Tim White believes it is prime time to bring another championship to West Point.
That’s why White is taking his role as boat captain this week very seriously. On Sunday, he and Jordan Camp and Matthew Bagwell took to the waters in Pickwick Lake to try to find the best locations to catch bass.
White, Camp, and Bagwell will do the same thing today and Tuesday. After each day, they will go over their notes and devise a strategy they hope will help them win the The Bass Federation (TBF)/Fishing League Worldwide (FLW) National Championship & Fishing World Finals, which begins Wednesday in Florence, Alabama.
“We’re excited,” said White, who is from West Point. “It is an honor and a blessing to be able to take these kids down here. Now they get to go fish for scholarship money.”
White said more than $75,000 in scholarship money will be on the line for teams from across the nation. The team of Camp and Bagwell is one of two duos that will represent the area. Chris Elway, who is from Hamilton, will be the boat captain for the team of Tyler Alvis, who is from Hamilton, and Jake Donahoo, who will be a senior at West Point High School. Camp and Bagwell also will be seniors at West Point High.
Camp, Bagwell, and Donahoo have been members of the West Point High fishing team for three years. In March, Camp and Matthew Bagwell brought a five-bass limit that weighed 13 pounds, 1 ounce, to win the FLW High School Fishing Mississippi Open tournament at Columbus Pool. The win helped them qualify for the High School Fishing National championship
In April, Seth Edwards and Camp won the Mississippi High School Fishing State Championship at Aberdeen Marina. Edwards and Camp captured the title by landing four bass weighing 10.86 pounds.
The teams from the Greater Golden Triangle area will be two of six from the state of Mississippi.
White led a convoy out of West Point on Saturday morning. He said the teams were going to spend as much time pre-fishing the lake in an effort to familiarize themselves with as much of the area as possible. White said he has fished in Florence and in the area, but he said he still anticipates the teams will put more than 100 miles on their boats round trip to find the best spots to catch bass.
White anticipates teams will need to catch 18-20 pounds a day to have a chance to win. The National Championship winners will be crowned Friday based on their standings. The High School Fishing World Champions will be crowned Saturday. Only 31 teams will compete in Saturday’s finale.
“When Pickwick is on, it is on,” White said. “When it is off, it is off. I have gone up there and not caught a fish.”
White hopes that won’t be the case for the local teams. That’s why he said the time spent pre-fishing will be so important. He said the conditions this week figure to be more challenging than in the Columbus area in part because the teams will fish deeper water. He said that will require different techniques and different baits to be used.
White said those differences shouldn’t be a problem for Camp and Bagwell, who are experienced anglers who feed off each other.
“They each do their own thing,” White said. “If one is catching fish, the other one will adapt to the other thing. They’re always trying to throw different baits and trying to figure out what the finicky fish are doing.
“These kids have been fishing from a very young age. They are real seasoned anglers. They don’t need any help from me. They have me for safety reasons.”
Camp and Bagwell will take the next two days to learn everything they can about Pickwick Lake. They also figure to use White as a valuable resource to help them on the title quest. If everything goes well, White feels they will have a good chance to bring a championship back to Clay County.
“I think they’re going to do good,” White said. “If the river is not bad I think they will be able to find some fish and hammer down on them pretty good. … We will have to hammer down every day to try to get them dialed in to make things happen.
“If we don’t win, we’re going to give it everything we got.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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