James Graves III of Virginia Wins Junior World Championship

Most of the 2011 Bassmaster Junior World Championship competitors said today could have gone better. But for James Graves III, it really couldn't have.
Graves blew away the field on Bayou DeSiard in Monroe, La., with 5 pounds, 12 ounces, which was 3 pounds, 10 ounces better than his closest opponent in the 11- to 14-year-olds age division, Adam Farner.
"I was catching them on almost every cast this morning," said Graves, a member of the Orange County High School Anglers in Virginia. "I caught about 10 today, but only four were keepers." (Bass Master news release)
For more about the win go to www.bassmaster.com and read complete story by Tyler Reed
As we do this update Graves and his family are driving back to Virginia from Monroe, LA. The boat captains for this event were University of Louisiana Monroe students (LUM) and Nick LaDart was Graves boat captain.

When we can speak with James we will add further information to this page. We do know that he won a boat from Triton, Mercury and Lowrance as well as a five thousand dollar scholarship which we are confident will go toward his college education.

In an event where everyone was counting fractions of ounces and hoping that they had enough weight to make the state team for the 2012 season, Bryant Copley won the event with a two day total weight of 18.77 pounds. His weight had a margin that was significant enough to allow him a little breathing room.


This was not the case with the next two anglers. Finishing second and securing a place on the team for 2012, was Brian Harold who had 16.96 pounds. Mark Cooper had 16.38 pounds which was so close that it hurt. Cooper finished third and will have to try again at the Mr. B.A.S.S. tournament in the spring. This year, the team already knows that Maryland will host the Mid Atlantic event and it will be held on the Susquehanna River. After a very disappointing Mid-Atlantic finish in 2011, the two team members are already planning their strategy. Both anglers have been on the team before and both have had the opportunity to be members of winning teams.


Not everyone had to win to get a check at this event. The town of Clarksville contributed two five hundred dollar cash awards. Charlie Seymour won the first drawing and the money took the sting out of not winning a state team spot. Tyler Farmer won the second drawing and although he had left the area when he found out that he had won the drawing he said “I’m making a U-turn.” He was back to claim his prize within minutes which gave him the nick name of U-Turn Farmer.


Big bass honors went to Rankin Ring and Gene Hall. Hall’s fish weighed 5.07 while Ring’s weighed a hefty 5.24. Hall is in sales at Richmond Marine Center and Ben Gibson, brought a brand new Legend boat all the way from Richmond for everyone to see. In addition Jerry Johnson of Triton Boats attended the Fall Classic this year. Richmond Marine Center is the newest Triton dealer in Virginia. When Gibson was asked why he brought the boat all the way from Richmond, he stated that Hall was his sales person and he was hoping that he would win the event. He finished in eighth place overall. Ring finished in tenth place and is a Triton owner.




Rounding out the Fall Classic was the highest finishing Toyota winner, Mark Winn. Winn is registered for the Toyota Bonus bucks and even though he didn’t win overall he did have the Toyota win as highest finishing Toyota truck owner.


Craig Owens, who was really hoping for a big win, brought in two small mouth bass that were really impressive. Owens finished in fifth place overall. He will certainly make another attempt to win at the Mr. B.A.S.S. tournament in the spring. Owens was on the state team the last time it went to Maryland along with Ivan Morris. Both men and many more who missed by fractions of ounces will be giving it everything that they have at the next event. You can bet on it.





Joan Blankenship 10-2011

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