Atlantic’s Joaquin Wailes and Corning’s Joey Oathoudt are making final preparations to compete this weekend on a national stage in Branson, Missouri at the Bass Cat Big Bass Zone Junior Championship, presented by Bassmasters. Wailes a freshman at Atlantic High School and Oathoudt a senior at Southwest Valley nabbed the biggest 5 bass limit at the state level, which propels them to the BBZ JC Finals this Saturday, Oct 30th on Lake Taneycomo.  They will compete against 54-state championships caliber anglers in the competition for the biggest bass, with the top prize being a Bass Cat boat and scholarships.

Over the last month both anglers have worked extremely hard studying contour lines, water conditions, and waypoints on Lake Taneycomo to figure out best spot to reel in the biggest Bass. In September they traveled to Branson to pre fish the lake to obtain vital information about the lake to help them be prepared for this weekend’s tournament.  “I am excited and pump to go compete,” explained Wailes. “This is a huge tournament and it’s a lot different than the local tournaments I’ve been in. I am glad we had an opportunity to pre fish the lake ahead of time because I will know how to adjust to the changing fishing conditions. I want to thank all our sponsors, my boat caption Rob Clausen and my family for supporting my fishing addiction.“

On Saturday Wailes has been paired with an angler from Pennsylvania and will be the 4th boat to launch at the start of the tournament. Oathoudt is paired with an angler from South Carolina and will launch 20th. The tournament is still a solo competition, and the competitors will spend the day fishing, as they take turns deciding where the boat goes, with one competitor steering it in the morning, and the other angler steering it in the afternoon.

“It will be a great experience and I feel honored to go to represent my family and sponsors at this once-in-a-lifetime event,” Oathoudt said. “I want to thank Bill Siemantel with the BBZ, my grandpa for finding this opportunity. It is going to be a grind, so I am going to focus on tight lines and good hook sets to reel in the biggest bass I can.”

Both anglers are members of the newly formed Southwest Iowa Fishing Team where they fished with other area student anglers. “I am so excited for the boys they definitely put in the work and time to earn their spot in the BBZJC,” Bob Harris the coach of SWIFT said. In our first year as a fishing team, we have had great success with a two SWFT high school teams placing 20th at the TBF/SAF World Championships and 50th in the National Championships, and our junior fishing 4th at the Junior World Championships. We have some great student anglers in Iowa, and I would also like to congratulate Jake Oathoudt and Owen Hoover who also competed hard in the BBZJC tournament but didn’t qualify for the finals.”

On Saturday at 3 pm CST be sure to watch the live weigh-in from Missouri and see who will become the next BBZ JC World Finals Champion. See it live on the Bassmaster Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/bass). Good Luck boys!