SAND SPRINGS, Okla. — Carsen Adcock and Jase White had never fished on Keystone Lake before competing in the 2024 Strike King Bassmaster High School Classic on Saturday.
But that didn’t stop the Louisiana tandem from establishing a pattern early and riding it to victory in the Sooner State.
Adcock and White, representing Louisiana’s Bossier Parish High School bass team, caught a limit of five largemouth bass Saturday that weighed 19 pounds, 12 ounces. That was more than enough weight to earn them the championship trophy, which they hoisted for thousands of fishing fans gathered at Tulsa’s BOK Center before Day 2 of the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors.
Competitors qualified for the High School Classic by placing first or second in one of four Strike King Bassmaster High School tournaments last year or by winning the 2023 Bassmaster High School Series or Bassmaster Junior Series championship tournaments. Adcock and White won a regular-season event on the Red River in northeast Louisiana last May, setting up Saturday’s championship run.
Despite fishing new water, the duo was remarkably consistent on Keystone. They caught their best bass early, with the heaviest weighing 4 1/4 pounds and the lightest checking in at 3 1/2 pounds. They fished along bluff walls, primarily targeting dropoffs in 2 to 8 feet of water.
White fished from the front of the boat, throwing a Berkley Dime 6 crankbait in the river bream color. Adcock followed from the back of the boat with a green shad Z-Man ChatterBait JackHammer.
It was a winning combination from start to finish.
“We both caught fish all day long,” White said. “I think the two different presentations helped us a lot. I was getting bites a little bit deeper and (Carsen) was getting more shallow bites along those rock walls.”
The terrain, safe to say, was very different than anything they’d previously fished on home water in northeast Louisiana, where trees and grass are the primary structure for holding bass. They took to Keystone early, though, with about 25 keeper bites before 11 a.m. They only made one upgrade after that time, and that was for less than half a pound.
“I think the weather helped us early,” Adcock said. “It was really windy and cloudy (with temperatures in the mid-40s) this morning, and we were catching. But the sun popped out about 11 (or) 12 o’clock and things started to shut down. We were still catching fish, but they weren’t the quality of fish we caught in the morning.”
Adcock, 17, is a junior at Haughton High School. White, 19, graduated from Haughton High School last spring and now studies marketing management at Drury University. The team fished together for the first time in the 2023 season, but White said he’d like to lure Adcock to Drury where they could continue their winning ways.
“It might happen,” Adcock said. “We have good chemistry. We don’t have to say a lot on the boat. We adjust off one another, and we fish well together.”
Trey Blackmon III and Carson Falk of Florida’s Capital City Bass Hunters finished second with a limit weighing 16-15. They weighed first on Saturday and held the lead until Adcock and White bumped them from the top spot.
Braden Crumley and Logan Withrow of Tennessee’s Chilhowee Bassmasters placed third with five bass weighing 15-2. Connor Beach, of Florida’s Liberty County Anglers, fished alone on Keystone and finished fourth with 14-0.
None of the other four teams fishing Saturday managed a limit, but the tournament was about much more than competition, said Bossier Parish boat captain (and Jace White’s dad) Brandon White.
“This means the world to me to spend the time with these two kids, to watch them grow into young men,” Brandon White said. “I’m watching these two truly live their dream.”
