Yes, this popular leisure activity is a fast-growing GHSA championship sport

It doesn’t have the pageantry of a televised football game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium or a roaring basketball crowd at the Macon Coliseum. There’s still a championship-level tension in the air, but the relaxed nature of the sport creates a unique environment.

“Once they kind of all go off, parents are kind of hanging out, people will set tents up, and they’ll just sit out there and maybe grill,” Jefferson coach Coleman Cunningham said. “Just hang. It’s definitely different emotion-wise than a Friday night would be or sitting in the chair coaching a wrestling state championship.”

Hours of fishing escalate to a climactic finish: the weigh-in. Every team returns with its five biggest fish, and each boat’s “bag” is weighed, one by one.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Benjamin Wilson, the 2026 state champion, had conflicted feelings as he returned for the weigh-in.

“Anytime that you have a good bag, you kind of doubt that it’s going to be first place because it’s like, ‘Alright if I’m doing this good, somebody else has got to be doing this good,’” Wilson said. “There’s a little bit of doubt, but there’s a lot of excitement in there, too.”

Standings are updated in real time, and first-place teams are dethroned with every new biggest bag.

“There’s nothing worse than being in the hot seat, which is first place, while everybody is weighing in and then getting kicked out because another big bag came in,” Wilson said. “Thankfully, that didn’t happen that day.”

Wilson and his teammate, Jacob Janning, won Jefferson’s first state championship in the sport with a bag weighing 20 pounds and 5 ounces. It was the perfect ending to their high school careers, especially since the two had been fishing partners since the eighth grade.

“Being our last GHSA tournament, it was all the sweeter because we’ll never get to fish with those guys again,” Wilson said.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Also on the boat that day was Janning’s father, Fred Janning. One of the unique parts of GHSA bass fishing is that friends and family can participate in the tournament as boat captains.

Wilson’s and Janning’s fathers typically captained their boat during tournaments, bringing a family element to competition that doesn’t exist in many other competitions.

“It’s just awesome because you just make a bond with those people,” Wilson said. “It’s just cool to see it carried out for five years, and yeah, it’s people that grew together, and you got better together, and it’s a really cool connection I don’t see in any other sport.”

Oconee County’s Tinsley Harris, who finished fourth in the state championship, created a lifelong memory with her father on Lake Sinclair that day. Tinsley and her teammate, Campbell Barth, needed one more big fish to contend for the title with 20 minutes left.

Tinsley’s father, Sam Harris, drove them to one last spot where they had seen a big fish the day before. Tinsley said she had the perfect cast, and with little time to spare, she and Barth boosted their bag.

“When I got the fish on (the hook), he went insane and started wrapping (the line) around the pole, and I couldn’t do anything because I had to keep the rod at a specific angle, but my rod snapped,” Harris said. “So Campbell came in and swooped up the fish, and the line snapped in the net.

“If she wasn’t there, we wouldn’t have gotten the fish.”

Harris and Barth finished fourth in the tournament with a bag weighing 18 pounds and 6 ounces, and they qualified for a national tournament with the win.

The girls’ success highlighted another unique element of bass fishing — everyone competes together. There are no classifications dividing big schools and small schools, and there are no boys and girls divisions.

Every hook looks the same to bass, but that didn’t stop Harris’ top-5 finish from feeling that much better.

“It feels much more rewarding because, yes, it’s co-ed, but it’s also still male-dominant,” Harris said. “There’s not as many girls teams, so when me and my friend qualified for nationals and beat almost 100 other teams, it felt so rewarding.”

Bass fishing’s inclusivity extends beyond the gender barrier. The skills required are different to many sports. Anglers don’t need to be especially fast, strong or athletic to succeed.

The sport requires patience, perseverance, intelligence and technique, opening the door for students who aren’t as traditionally athletic.

“It’s still physically demanding on you because you’re waking up early, and you’re going out there all day, but it’s a different type of demand,” Jackson County coach Jason Guzzardo said. “It definitely takes a certain type of discipline and mentality. You’ve really got to love it, because you may go out there and give all your financial resources and your time, and it just doesn’t really go your way.

“I think that’s kind of the most unique thing about bass fishing now that it’s competitive, and that’s why it’s growing is that it really can be anybody. You don’t have to be born as a God-given athlete, I guess you could say.”

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Bass fishing has seen significant growth since becoming the GHSA’s newest sport in 2021.

An average of 90.8 boats competed per tournament in the sport’s inaugural season. Six years later, that average jumped to 153.5 (repeat boats were counted for both years).

The growth is particularly impressive considering bass fishing programs aren’t particularly easy to start. Bass boats cost thousands of dollars, and most schools can’t help students buy boats. Additional gear and boat transportation are also typically covered by student-athletes’ families.

Yet growing student interest has surpassed those challenges at schools like Jackson County, where Guzzardo had two teams qualify for the state championship in the program’s inaugural season.

Students approached Guzzardo, who also coaches soccer and football, with an interest in starting a team two years ago. Guzzardo compromised by establishing a bass fishing club, but it wasn’t long before the students knew they wanted to compete officially.

And at the end of their first season, Guzzardo had multiple families with rising ninth graders reach out about joining the team. Most of Jackson County’s team last season was also made up of freshmen.

“It was student-born, and that’s kind of where it lives right now,” Guzzardo said. “I think the showing that we had this year was really good with two teams going to state and a great experience for some of those other ones, and we’ll kind of see where we go.”

Once students have the necessary equipment, Guzzardo said, bass fishing programs are fairly easy to start and maintain. Much of Guzzardo’s role as head coach is talking strategy with anglers and handling logistics. Anglers practice on their own schedule at whatever lake they can get to instead of traditional teamwide practices after school.

Bass fishing youth programs are also relatively easy to start. Carrollton coach Whitney Whitfield, who was officially announced in her role on June 16, wants to expand the youth element of her program early in her tenure.

After all, family fishing is exactly what got her hooked years ago.

Whitfield got involved with Carrollton’s middle school program last year when her 10-year-old son, Tanner, joined as a fifth grader.

“Over time, I attended tournaments, and I stepped in whenever I was needed, and I became more invested in the program, and it didn’t take long for me to realize that I wanted it to remain something meaningful for my son and other future students at Carrollton,” Whitfield said.

Students can be involved as early as second grade, an advantage Whitfield plans to capitalize on.

“How exciting is that? Because if you get ahold of some kids that really love it that young, then you have your team coming up (that) you know,” Whitfield said. “What a cool opportunity as a coach to know, ‘I’ve got second graders coming up, and I know what they can do.’”

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC