From left: Haylee Barnett and her brother, Hayden; Will Bacon and his sister, Katherine.
BY DAVE LINK
Kingston’s Hayden Barnett and Will Bacon were honored and treated to dinner last Saturday for winning the Tennessee Bass Nation’s Bass Pro Shops-Sevierville points race.
By winning the points race, Barnett and Bacon – along with the other top-10 teams — qualified for next week’s Bassmaster High School National Championships on Lake Hartwell in Anderson, South Carolina.
One twist to the Kingston team’s saga: Barnett will fish solo in the nationals.
It’s not Barnett’s first time fishing without his longtime partner, and it might not be his last.
Bacon, a senior this year, is focused on his golf game – he wants to play college golf – and will play in the sixth annual 5Star Preps Classic next Friday and Saturday (July 28-29).
“That’s always one of my favorite tournaments, and I look forward to it every year,” Bacon said. “It kicks off our high school season. It’s the first high school event we get to play and it’s always a good one to start with.”
Barnett, a junior, wasn’t surprised by the news of Bacon not going to Lake Hartwell.
He and his father, Kelly, the team’s boat captain, have the trip well planned.
“It ain’t going to change our game plan any,” Barnett said of fishing alone. “They cut it from a five-fish tournament to a three-fish. It kind of made it easier on me, but it made it easier on everybody else, too.”
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WINNING POINTS (POUNDS) RACE
Bacon and Barnett clinched the points race by compiling the most points – actually, the most pounds — in five tournaments on the Bass Pro Shops-Sevierville tour, one of several Tennessee Bass Nation High School and Youth tours, all sanctioned by Bassmaster.
They won one tournament on the tour – Oct. 8, 2022, on Norris Lake – and posted top-five finishes in the next three regular-season stops before the March 20 Bass Pro Classic.
Bacon wasn’t fishing in last October’s event – he was in Cancun with his family for fall break – but was registered as Barnett’s partner when Barnett posted the winning weight of 8.63 pounds at Norris.
Talk about a tough bite that day.
“It was the toughest tournament of the year by far,” Barnett said.
They finished second on Cherokee Lake (Nov. 12, 2022) and on Fort Loudon Lake (March 11) before another top-five finish on Watts Bar (April 15).
In the May 20 Classic, they finished 14th in the three-fish event (6.51 pounds), and the tournament was won by Alcoa’s Jackie Hatfield and Graham Willis (10.73 pounds)
However, Bacon and Barnett still won the points race (63.24 pounds) by almost 10 more pounds than Hunter Owens and Clayton Kelley of Karns High School Fishing (53.65 pounds).
“The way that we fish,” Barnett said, “if we have five, we’re going to have a chance to win, or we’ll be in a position to win.”
Bacon said: “It shows consistency. We stay pretty steady the whole year. We were always up there.”
Bacon and Barnett were honored for winning the points race – and the tour’s “Team of the Year” — at Bass Pro Shops in Sevierville, then had dinner at The Chop House.
“It was really cool,” Bacon said. “I’m glad we got to do that. We got to go to Bass Pro and get recognized and then went and had dinner sponsored by the tournament directors. It was awesome.”
Both of their families were invited.
“It was great,” Barnett. “It was good for us to get some exposure, too.”
Hatfield and Willis were third in the points race (48.58), while Olivia Mauldin and Lexi Hensley of Grace Christian Academy were fourth (47.54), and Bryson Dotson and Holden Pistello of Campbell County High School were fifth (37.45).
In the middle school division, Aiden Willett and Jonathan Harris of West Greene won with 27 pounds, ahead of second-place Parker Defoe and John-David Carroll of Berean Junior Eagles with 23.95 pounds.
IN THE FUTURE
Bacon has had a busy summer of golf, and that won’t change as he pursues college opportunities.
“I’ve been playing a ton this summer,” Bacon said Tuesday. “I’ve had a tournament pretty much every week. I’ve had two this week.”
Bacon isn’t sure if he will have enough time for golf and fulltime fishing this year.
“(Golf is) my main focus,” he said, “so I’m going to have to figure things out pretty soon and see what happens.”
Barnett will adapt with his dad as captain.
He’s excited about the trip to Lake Hartwell, albeit fishing solo. They’re staying in a rental house all week; practice days are Sunday through Wednesday before the two-or-three-day competition begins Thursday (July 27).
“Everybody’s guaranteed to fish Thursday and Friday,” Barnett said. “Then you’ve got to be in the top 12 to fish Saturday.”
Barnett and Bacon didn’t make it to Saturday last year.
Barnett wants to be there this time.
“We came in 29th I believe (last year),” he said, “but we had the bite the final day to put us in the top 12 and just didn’t hook it.”