Lone Star Junior Bassmasters Win 2022 National Championship
Written by David A. Brown, STAFF
Photography by Laura Agee, STAFF
HUNTINGDON, Tenn. —- Victories are not always dramatic and glamorous, but Mark Cerja Jr. and Gus Richardson of the Lone Star Junior Bassmasters were proud of their gritty, gutsy effort.
Grinding through a stingy final round, they tallied a two-day total of 18 pounds, 5 ounces and won the Bassmaster Junior National Championship at the Carroll County 1000 Acre Recreation Lake.
A Day 1 limit of 10-7 put Cerja and Richardson in second place. Catching another limite of 7-14 in the final round, they claimed the top award —- a $2,000 scholarship they’ll split.
“I’ve been fishing since I was 2, and I was taught to fish hard and grind and never give up,” Cerja said. “Today was touch, tough bite; we didn’t get our limit until about noon, whereas yesterday, we were culling at 10 a.m.”
“It’s just an exciting feeling to go home National Champions. I’ll sleep well tonight.”
After capitalizing on the barometric fluctuation of Friday’s passing storm system, which triggered aggressive feeding, Cerja and Richardson found the bass level active on the final day.
“I think it was pretty hard on the fish because they had just been fished,” Richardson said. “This is a pretty small lake and 65 teams were hitting the same spots (multiple times).”
As Cerja explained, their winning strategy was pure persistence, with a good dose of mobility.
“We started fishing War Eagle Creek but only had two in the box, so we went over to Jaguar Creek and caught one that was about 12 1/2 (inches),” Cerja said. “We said ‘We need a couple of big ones if we really to win this.’
“So, we went to Rocket Creek — that’s where I caught a 4 and (Richardson) caught a 2 1/2.”
Cerja said he and his partner caught their fish in 8 to 10 feet of water. Docks with grass and brushpilees were best, but they also fished the backs of shallow creek channels.
On Day 1, Richardson caught a 4-7 on a white fluke. The winners caught their other fish on 4-inch plum finesse worms, 7-inch Berkley Power Worms in blue fleck and Zoom U-Tale Worms in tequila green flake. The latter produced their largest Day 2 catch —- the 4-pounder.
“We thought it was better just twitching it pretty slowly and making sure we paid attention to the action —- just making it look like something a bass would want to eat,” Richardson said.
