West Laurens’ Brooks, Soles land GHSA Bass Fishing state championship

A top catch by two West Laurens anglers helped the team win the GHSA state bass fishing championship last Saturday.

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Sports
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May 6, 2024
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CHAMPIONSHIP CATCH: J.T. Brooks (left) and Ryan Soles (right) show off their 20-pound, 12-ounce catch, which was first among 126 teams, at Saturday’s GHSA state bass fishing championship at Clarks Hill Lake/SPECIAL PHOTO

Editor’s note: This story will be updated.

West Laurens High School’s J.T. Brooks and Ryan Soles brought home the top prize at the Georgia High School Association state bass fishing championships Saturday at Clarks Hill Lake.

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The two Raider anglers, making up one of 126 teams representing 61 schools in the field, reeled in five monsters with a combined weight of 20 lbs., 12 oz. for the tournament’s best overall catch by more than three pounds.

A March qualifier during the GHSA’s West Point Regional, the team – whose boat is captained by Rodney Soles – brings West Laurens a state title in just its first year competing in the sport.

Author
Clay Reynolds

Clay has headed up the Sports Desk since 2020, but his background at The Courier Herald – as a virtual jack of all trades – covers close to 15 years in a variety of full- and part-time roles since breaking in as a student intern during high school in 2010. The Dublin native, a proud alum of the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, has received numerous Georgia Press Association awards for his writing, photography and editing, including first-place honors recognizing the paper’s sports section in 2022, and its annual Heart of Georgia Football preview in 2023. In addition to reading his area sports coverage, you can also hear him on the radio as a local play-by-play voice, host of 92.7 WKKZ’s “Tailgate Party” and occasional contributor to the Georgia Southern Sports Network.

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