About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 2018)
SPORTS Bill Murphy Sports Editor | 770-718-3415 | sports@gainesvilletimes.com Unties gainesvilletimes.com Friday, November 16, 2018 HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PAYOFFS I Second round Credit for the hard work SCOn ROGERS I The Times North Hal’s JT Fair looks for running room against Chestatee on Aug. 18 in Gainesville. North Halls offensive line the catalyst behind record stats BY NATHAN BERG nberg@gainesvilletimes.com AUSTIN STEELE I The Times Austin Sullens celebrates a fumble receovery during the scrimmage against Gainesville on Aug. 10 at the Brickyard. LAKE LANIER FISHING REPORT Bass will respond to better conditions BY ERIC ALDRICH For The Times Lake Lanier’s water level continues to rise from the hard rains we had this past week. At the time of this writing the lake was at 1,071.53 or .53 above the normal full pool of 1,071 and still rising. Lake sur face temperatures are in the high 60’s. The main lake and lower lake creeks are slightly stained to stained from recent rains and lake turnover. The upper lake and rivers are very stained to muddy from lake turnover and rain inflow. The Chattahoochee below Buford Dam remains very stained from lake turnover. Check generation schedules before heading out to the river below Buford Dam at 770-945-1466. Bass fishing: Not many anglers have been braving the rain, but that should change as the weather clears over the weekend. The lake has risen quickly and the bass are on several different patterns. We have started to concentrate on the ditch bite this past week with good results. A quality mapping chip is almost a neces sity for this pattern, but I also like an old fashioned hard copy to study beforehand for the best ditches to target. Look for long ditches that stretch from the creek or river beds, all the way up to the shore where the ditch enters the lake. Start out early in the day by targeting the shallow parts of the ditches with mov ing lures. A Fish Head Spin, SPRO Little John DD or a spinner bait are all good lures to cast to the shallow parts of the ditches early in the day. The bass will fol low these ditches like we use highways. They will trap bait early in the day in the shallows against the bank, then follow them back out to where they will spend the majority of the day. As the sun rises and the day progresses, you can follow the bass back out deeper in the 20 to 45-foot range close to the tim berlines. Even though the fish may not actively be feeding, they are suckers for a shaky head or jig worked on the bottom. Other lures like a drop shot rig or a jigging spoon can also work for catching fish that you see directly below the boat with your Lowrance Electronics. Other techniques are also working well. Because the lake has risen from the tor rential rains this week you may find the fish shallow up around docks and along rocky banks. You can cast an all-white Mini Me spinner bait or a SPRO Little John MD and work these lures up shallow. Also, try casting a Big Bites Jerk Shad or a Fluke to shallow docks that have deep water close by. Skipping a shaky head around docks and rocky banks in the pockets will also work well to fool Lake Lanier’s spotted and largemouth bass population. Striper fishing has been good, but things are starting to change. The stripers are hitting a variety of lures and several different techniques are working. There are still plenty of fish schooling on the sur face and this has been my go-to pattern for catching stripers in the fall. Combat fishing is the term we anglers use to describe several boats working the same school of stripers as they chase shad on the surface. It can get crazy when over five boats are chasing the same school of fish. Lines get crossed and tangled and anglers’ tempers can flair. I prefer to find a lone school of fish that we can have all to ourselves. You can be assured that if the fish are schooling in one area of the lake that the same action is also happen ing elsewhere. It pays to come up to a school on the trolling motor as opposed to running up to the fish with your big motor. These schooling fish seem to be targeting small to medium-sized shad and blue backs. Smaller shad imitators are out producing ■ Please see FISHING, 2B Coming into a second-round playoff game against Cedar Grove, the North Hall High football program has already enjoyed a record-breaking year offen sively. The Trojans (9-2) have scored the third-most points per game over a season in school history and even broke the sin gle-game mark for scrimmage yards ear lier in the year. And while much of that success has come behind the production of skill posi tion players like Daniel Jackson and JT Fair, there’s one unit that has had a hand in every sin gle yard gained this sea son — the guys up front. “When you play a game, you’re going to take at least 50 to 60 snaps, and in the Wing T, you’re going to run it about 50 times out of 60,” North Hall coach David Bishop said. “So just thinking about that, whatever percent age that is just kind of gives you an idea of the importance of those guys, know ing what we’re doing and knowing how we’re doing it, and then being able to execute.” Whether it’s been Jackson, Fair, quarter back David Seavey or any other of the Trojan’s weapons carrying the ball, the offensive line of Logan Jackson, Dylan Hughes, Nate Nixon, Austin Sullens, Micah Holman and Seth Carlton has been leading the way, doing the dirty work while hardly garnering any recognition for it. “You’ve got to have just a different type of mindset,” Bishop said of his line men. “You’re never touching the football. You’re never going to be called out on the PA for doing something special. You live behind the scenes. Most of your work daily is grunt work.” The members of that line have adopted that “different mindset,” taking pride in the work they do without getting the same recognition as some of their peers. “We’re really proud of what’s going on,” said Hughes, the team’s starting center. “We’re just happy to be a part of it and be the driving force behind it, be the ones that kind of open up stuff for the running backs.” The success North Hall’s offensive line has found this year is a culmination of hard work and team bonding, according to Bishop. The linemen, he says, are among the most tight-knit groups on the team. No matter what the Trojans are doing at Second-round games Today’s games Class 5A ■ Buford vs. Kell, 7:30 p.m. Class 3A ■ North Hall at Cedar Grove, 7 p.m. Class A (private schools) ■ Riverside Military at Fellowship Christian, 7:30 p.m. practice, their a unit that is always together, pushing each other to be better and forming an identity that each tackle, guard and center prides himself on main taining on Friday nights. “When we’re playing, we’re grit and grind,” Logan Jackson, who plays right ■ Please see NORTH, 2B Bishop Seavey For The Times University of North Georgia cross country runners compete during a 2018 meet. COLLEGE CROSS COUNTRY North Georgia hosting NCAA Regional races in Gainesville After finishing second at the Peach Belt Conference champion ship race and successful bid with the NCAA, the University of North Georgia’s cross country team will host the NCAA Division II South east Regional, starting with the men’s race at 9 a.m. Saturday, at the school’s Gainesville campus. It marks the first time Hall County has hosted an NCAA postseason event. North Georgia will run in the women’s 6,000-meter race at 10:15 a.m. The announcement came follow ing a successful bid by North Geor gia to the NCAA. “North Georgia is honored to receive the hosting bid, as it allows us to showcase our Gainesville Cam pus and the collaborative effort that our team will put forward to give the student-athletes the best possible championship experience,” North Georgia athletics director Lindsay Reeves said. This marks North Georgia’s 10th regional appearance and seeks its second trip to the national champi onship race. At the conference meet, Aleah Johnson took fourth place with a time of 18-minutes, 40-seconds, while Bree Hammond finished sixth (18:51). Johnson’s best mark this sea son came with her third-place spot at the Augusta University Jaguar Invitational on Sept. 22. North Georgia previously took part in the national championship race in 2014 in Louisville, Kentucky. Compiled by Diana Lewis
