Camdyn Cranfill (left) and Hayden Barnett of the Kingston Fishing Team after winning on Cherokee Lake.
BY DAVE LINK
Hayden Barnett and Camdyn Cranfill of the Kingston Fishing Team have been on a hot streak, and they hope it continues this week on Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tennessee.
They’re fishing in the 2024 Bassmaster Team Championship – a major accomplishment for Barnett and Cranfill and two other local high school angling duos: Landon Myers and Bryson Bailey of the Alcoa Fishing Team and Walker LaRue and Jackie Hatfield, also of the AFT.
The three duos became the first true high school teams in history to qualify for the Bassmaster Team Championship by finishing in the top three spots in the Sept. 21-22 Tennessee Bass Nation’s State Team Championships on Chickamauga Lake.
“I don’t think any of us realized how big of a deal it was when it happened,” Barnett said Friday afternoon.
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It was the first time TBN high school teams were able to qualify for the State Team Championships, an event for adult anglers in which there isn’t a boat captain in addition to the two competitive anglers. Myers and Bailey won the TBN State title, while Hatfield and LaRue were second and Barnett and Cranfill were third.
This week’s 2024 Bassmaster Team Championship was scheduled for Louisiana’s Ouachita River but relocated in late October to Kentucky Lake because of major repair work being conducted on the Columbia Lock and Dam on the Ouachita south of Monroe, La.
About 500 anglers from across the nation will take part in this week’s tournament. The move to Kentucky Lake may have been a blessing for Barnett and Cranfill, among other anglers from this region.
On Friday, Cranfill, a junior at Kingston High, spent the day fishing alone in a Black Friday Tournament on Pickwick Lake near Savannah, Tennessee. He finished seventh.
And he likes Kentucky Lake.
“I have spent multiple, multiple, multiple hours on (Kentucky Lake) and I really think we’ve got it dialed in,” Cranfill said Friday night. “We haven’t started practicing yet, but I fished a tournament on Pickwick today and had 21.33 (pounds), and Pickwick and Kentucky Lake set up exactly the same.
“I spent a lot of time over there before the cutoff (Kentucky Lake was off limits starting Nov. 16.), graphing around, looking for all kinds of structure and whatnot. But me and (Barnett) are very confident about this tournament.”
After Friday’s tournament on Pickwick, Cranfill drove to Paris, where he and Barnett and some family members have a rental house close to Paris Landing State Park, where take-offs and weigh-ins take place.
Practice for the Bassmaster Team Classic started Saturday morning. The tournament runs Dec. 4-7.
“We get 4 days of practice,” said Barnett, who recently committed to the Carson-Newman Eagle Anglers. “Kentucky Lake’s been off limits for 2 weeks. We practice Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. We fish for sure Wednesday and Thursday, and then if we qualify, we fish Friday and Saturday. It’s long. It’s a long tournament.”
And how did Barnett get ready?
“I’ve been in Arkansas since Sunday at about noon, hunting,” he said. “I’m still in Arkansas, going to Paris.”
WINNING ON CHEROKEE
Cranfill and Barnett have some momentum going into the Bassmaster Team Championship after winning last weekend’s (Nov. 23) TBN Southeast Division high school tournament on Cherokee Lake.
“It was a fun day, for sure,” Barnett said. “We had a bunch of bites. We didn’t catch a ton of fish. We had two that we saw eat it that just didn’t get the hook that were over 4 pounds as well. It was cold. It was windy. It was just one of those good days for fishing.”
Their winning bag consisted of five bass weighing 16.25 pounds. Barnett caught their big bass of the day, a 4.54-pounder.
James Lane and Jackson Daugherty of the Kingston Fishing Team were second with five bass weighing 14.73 pounds, including a 3.49-pounder; third was LaRue and Hatfield of the AFT (five bass, 14.02 pounds, 3.18-pounder); and fourth was Harlyn Nelson and Jackson Hall of the AFT (five bass, 12.37 pounds, 3.35 pounder).
“That was amazing, for sure,” Cranfill said of their Cherokee day. “That place being a very tough fishery as it is, 16 pounds is a really good bag. Going into that tournament I honestly didn’t think we’d have 16 pounds, and it all just came together and we got ’em in the boat. It was a good day.”
In the junior’ division, Carson Randan and Parker Smith of Scotts High Junior Bass won with five bass weighing 12.04 pounds, including a 3.51-pounder, and second place was Brody Bible and Sawyer Mynatt of Karns Junior Bass with five bass weighing 11.37 pounds, including a 3.33-pounder.
CASHING IN DURING SUMMER
Barnett and Karns senior Hunter Owens had a monster summer on the local adult bass fishing circuit, winning the $10,000 first-place prize in the Volunteer Championship on Chickamauga Lake and the $3,200 first place in the Watts Bar Open a couple of weeks before.
“Me and Hunter started fishing in July and right now our worst finish in a tournament is a ninth,” Barnett said. “We have a ninth, a second, and the rest we’ve won ’em. We won seven weeks in a row on Watts Bar, won a tournament every week.”
They’ve used their prize winnings for bass fishing expenses. “It’s outrageous,” Barnett said. “It ain’t cheap.”
Owens and fellow Karns senior Clayton Kelley won the TBN’s Bass Pro Shops tournament Nov. 2 on Cherokee Lake. Owens was a starting linebacker for the Karns football team until suffering a season ending knee injury Oct. 11. Kelley is a starting outfielder for the Karns baseball team.
Owens and Kelley finished 10th during the Nov. 23 event on Cherokee Lake with five bass weighing 11.87 pounds, including a 2.45-pounder.