The 2020 version of the Bradley Roy High School Open was the most exciting in its eight-year history. 140 high school teams and 23 junior teams (6-8th grade) competed October 17th on Lake Cumberland, and the Top Five fished on Cedar Creek Lake in Stanford, Kentucky.
The tournament is an officially-sanctioned high school event by the Kentucky Bass Nation. Two spots in the 2021 Bassmaster High School National Championship were awarded to Saturday’s top finishers: Connor Baker and Evan Morris of Larue Country, and Hunter Shelton and Jordan Hampton of Trigg County. The winners weighed a bag of five fish (two largemouth and three spotted bass) totaling 9.98 pounds, which included the big fish of the event, a 4.97 largemouth. The runners-up weighed in 9.85.
3rd place – Nicolas Boggs/Brady Howard: 9.18
4th place – Jake Lycans/William Copley: 6.66
5th place – Everett Marret/Porter Conover: 4.92
The winning team of Baker and Morris, captained by Campbellsville University bass team member Wyatt Pearman, also displayed outstanding sportsmanship on Saturday. John Harris of Danville, Kentucky, was fishing in a local tournament and experienced mechanic troubles. The eventual winning team towed Harris’ boat back to the ramp where his event had launched. The day had already been shortened by a fog delay that morning.
“It was a blessing to see three young men show such unselfish, Christian attitudes,” said Morris. “To be willing to give up 30 to 45 minutes of their tournament day was just outstanding. They had a long run back to the check-in, too.”
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources provided a release truck for the event again this year.
Following the weigh-in, Roy gathered the top five teams and immediately cut off any information gathering from other teams about any surrounding lakes or Lake Cumberland. He then prepared all teams for a fish-off on Sunday at a mystery lake to be disclosed early Sunday morning.
The five remaining teams were housed at the Lake Cumberland State Park Lodge and geared up for a Major League Fishing Cup-style tournament the next day. The Bass Pro Tour angler convened the group in the parking lot at 4:30 CDT on Sunday morning and informed the group of their destination – Cedar Creek Lake in Stanford, Kentucky.
“I asked the teams if any of them had experience on Cedar Creek, and only one of the five teams had ever been there before,” said Roy. “That is great because it was truly a ‘show up and fish’ experience just like in the Major League Fishing Cups.”
The convoy made their way 77 miles up to Cedar Creek and prepared for “lines in” at 8:15 EDT. Each team was assigned boat officials trained by Roy and provided two sets of MLF-supplied scales. Teams were given thirty minutes to ride around on the 950-acre lake. Roy streamed commentary on his social media pages as he covered the action. The teams fished two 2.5-hour sessions, with a thirty-minute break in between.
The winner was decided in the final minutes of action. After all five boat officials had reported in, the team of Connor Baker and Evan Morris were crowned the champions on the water. The Larue County team landed a 3-12 largemouth in the waning moments to jump over the Louisa Bass Fishing Team of Jake Lycans and William Copley for the victory.
Both team members from the top two teams were offered four-year, $10,000 scholarships to attend Campbellsville University by head coach Pete Hedgepath. Kentucky Christian and Wabash Community College also offered four-year scholarships to teams in the Top Five. In all, the potential scholarships were close to $300,000.