood and sandy bank.

“I didn’t think it was a 7-pounder, I thought it was more like a 2-pounder. But when it got up and jumped, it was like ‘Oh man, we gotta get that one.’”

Miller added: “We were on the trolling motor most of the day; we didn’t really use the big motor much. Once we got that fish, we tried to find a similar pattern. If the conditions are the same tomorrow, we’re hoping to do the same thing.”

Hibbit and Buzard are in the lead for Big Bass honors with their 8-1.

Saturday’s takeoff is scheduled for 7 a.m. CT at the Carroll County Lake Launch. The weigh-in will be held in downtown Huntingdonat 19463 West Main Street at 3:30 p.m.

Tournament coverage will be available on Bassmaster.com.

The Bassmaster Junior Series National Championship is being hosted by the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce.

2021 Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster Junior National Championship 10/8-10/9Carroll County 1000 Acre Recreational Lake, Huntington  TN.(BOATER) Standings Day 1

    Angler                                       Club/School                       Pts

1.  Grant Buzard – Brooks Hibbit                 Hartleys Hawgs Youth Fishing Club      0Day 1: 5   12-01   Total:   5  12-012.  Nolan Holloway – Jackson Fanning             Morgan County Middle School           0Day 1: 5   09-08   Total:   5  09-083.  Parker Adair – Jackson Miller                Arkansas Youth Anglers                0Day 1: 2   09-05   Total:   2  09-054.  Dominic Bianchi – Ethan Haley                Rochester Bassmaster                  0Day 1: 5   08-15   Total:   5  08-155.  Nolan Savage – Jake Paradis                  LA Jr Bassmasters                     0Day 1: 5   08-04   Total:   5  08-046.  Charles Klug – Brock Huebner                 PJ Jacobs Junior High                 0Day 1: 1   06-13   Total:   1  06-137.  Connor Kennedy – Hayden Johns                Mulberry High School                  0Day 1: 5   06-08   Total:   5  06-088.  Chase Black – Cayden Collins                 South side middle                     0Day 1: 5   05-10   Total:   5  05-109.  James Barkley – Tanner Moulton               New Hampshire Junior Bassmasters      0Day 1: 5   05-08   Total:   5  05-0810. Alex Meland – Carter Michalek                Eastern Iowa Jr Bassmasters           0Day 1: 5   05-03   Total:   5  05-0311. Clayburn Reed – Gavin Gooding                Academy at the Farm                   0Day 1: 5   05-00   Total:   5  05-0012. Trey Richardson Iii – Reid Luckett           Free State Bass                       0Day 1: 5   04-15   Total:   5  04-1513. Luke Stewart – Austin Craze                  Clay Co Middle School and Clay C      0Day 1: 5   04-14   Total:   5  04-1414. Ty Magargle – Quintin Bergey                 Wildcat Fishing                       0Day 1: 5   04-12   Total:   5  04-1215. Drew Lee – Cole Mcausland                    American Christian Academy            0Day 1: 5   04-09   Total:   5  04-0916. Caleb Hildenbrand – Ethan Denu               Port City Jr. Bassmasters             0Day 1: 5   04-08   Total:   5  04-0816. Jase Johnson – Keaton Coe                    Anoka Ramsey Jr Bassers               0Day 1: 5   04-08   Total:   5  04-0816. Jackson Rogers – Caden Sellers               Jr. Southwest Bassmasters             0Day 1: 5   04-08   Total:   5  04-0819. Cole Bowen – Tate Bowen                      Mecklenburg                           0Day 1: 5   04-06   Total:   5  04-0620. Presley Lannom – Preston Maddux              Mt Juliet Fishing                     0Day 1: 5   04-05   Total:   5  04-0520. Cameron Prokop – Tom Shumowsky               New Age Bass Fishing Club             0Day 1: 5   04-05   Total:   5  04-0522. Wyatt Massey – Leland Pageler                Phoenix Junior Bass Masters           0Day 1: 5   04-01   Total:   5  04-0123. Justin Waggener – Eli Pauley                 Burgin Independent School             0Day 1: 3   03-14   Total:   3  03-1424. Terryn Boland – Wyatt Becker                 West Salem                            0Day 1: 5   03-13   Total:   5  03-1325. Lucas D’angelo – Drew Hinzman                Elkins                                0Day 1: 4   03-10   Total:   4  03-1026. Parker Eubanks – Garrett Evans               Plainview Jr. Bass Club               0Day 1: 5   03-09   Total:   5  03-0926. Rhiauna Switzer – Abigail Panak              Pretty Water Junior Bass Club         0Day 1: 5   03-09   Total:   5  03-0928. Bo Hollen – Ari Clark                        Mon Valley Bassmaster’s               0Day 1: 4   03-08   Total:   4  03-0829. Tate Reynolds – Blane Smith                  Russell County High School            0Day 1: 4   03-04   Total:   4  03-0430. Kent Falls – Colby Falls                     York Middle School                    0Day 1: 4   03-01   Total:   4  03-0131. Milam Mcillwain – Landon Lewis               CREEKWOOD FISHING                     0Day 1: 3   03-01   Total:   3  03-0132. Princeton Jordan – Peyton Jordan             Marshfield Blue Jays                  0Day 1: 3   02-11   Total:   3  02-1132. Troy Watson – Shockley Hiatt                 Mount Airy Middle School – Maybe      0Day 1: 3   02-11   Total:   3  02-1134. Lainie Holbert – Sarah Swindle               Riverside Bass Team                   0Day 1: 3   02-06   Total:   3  02-0635. Jack Meiser – Blake Meiser                   Eureka                                0Day 1: 3   02-03   Total:   3  02-0336. Jonathan Jarvis – Tanner Trawick             Seminole Co. Middle High School       0Day 1: 2   02-03   Total:   2  02-0337. Lucas Sheafer – Steele Smith                 Louisburg Middle School               0Day 1: 2   02-02   Total:   2  02-0238. Brayden Vallie – Easton Fett                 Fruitport                             0Day 1: 2   01-15   Total:   2  01-1538. Wes Warnock – Ryan Seitz                     Southeastern Bass Anglers             0Day 1: 2   01-15   Total:   2  01-1540. Cason Redwine – Bo Helms                     Bear Creek Anglers                    0Day 1: 1   01-14   Total:   1  01-1441. Beau McQuade – Elijah Ambrose                Jr. Potomac River Bassmasters         0Day 1: 2   01-12   Total:   2  01-1242. Caleb Moore – Joseph Siegel                  Off The Hook IL Bassmasters           0Day 1: 2   01-09   Total:   2  01-0943. Nathan Chiasson – Evan Breaux                Lafourche Junior Bassmasters          0Day 1: 2   01-07   Total:   2  01-0744. Cameron Mcdonel – Trenton Zoellner           Swatara and CD Middle                 0Day 1: 1   01-00   Total:   1  01-0044. Nicholas Syrett – Landon Homrich             Howell Highlander Way Middle Sch      0Day 1: 1   01-00   Total:   1  01-0046. Boots Burleson – Brady Mikes                 Texas Bass Nation                     0Day 1: 1   00-15   Total:   1  00-1547. Aiden King – Dillyn Dill                     Shelby County Jr Anglers              0Day 1: 1   00-13   Total:   1  00-1348. Murphy Childers – Ryder Colee                                                      0Day 1: 1   00-12   Total:   1  00-1249. Grant Rees – Keegan Carnicle                 West Delaware                         0Day 1: 1   00-11   Total:   1  00-1149. Cassidy Sawyer – Vaughn Mckay                L A Junior Bassmasters                0Day 1: 1   00-11   Total:   1  00-1151. Avery Bowen – Laiken Emanuel                 Jefferson West High School            0Day 1: 1   00-10   Total:   1  00-1052. Connor Krech – Landon Bizal                  Anoka Ramsey                          0Day 1: 1   00-09   Total:   1  00-0953. Tyler Camp – Kason Carmichiel                Pine Grove                            0Day 1: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0053. Austin Evans – Trevor Wallace                Mecklenburg Youth Bass Masters        0Day 1: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0053. Nikolas Foster –                             Massachusetts BASS Nation             0Day 1: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0053. Carter Gaines – Charlie Brekke               Poudre School District                0Day 1: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0053. Kaleb Harris – Dakota Power                  Ark-La-Tex Bassmaster                 0Day 1: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0053. Mackenzie Muntz – Jacob Muntz                Gibsonburg                            0Day 1: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0053. John Pharr – Collin Pharr                                                          0Day 1: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0053. Levi  Sowell – Maggie Miller                 Broaddus                              0Day 1: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0053. Alexander Tyler – Briley West                McKeel Junior Fishing Team            0Day 1: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0053. Leo Yonkman – Drew Wagner                    Southside Junior Anglers              0Day 1: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-00———————————————————————–TotalsDay   #Limits    #Fish      Weight1        23       176       195-08———————————-23       176       195-08

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