Charleston WV– BASS Nation of West Virginia High School is set to take-off on Sunday October 30th on the Kanawha River out of the Robert C. Byrd ramp in Nitro, WV.  This will be the third stop of the 2022-2023 season after the original tournament was cancelled back on October 2nd due to flooding. 

Slated back on October 2nd BASS Nation of WV High School had 33 high school teams signed up and 12 junior teams signed up for the event.

This time around with cooler temps and fairly stable conditions this one has the potential for a great tournament on the river. Forecast the next three days also look fair, but Sunday’s weather shows a 50% chance of rain, but mostly warmer temps.

Tied for the TOY lead in the high school division are the teams of Sailor McKinney/Mason Grose and Aidan Crockett/Paxton Smith who both have 199 points total. Leading the TOY in the junior division is the team of Luke Stewart and Austin Craze who have a total of 200 points which came from back to back wins. All leading TOY teams were registered for the Kanawha event back in the beginning of October and assumedly will be there Sunday.

By the looks of some pictures shared across social media before the event was cancelled back on October 1st, Eli Ward and Wyatt Gabehart had a pretty outstanding practice and were looking forward to the event prior to it being cancelled. I caught up with them to get their take on their season and the event coming up.“I’m glad that it’s back on the river because it’s my favorite place to fish in the state. I’m happy that Dana and BASS Nation of West Virginia made the decision to cancel it last time,” Gabehart said. “I’ve seen this river come up three feet while being out there and it can get really bad, really fast.”

Much more stable conditions and stable weather coming so it is shaping up to hopefully be one of the best events of the year as long as the rain on Sunday will hold off. Gabehart claims the river as his home water and is looking to use that home field advantage with the stable conditions.

“It will be either really good or really bad. I think it’ll be a different Kanawha River than everyone is used to,” said Gabehart. “It is the clearest it has been all year and there’s not a lot of current. I still think the fishing we’ll be pretty good if you can find them.”

Going into this event seventh in TOY points with 188 points the duo is looking to take the home field advantage and score some necessary points to get back in the TOY race. “It would mean everything to get a win on the river,” said Ward. “Having a new partner this year and learning a lot new things this year from him has helped me and I’m pumped to see how far we can go in this TOY race.”

“It would mean a lot to me to get a win in this event just because it is on my home water,” Gabehart said. “I will have my whole family there to see us weigh-in and that means a lot to me.”