On the weekend of March 23-24, Sinclair Marina in Milledgeville hosted Toyota Series and Falcon Bass Boat sponsored pro Brian Latimer and his SUF school and his SUF Classic tournament. This was a well-attended event and one where a lot of fun and good food was had by all.

Brian uses his SUF school and tournament to do a unique thing… teach beginners how to fish. True beginners. I met people that day that had just started fishing within a year and all because they saw Brian on YouTube or because they saw something that led them to find this sport so many of us love so much. Brian gave the back-to-basics lessons with humor and an understanding of how NOT to talk down to people. He was funny, informative and engaging to all there and those viewing on his SUF school site, and in this day in time he didn’t try and sell everyone on tens of thousands of dollars of gear! At one point he even had the gall to say you only need a strait tail worm! The AUDACITY! I know I went home and apologized to all 200 pounds of plastics in my boat that evening for even being in attendance.

Your intrepid outdoors writer was fortunate to be able to work with Brian and his team on this event. Let me tell you, I have been watching Brian for years on social media and YouTube and he was more fun in person and to talk to than he is online and that takes some doing! I learned this about Brian: He views this as a mission and he is truly passionate about teaching. Next is this: He’s just as big a fishing nerd as the rest of us! He’s eat up with it too! Matt Henry, Brian and I spent hours one day discussing old baits, the history of sonar tech in fishing and the future of it all. In short we just geeked out…

The school took place on Saturday, and the tournament happened on Sunday that weekend. It was a virtual tournament with a catch, photo and release format. Eighty anglers qualified through the tournament season to fish this event. This is the second time Brian has held this tournament series and classic and his last championship was held on Lake Hartwell. It was one by a young man named Bradford Van Denmark. Well in 2024 he repeated this feat in the incredibly muddy waters of lake Sinclair. Proving he’s about as versatile a fisherman as you can get!

Van Denmark’s key baits that weekend were a 1/2 oz Z-Man Fishing Products Evo Chatterbait fished on the lower section of Lake Sinclair. He also noted using a hand painted jerkbait as well. Bradford’s earned $5,000 in gear for winning the SUF championship that includes a brand new Brooklyn Kayak CompanyPK12, MotorGuide Xi3 Kayak trolling motor and $1,200 in fishing gear from ShopBlat.

 

Now for other news… This past weekend Lake Oconee Striper Club member Chad Womack landed a 25-pound striper in Capt. Doug Nelms Derby. Now correct me if I am wrong here folks, but I am not aware of a bigger striper coming out of Oconee in the last 25 years much less the Derby! Chad is an extremely dedicated striper angler and does more to catch, keepand use gizzard shad, shad and other live bait than ANYONE I know. The man is a mad scientist and a solid all around guy to boot. Here’s a big hat tip to Chad and folks… This is a HUGE striper for our area! That should motivate y’all to go out and wet a line!

 

Tight lines and following seas y’all!

 

—Outdoors columnist James Pressley can be reached at jameskpressley@gmail.com .