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Oak Hill teen claims world fishing title

OAK HILL, W.Va. — The third year was a charm for Oak Hill resident Tyler White.  The sophomore at Oak Hill High School fished his third Bass Federation Junior World Championship event earlier this month on Lake Hamilton in Arkansas and this time captured the crown.

“The first year I was scared to death.  I didn’t know what to expect,” Tyler said. “Last year it was in South Carolina and it was so hot, I didn’t catch a fish and didn’t even get a bite.  This year when I qualified, I told myself I’m going to do my homework, go down there and get it done.”

His determination paid off.  Day one of the bass fishing tournament he fished against fellow anglers from the Mid-Atlantic Division all of whom were their respective state champions.  White noticed a change in the atmosphere was going to be the key for finding the right number of bites.

“All that week it had been in the hundreds and the water temperature in the 90’s,” he said. “There came a big rain storm and it cooled the water down and activated those big schools of fish.”

Tyler dialed in and hit the school with a Lucky Craft Gunfish.  He quickly realized the fish bass were feeding, but they were finicky.

“They were smoking it, but you had to throw it right on the nose,” he said. “You couldn’t throw it around them you had to make pinpoint casts and target individual fish.”

Tyler’s aim was true with his rod and he soon boated a limit of 11 pounds 4 ounces.

Tyler and his partner found the fish on the first day around an isolated island feeding on the top of the water.

“I caught about a three and a half pound spotted bass on my first cast.  Then I caught four or five more,” he said. “But the fish would go straight down after feeding on shad. You’d throw a drop-shot on them in about 28 feet of water and catch them and that would reactivate the school.”

The pattern worked to give White 8 pounds 11 ounces for his first day stringer.  It was enough win the Mid-Atlantic Division and put him into the championship day fishing against five other junior anglers from around the country.

“I made a game plan after the first day because I didn’t get to pre-fish at all,” he said. “I used what I saw the first day to put together the second day.”

However, the second day it didn’t take long for Tyler to realized the rain storm from the previous day had caused a change.

“It took me about 30 minutes,” he said. “There was a little tree off the island.  I caught a three pound largemouth.  When I got done with the tree I pulled off and started looking at the fish finder and was only seeing one or two here and there.  I told my boat partner, ‘They aren’t here.'”

Not only had the weather pattern changed, but so had the wind direction.  Tyler headed toward a cove he had fished the previous day in hopes he was chasing the school.

“I went to that point the second day and noticed the wind was blowing into that cove. Plus the first day I noticed there was a lot of brush on that point and I figured the wind would blow those shad into that cove and those bass would be set up in that brush,” he said. “We went over there and in about ten minutes we noticed those fish were feeding on the top of the water.”

He ended up boating 11 pounds 4 ounces which was plenty, but at the time he didn’t know that.   The school finally turned off and he never caught another fish after 11 a.m. He admitted there was some nerve racking frustration for the rest of the day.

“I can’t tell you how many prayers I said asking that it be enough,” said Tyler.

The bag of fish was enough.  In fact he won the tournament by just under five pounds.  Tyler took home the trophy, a $2,500 college scholarship, and a $200 Cabela’s gift card along with the title of Junior World Champion.





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