Students Winners in Fatsack Outdoors Summer Bass Bash

Any high school or college student who showed up the inaugural Fatsack Outdoors Summer Bass Bash over the weekend on Lake Hartwell walked away a winner. It was a no-lose situation, with zero entry fee and top prizes of $2000 for the college division and $250 for the high school division. In addition, all registered anglers enjoyed dinner, a High School Fishing Academy session, the chance to meet tour-level pros and a packet of tackle donated by sponsors.

Developers of a journal keeping, instructional and social fishing app that is unlike anything else out there, Fatsack Outdoors puts a high priority on providing opportunities for young anglers, and the company intends to build upon the success of the Summer Bass Bash with future high schooland college events.

The high school division winner, Noah Pescitelli, opted to fish alone. Although Pescitelli traveled an hour and a half from home to fish the Fatsack Outdoors Summer Bass Bash and had only fished Lake Hartwell a couple of time, no one who knows anything about this young angler was surprised when he brought a bulging bag to the scales. A very accomplished high school angler, Pescitelli also operates Kickin' Their Bass TV, producing popular instructional, gear review and fishing montage videos. In fact, he's already produced and posted a really cool Vlog about the event. Check it out!

Also, while Pescitelli had only fished Lake Hartwell a couple of times prior to Saturday, he knows spotted bass extremely well because his home lake is Lake Lanier. Pescitelli's winning bag stretched the scales to 15.44 pounds, and he noted that most of his action came first thing in the morning.

The college winners, who brought in 15.70 pounds, were no surprise either. The team of Deion Latimer and Baylor Ronemus, representing Clemson University, brought some serious Hartwell understanding into the Summer Bass Bash. Anyone who has fished Hartwell tournaments for long knows the Latimer name, if not from Deion, from his older brother Brian or his dad. Plus, Clemson is right on Hartwell. Ronemus is from the Augusta area, so he grew up fishing Clarks Hill, which is two pools down from Hartwell on the Savannah River.

Latimer and Ronemus enjoyed their best action early in the afternoon. In fact, at noon, they only had two fish in the livewell and Latimer admitted that they were beginning to get concerned.

Not surprisingly for Lake Hartwell during the summer, most anglers who talked about the fishing reported catching their fish either on topwater lures or on finesse worms rigged on shaky heads or dropshot rigs.