The Mississippi Bass Nation High School State Championship and its junior high state championship tournaments wrapped up Saturday on the muddy banks Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in Columbus with a pair of hometown kids standing on top of the podium with the first-place trophy.
Brooks Higginbotham and Riggs McCrary – two Caledonia seventh-graders – hauled in a two-day total of 14.85 pounds to win their first junior-high state championship in the Mississippi Bass Nation circuit. In the high school tournament the D’Iberville tandem of Ryker Reed and Cooper Rouse won the championship with a total weight of 18.35 pounds. A team from Copiah finished second with 16.41 pounds and Sumrall finished third with 12.97 pounds.
“Our state championship overall was excellent,” said Skipper Smith, the president of Mississippi Bass Nation. “I’d give it an ‘A’ easily on a grade scale. (I) couldn’t ask for a better group of people at the Columbus tourism department. They were all great. A lot of the people throughout the community were great.”
Kellis Higginbotham, the head coach and boat captain for the Caledonia team, said it was amazing to hoist the trophy in front of a home crowd.
“It’s huge, it’s huge,” Kellis said. “It’s really hard to win at home. For one reason, you have too many things in your head. ‘You need to be over here; you need to be there,’ instead of just sitting down and fishing, and that’s what we did.”
Remaining mostly idle in one spot was somewhat of a gambit for the Caledonia squad, which originally mapped out the idea to navigate the South lock toward Pickensville, but some turbulent weather in the days leading up to the beginning of the tournament on Friday muddied up the water and those plans. Instead the crew opted to stay closer to home and fish Columbus Lake to “maximize time,” which proved to pay off. But it wasn’t easy. Over 70 boats participated in the tournament and many had the same idea of staying nearby. So Brooks and McCrary were forced to perform some gutsy and clutch fishing in some overcrowded segments of water.
“You had two areas that were really left fishable and about half the field fished in one area and the other half fished another,” Kellis said. “We were lucky to have boat No. 2 going out the first day, so we got in an area before everybody else got in there and kind of got situated where we wanted to be.”
Brooks and McCrary managed to catch two “really good fish” early on to set up a start to a solid day on the water that ended with meeting their five-fish limit for a total of 11.5 pounds.
“They were the only team to have five fish that first day on the junior side,” Kellis said. … “The second day was even tougher.”
Overcoming Day 2 challenges
After the cold front pushed through and the skies cleared up, the bites slowed down. The crew hauled in one keeper in the morning and didn’t land another fish until around 2 p.m. Those were the only two fish they took to the final weigh-in, and at the time Kellis didn’t know if it would be enough to hold onto the lead.
“I felt comfortable that we would stay in the top three. I didn’t know if we had enough to win,” Kellis said.
Well, it turns out those two fish had provided just enough separation and beat out the 11.85 pounds of the second-place team from Vancleave. Along with a trophy and some cash to cover their lodging, gas and a few other expenses, the top two finishers from the high school tournament and the top three from the junior high tournaments earned an automatic bid to fish in their respective upcoming national tournaments. Higginbotham and McCrary will fish in the Bassmaster Junior Championship at Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tenn, from July 24-25. The high school national championship will run from July 30-Aug. 1 at the same location.
Fishing on a big stage is nothing new to Caledonia’s burgeoning young angling duo; they were named the Bass Nation North Anglers of the Year this season in the junior-high circuit. Brooks and McCrary have fished in the Junior World Championship of the The Bass Federation circuit in four out of the last five years at various bodies of water all across the country. Their best placement was an eight-place finish in 2023 at Sooner Lake in Oklahoma.
“We’ve been to South Dakota, we’ve been to South Carolina, Oklahoma, Minnesota – I mean we’ve been all over,” Kellis said.
At the upcoming junior championship, the young anglers will be fishing not only for the coveted trophy but also for scholarship money for college. Anglers can win up to $5,000, Kellis said.
“Once they graduate and register for college they turn their transcripts in and show that they are enrolled, (Bassmasters or The Bass Federation Circuit) will cut them a check for the amount (they’ve won),” Kellis explained. … “Fishing scholarships are huge. It’s kind of like 4-H or a lot of parents will take the travel-ball avenue. My son just loves to fish, so that’s kind of the reason we’re going this route and to be honest there are a lot of scholarships that are unused just because you don’t have enough kids to take them up. … So it’s a good deal.”
Columbus is set to welcome a third fishing tournament this year when it hosts the Mississippi Bass Nation state qualifiers for the adult circuit in late June. The top 15 anglers in that event will move on to compete in the state championship.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
