Taking their very first win on the BASS Nation of West Virginia High School Trail was Isaac Cooper and Ethan Halcomb who topped a 24 boat field in route to their first victory as partners. The duo weighed a five bass limit that went 9.73 pounds and won big fish of the tournament with a 2.77 pound lunker.

Getting their day started in a hurry, Cooper and Halcomb knew exactly what they wanted to do and it worked to perfection as the two had a limit in the boat in the first hour of the tournament. 

“We took off around 7:40 am and by 8:30 am we had our limit and was already starting to cull,” said Cooper. “We pretty much stayed in one stretch the entire day and caught a bunch of fish.”

While they may have only needed one bank to win the tournament, the duo were using two different baits while looking for prespawn fish in their area.

“Isaac was using a bait in the tournament that we had found that worked to just catch a bunch of fish in practice and caught our limit using that bait,” Holcomb explained. “But I was throwing a little bit bigger bait and got us the big bite that we needed which ended up being the big fish of the tournament. All of the fish we caught were staging up getting ready to spawn and they were off in deeper water.”

But more than catching prespawn fish and targeting deeper water, Cooper attributes their success and win to the time spent on the water and the great team chemistry the duo have.

“I had a good feeling about this tournament, we had took a couple trips up there recently and had been catching them. We felt like we had plenty of places to go fish that we had confidence in. Ethan and I fish really well together, we have good chemistry and a great bond so finally getting a win feels great. I want to give a big shoutout to Ethan for being a great partner and my Dad (John Cooper) for taking the time to spend with us on the water.”

In second place was the team of Dillon May and Ethan Allen who had a total weight of 9.03 pounds. With their second place finish Dillon and Ethan had enough points to win the BASS Nation of West Virginia High School Team of the Year for 2022/2023 season. The Team of the Year win punches their ticket to the 2023 Strike King Bassmaster High School National Championship on Lake Hartwell later this July.

In third place was the duo of Wyatt Gabehart and Eli Ward who had a total weight 8.24 pounds.

Winning the Junior tournament on Sutton was Isaiah Crockett and Eli Milam who had a total of 11.41 pounds. 

2022/2023 Junior Team of the Year winners were Luke Stewart and Austin Craze who won with a total 495 points punching their ticket to the 2023 Bassmaster Junior National Championship held later in July!