Dustin Hollen and Matt Summers of the BASS Nation of West Virginia punched their ticket to the 2023 B.A.S.S. Nation Championship on Lake Hartwell in October last week at Douglas Lake during the 2023 TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Southeast Regional. Giving Hollen and Summers a chance at the Bassmaster Classic and the Bassmaster Elite Series. Summers will compete as non boater and have the shot at the Louis “Pee Wee” Powers Memorial Trophy as well as entries in the Bassmaster Opens if he wins. Hollen will compete as a boater and will compete for the Bryan Kerchal Memorial Trophy, the 2024 Bassmaster Classic and a spot in the 2024 Bassmaster Elite Series if he wins.

Wil Dieffenbauch won entry into the 2023 Bassmaster Classic last year through the 2022 B.A.S.S. Nation Championship in which he finished second. Read the full story here.

Hollen won the boater division for team West Virginia with a three day total of 35 pounds and 10 ounces.

“What a rollercoaster week I have had,” Hollen said on social media. “From my outboard motor breaking down less than a week before the Douglas tournament started, having to borrow a boat and only getting an hour of half of sleep before practice started.”

Hollen relied on old school tactics to get the job done with a boat that only had a Lowrance with mapping and he brought along “a few select bait choices.”

Summers won the overall non boater division at Douglas with a three day total weight of 21 pounds and 11 ounces. Beating out 99 other non boaters to take the top spot. This makes three years in a row that Team West Virginia has taken home the non boater Southeast Regional trophy. Jody Belcher in 2021, JJ Dickens in 2022 and now Matt Summers in 2023. 

“I really didn’t want to go as a non boater,” said Summers on social media. “I was concerned about getting a bad boater and being frustrated. This could not have been further from the truth. I believe this was God’s way of showing me it’s in his hands not mine how things go.”

Summers will now visit Lake Hartwell twice more this year when stepson Eli Ward competes in the 2023 Bassmaster High School National Championship there in July and Summers will revisit it again in October.

Team West Virginia finished 7th overall out of 10 teams in Team Standings.