Local youth anglers take part in 4D Fishing Duel

The peeking sun over the towering East Texas pines that line the banks of Wright Patman signaled the start of the 4D Fishing Duel.

Three teams from the Atlanta and Queen City area embarked on a 7 hour and 30 minute race to see who could figure out the winning combination to get the biggest five bass in the boat, and onto the stage at the end of the day.

These student angling teams were competing against 107 boats on the Ultimate High School Fishing Tournament Trail.

Carson Dillinger and Dylan Benson were representing Atlanta High School and Queen City High School respectively. They had found a pattern in practice, and were working off of that information in order to locate and land those key fish.

The day started off nice with a couple of keepers in the livewell within the first hour and a half.

Meanwhile, the team of Clayton Whittenberg and Kaden Fincher, representing Queen City High School, were also off to a good start to the day. They started catching fish early and stayed in that area all day long.

They had to sort through the short fish to find the keepers. Usually, if they found one fish there were several more stacked up in that same spot. This pattern continued for them all day.

Asa Revey and Joseph Revey were also on the lake representing Queen City High School. These guys were moving water in search of a pattern.

They caught some fish early, but the pattern that they were on shut down after they landed two bass. The two brothers continued to search and explore the remainder of the day looking for a school of bass, but were not able to put any more keepers in the boat.

The team of Dillinger and Benson were in the middle of a 4-hour lull in the action when they moved to a secondary spot that they had found in practice. This is when the action started to heat up for them.

They went on a flurry catching one after the other. Soon they had their limit of five fish and started culling out the smaller ones with each tug on the end of the line.

At two o’clock the bell sounded and the fishing was over. It was time to head back to the weigh in at Sportsman’s Cove.

These three local teams were among 73 boats that caught and weighed in fish at the tournament that day.

When the dust settled Carson Dillinger and Dylan Benson weighed in five fish for a total of 14.43 pounds, and finished in fourth place. Clayton Whittenberg and Kaden Fincher weighed in four fish for a total of 13.58 pounds and finished in seventh place. Asa Revey and Joseph Revey weighed in two fish for a total of 3.86 pounds and finished in 52nd place.

The AOY race is a cumulative point total for the seven regular season tournaments and determines the scholarship awards and the winner of the 2022 Skeeter ZX 150 Bass Boat from Plano Marine.

Currently the team of Dillinger and Benson are leading this race in first place, Whittenberg and Fincher are in 10th place and Revey and Revey are in 69th place.

The 4D Fishing Duel on Wright Patman was a huge success. Families came out and enjoyed the beautiful weather, and watched the student anglers show the fruits of their labor from a good day of fishing.