Young Angler wins H.O.O.K.E.D. State Championship

  For the second straight year!!

  By Keith Hughes , OBCF Youth Director

             Danny Hoag is making a name for himself when it comes to youth bass tournaments. For the last three years he has placed in the top three in the Youth State Championship. This year marks the second straight year that he has won the event. Our tournament was held on Sunday August 26,2001 on O’Shaughnessy Reservoir in Columbus. It was the largest event since we started the State Championships back in 1997.Seven junior clubs participated by sending a total of 34 anglers. For the second straight year, four female anglers competed.17 boat captains volunteered to take two kids per boat. The juniors competed for five hours and were required to wear their life jacket the entire time they were on the water. Five juniors weighed a total of eight bass. The event was well attended and all the competitors, their families and all of the volunteers enjoyed a cookout following the weigh-in. Unfortunately, like last year, our final awards presentation was dampened by rain.

Another great story to come out of this fine event involved our second place angler, Amanda Lewis. Amanda beat all but one of the boys as she weighed in two keepers and the big bass of the tournament that weighed 2.12 pounds. The real kicker is that Amanda is only seven years old! We were told she caught her fish on a plastic worm but when we got her on stage she wouldn’t say what the “killer diller” bait was. Since Amanda will not meet the minimum age limit of 11 at the Junior Chapter Invitational next July, she will not be on Team Ohio next year. She vows to make the team in the future and compete once she is old enough. At our State Championship, we explain to all the junior clubs what the age limit is but we still encourage all juniors, who’ve qualified, to fish our event even if they’ll be too young to compete on the National level. Oh by the way, Amanda was paired with the tournament winner Danny Hoag so a big congratulations goes out to their boat Captain, Jamie Jacobus. Both Jamie and Danny received a $200.00 rod from Warrior Rods.

All the competitors and boat captains received a grab bag and there were many additional door prizes handed out. Below are the final standings. A separate article will be posted about the National Finals for 2001 and 2002.Also thank you to Ohio Marine for their donations to the event including plaques for the kids and thanks again to all of our fine volunteers!

1^st     Danny Hoag          Trophy Junior Bassmasters                   3 fish       3.03 Lbs

2^nd    Amanda Lewis       Northwestern Ohio Junior B/M              2 fish        2.12 Lbs

3^rd    C.J. Shaver            Masters Anglers                                       1 fish         .94 Lbs

4^th    Doug Maple           Walnut Springs Middle School               1 fish        .90 Lbs

5^th    John Fabian           Young Runners                                         1 fish        .85 Lbs

Rob Thivener (Co Director) Danny Hoag, Amanda Lewis, C.J. Shaver, Doug Maple, Keith Hughes (Co Director), John Fabian and