About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 2024)
SPORTS ®he Unties gainesvilletimes.com Weekend Edition-January 19-20, 2024 Bill MurphySports Editor I 770-718-3415 I sports@gainesvilletimes.com Photo courtesy Gainesville High athletics department Gainesville’s Alex Payne (71) blocks against Marist on Aug. 16 at City Park Stadium. HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL Gainesville’s Payne gives early commitment to North Carolina Red Elephants offensive lineman has long list of D-l offers BY BILL MURPHY bmurphy@gainesvilletimes.com On Wednesday, Gainesville junior offensive tackle Alex Payne gave a verbal commitment to play football at the University of North Carolina, starting in 2025. At 6-foot-5 and 265 pounds, the Red Elephants' athletic lineman has drawn Division-I attention since before his sophomore season. Payne made his declaration ear lier in the day on his X, formerly known as Twitter, profile page. Payne picked North Carolina over offers from Florida State, Penn State, Kentucky, Duke and Georgia Tech, among many others. See Payne 12C LAKE LANIER FISHING REPORT HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL Stripers still biting well in the cold snap BY ERIC ALDRICH sports@gainesvilletimes.com Lake Lanier's water level came up even more with last week's rains. The lake level is presently 1,068.04 feet or 2.96 feet below the normal full pool of 1,071 feet. The lake surface temperatures are anywhere from the low to high 40s. The main lake and creeks mouths down lake are clear, but get more stained as you continue on into the backs of the creeks. The upper lake and on into the rivers is stained to muddy but they should get clearer as the rains settle for next week. The Chat tahoochee River below Buford Dam is clear. Check generation schedules before heading out to the river at 770-945-1466. Bass fishing is rated; well let's just admit it - cold as ice. That being said, you can still catch numbers of fish if you're efficient at using your electronics and hanging around and water deeper than 25 feet and as deep as 60 feet. These bass have been grouped up so when you catch one hang around in that area and see if you can pick up a few more before moving on to more productive water. Start your days by dressing very warmly and bringing an extra set of clothes. Layers of clothing and hand heaters like Hot Hands or other brands of warmers are essential when daily lows are in the teens and highs are hover ing around freezing. Winter fishing is not for every body, and if you're out there for over an hour and find yourself stumbling around or feeling numb, you not only are taking chances, but also you're not going to have a great fishing day. Try to fish with a friend if you are ven turing out this week. With water temps ranging from the low to upper 40s, there have been evidence of a major shad kill in some areas. This is not a bad thing, but a normal process in winter for Lake Lanier. With air temperatures drop ping into the teens and possibly even single digits in some areas, the threadfin shad and even a few gizzard shad are vulnerable to the cold water. This occurrence can often be a good thing for fishing because it groups fish up under these dying groups of shad where the bass can just lay on the bottom for an easy meal. The main thing you need to be looking for right now is not necessarily fish, but the presence of shad schools located in the ditches anywhere from 25 to 60 feet. The fish may not show up on sonar because they are just lying on the bottom. Several techniques are working now, but we’ve been kind of lim iting ours to a few baits that we were talking about last week and maybe a couple we didn't. The one consistent thing is to slow down and fish methodically with equipment that's sensitive enough to feel the deep bites. My Kissel Krafts Custom Rods fit the bill and Sunline Fluorocarbon allows me to feel bites that other anglers may miss. Bass fishing is still kind of the same as it's been all winter so far, but expect to find the bigger and better fish out a little bit deeper. Still, we start up shallow with moving lures like a SPRO deep diving plug or a SPRO McRip jerk bait will get the bites early in the day. Work these lures slow and steady try to keep them in contact with the bottom or close to the top of the timber if the fish are out deeper. Other lures will catch these fish early in relatively shallow water like a Shaky Head on a SPRO Alien Head, a Georgia Blade Pre mium Jig or small swim bait like a Kitech style fished down at Geor gia Blade Under Spin. As the sun rises or the day gets brighter, the fish consistently move out deeper following the schools of shad. If you have forward imag ing you can look out in front of the boat, but still your bites are mostly going to become vertically fishing below the boat. For vertical fishing right now it's hard to beat a Georgia Blade spoon. Anglers can just drop this heavy shad imitator to the bottom reel up a couple cranks and then pop it up and down to mimic a dying shad. Other lures will work for ver tical presentations like a Lanier Baits Fruity Worm rigged on a SPRO Alien Head Jig Head, a Georgia Blade Premium Jig or even the same small swim baits that most anglers usually only fish horizontally. Night fishing is not something I'm getting a lot of reports on right now, but anglers might be surprised how shallow the fish move after dark. I will be turning 60 this year and it's just too cold for me but I See Lanier 12C Michigan’s Harbaugh interviews for head coaching job with Atlanta Falcons Associated Press Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons for their head coaching vacancy on Tuesday, his second interview in two days. The Falcons announced the interview with Harbaugh, who is exploring a return to the NFL after leading Michigan to the national championship. The Los Angeles Chargers announced Monday that Harbaugh had interviewed for their head coaching vacancy. Harbaugh was the San Fran cisco 49ers' coach from 2011-14 before nine seasons at Michigan. The Falcons offered no details about the interview with Har baugh. Harbaugh is the second high-profile candidate to talk with the Falcons this week, following the team's interview with Bill Belichick on Mon day. Belichick, the six time Super Bowl winning coach in his 24 seasons with New England, made the Falcons his first known interview since leaving the Patriots. The 60-year-old Har baugh has an 89-25 record in nine seasons at Michigan, his alma mater. He was 44-19-1 in four seasons with the 49ers, including a trip to the Super Bowl after the 2012 season. Harbaugh EQUAL IMPACT For The Times Cherokee Bluff’s Boston Kersh (3) and his younger sister Bristol Kersh are both a big part of their programs success this season. Leehleard For The Times Cherokee Bluff’s Boston Kersh goes in for a basket against Walnut Grove on Tuesday in Flowery Branch. Lee Heard For The Times Cherokee Bluff’s Bristol Kersh dribbles against North Oconee on Jan. 5 in Flowery Branch. Kersh siblings have Bluff squads in race for 8-4A titles BY DAVID FRIEDLANDER dfriedlander@gainesvilletimes.com In a lot of ways, Boston and Bristol Kersh are like many sets of teenage siblings. Each tries hard on the path of figuring out who they are as people and forging those indi vidual identities and circle of friends, while also fully realizing the strong familial bond that has existed for years. While that bond has many different elements that bring it together, one of the most impor tant elements that brings the Kershes together as brother and sister as they negotiate their way as Cherokee Bluff High stu dents in athletics - specifically, basketball. It's not that unusual for a set of siblings to be successful in the same sport at the same high school in the same season. However, each having a major impact the way that Boston, a 6-foot-4 junior forward for the Cherokee Bluff boys team, and Bristol, a freshman guard with the girls varsity team, have had doesn't exactly happen every day. See Kersh 12C
