Greenhorn Anglers Pull Off Upset At Georgia Total Electric Championship

Greenhorn Anglers Pull Off Upset At Georgia Total Electric Championship

Thirty-six teams of Georgia’s top electric-only bass anglers took to Lake Juliette to battle it out amongst the best of the Georgia Total Electric Championship’s nine participating clubs from across the state. 

The 2022 GA Bass TEC State Champions John Whited and Jose Rivera.

Teams competed for a record payout in excess of $20,000 in prizes, headlined by two ePropulsion Navy 6.0 Evo Electric Outboards and E-Series Battery Packs provided by ePropulsion and Mack Boring Parts Co. 

John Whited and Jose Rivera claimed the crown and new motor packages with a limit of bass tipping the scales at 15.53 pounds. Both are greenhorns to competitive fishing. 

“We watched Tiny Boat Nation Videos on YouTube and took the winter of 2021 to build this old 16-foot SeaNymph jonboat into an electric-only tournament rig.” 

With a bootstrapped boat build and only a season of fishing under their belts, they competed and won against $30,000 electric-only boats and teams with 20-plus years of tournament experience.

Their plans for the prizes are to complete a new boat build and outfit their rigs with the ePropulsion Navy 6.0 Evo Electric Outboards (which equates to 9.9 horsepower) so they can compete with the best of the boats on their fishing schedule. 

The winners knew their limitations and took advantage of the timing opportunity with the wind. 

“We cut the lake in half to begin with, as we don’t have a fast boat and big batteries, so we just gathered info as we fished,” said Jose. “As we made our way down to the power plant, we were tossing white Flukes, not getting many bites but seeing some followers. Once the wind picked up, we went back to the grassbeds in 4 to 10 feet of water where we had located fish and picked them off with a Texas-rigged purple Zoom Ole Monster Worm.”

Second place went to Tanner Carson and Josh Thompson with 14.46 pounds. 

“We threw white Zoom Flukes all day, and before the wind picked up, we had less than 10 pounds in the boat and only about an hour and a half left to fish,” said Josh. “Once the wind picked up, we hopped from point to point on the main lake, culling up at each point with better quality fish from the same points we caught the smaller ones at earlier.”

He later said that he found the pattern to be around points and shallow grass that contained sandy pockets.

Third place went to the team of Johnithan Combee and TJ Spivey with 13.69 pounds. Johnithan said his team experienced a bite all day long by honing in on the color selection. 

“It was a blast, but color was key to getting bit,” said Johnithan. “I threw a white Zoom Fluke and my partner was using a natural color and getting bit. Once we switched up to a bream and natural shad color, we had bites all day long.” 

Johnithan mentioned they caught fish until the final bell.

“Since we had the fastest boat in the tournament with my ePropulsion Navy Outboard, we knew we could get to our best spot first and maximize our time. On the west side of Goose Island we found grassbeds in 3 to 8 feet that were teeming with life and various bass on the bed in the sandy pockets, but we really had to pick it apart.” 

They made it to weigh in with less than two minutes on the clock.

Josh Adams hauled in the The Georgia 811 Big Fish of 5.05 pounds. Josh didn’t find his fish until late in the tournament day. 

“We had zero fish in the well and found an island with a couple points and a heavy amount of grass down by the power plant,” said Josh. “Once we caught one, we kept picking apart the 100-yard area, hitting every single pocket of grass in 2 to 6 feet of water.” 

Adams was throwing a Neko rig employing a 1/4-oz. nail weight in the head of a green-pumpkin Daiwa Fat Worm.

The Overall TEC Club Champions went to the Backwoods Bass Club with a total of 18 bass caught that weighed 44.53 pounds.

The 2022 GA TEC Club Champions was the Backwoods Bass Club.

The event was brought to you by ePropulsion Electric Outboards (EPropulsion.com), Mack Boring Parts Co. (MackBoring.com) and Tiny Boat Nation (TBNation.Net). To learn more about the Georgia TEC and find a club to join to qualify for the 2023 Championship, please connect with them at www.gabasstec.com or email [email protected].

James Murphy (left) and David Lowery won the May 14 Berry’s tournament on Sinclair with 20.37 pounds. They split $3,240 for first place.