Emanuel College Team Places Fourth In BASS College National Championship

Parker Guy (left) and Brooks Anderson, of Emanuel College, placed fourth in the 2022 Bassmaster College Series National Championship.

Three years ago, Parker Guy was a junior at Irwin County High School and was named a BASS High School All American. He was featured in the June 2020 GON Map of the Month article on Eufaula and was on the cover with a pretty 7-pounder he caught there. After his stellar high-school fishing accomplishments, Parker went on to Emanuel College to join the fishing team.

Brooks Anderson was on the high-school fishing team at Mt. Bethel Christian Academy in Marietta and was also a BASS All American his senior year. He, too, chose Emanuel College to be on its fishing team. Brooks and Parker teamed up to fish college tournaments under coach Pam Martin Wells.

Last year Parker and Brooks had a fourth-place finish at Harris Chain and placed sixth at Saginaw Bay, helping them finish tied for second overall in the College Angler of the Year team points standings. Those finishes triple qualified them to fish this year’s college national championship tournament. The 2022 Bassmaster College Series National Championship was held at Winyah Bay in South Carolina, a coastal estuary with river-run options for anglers. The event was held on Sept. 2–4, and Parker and Brooks placed fourth out of 119 teams in the championship. It was their first time fishing that body of water, and they had to learn as they fished it. After day one, they were in 44th place with an 8-lb., 15-oz. catch. Making the right adjustments the second day allowed them to weigh 16-lbs., 6-ozs. That was the second-heaviest limit in the tournament, moving them up to third place. They ended up finishing fourth overall in the three-day tournament.

Also from Georgia, Will Harkins and Mitchell Grimsley, of Young Harris College, placed 40th. The Winyah Bay tournament was won by a local South Carolina team, Coastal Carolina University’s Andrew Vereen and Connor Cartmell, who had a three-day total weight of 40-lbs., 2-ozs.

Emanuel College ended the season fifth nationally out of 106 colleges in the season rankings this year. Also competing for Emanuel College this year, Dylan Akins and Chase Carey, both from Buford, placed 10th in the team standings for the year.

Fifth-ranked Emanuel College is the only college in Georgia ranked in the top 50 BASS College Series rankings out of 106 teams this year. They compete against much bigger colleges like University of Tennessee (9th), Auburn University (14th), and University of Nebraska (24th).

The Strike King Bassmasters College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops offers college fishermen in every college in the country a chance to compete with other college teams. It is made up of five regionals and a wild-card tournament where teams compete for advancement to the National Championship where Parker and Brooks placed fourth in this year. Just qualifying for the National Championship is a major accomplishment.

The point standings team of the year as well as the top three teams in the National Championship will now compete in a College Bracket tournament where one of those eight college fishermen will win an entry into the Bassmasters Classic. As sophomores this year, Parker and Brooks have two more chances to qualify for the College Bracket and possibly win an entry into the Classic, the dream of every tournament fisherman.

Bass fishing offers young fishermen an opportunity to go to college and fish on a team. Many colleges even offer scholarships to their team members.