On Saturday Feb. 11, the fishing team loaded up the boats and rods in a tournament on Lake Hubbard. The team faced the elements, with 20 mph winds and cold weather.
“The weather played a big factor in the tournament,” junior Grant Pursifull said. “Because a cold front blew in the day before the tournament, making the water temp drop. It also rained giving a dark stain to the water making the conditions really difficult.”
The team arrived at Lake Hubbard at around 5:45 in the morning. The team is split up into partners with an adult captain, usually a parent, who drives the boat and supervises. Each boat races to their preferred spot on the lake, then at 6:45 a.m., teams make their first cast and the tournament commences.
“My partner and I got to our first spot at 5:30 a.m,” junior Izak Lenart said. “Eagerly waiting in the cold for the next hour and 15 minutes. When the first cast came at 6:45 a.m, we threw what we had rigged up into the water, waiting for a bass to annihilate the bait.”
The maximum number of fish that can be weighed in is five fish per boat. Lines come out of the water at 3 p.m. on the dot, and teams have to be in line at the weigh-in by 4:30 p.m.
“I believe the best part of fishing is the excitement after you catch a fish,” sophomore Natalie Lenart said. “After I reel in fish and get to hold it I’m very excited and grateful that I actually caught a fish. It’s really nice because you are usually on the boat for many hours, so when you catch one it’s nice to know that you didn’t spend all that time for no results.”
Each tournament has about 250 two-man teams fishing against each other, each trying their hardest to catch a five-bass limit. Smallmouth and largemouth bass are the only fish that are allowed, and are released at the end of the tournament.
“My day on the water went pretty slow,” Izak said. “Within the first 30 minutes of the tournament, I caught the first bass using a red crankbait, fishing the bait off of rocks and tree stumps. Me and my partner, Grant Pursifull, tried as hard as we could to locate the bass and catch a limit of 5. We were hardly getting any bites within the full 8 hours of the tournament. We ended up doing better than I initially thought, even though it was a pretty tough tournament.”
The team fished for eight hours, moving about the lake, changing rods, lures, bait and battling the elements.
“The 8 hours of fishing can either feel really long or pretty short depending on the day and how well you do,” Natalie said. “On days where it is cold the entire time it is not always fun because everything is freezing. But on days where it’s nice and cool in the morning but warm in the afternoon the time flies by and it’s pretty fun.”
The winning bag was 12 pounds, lower than the usual 20 pounds. The top 30 teams received Academy gift cards and the top three got a divided $4000 scholarship money. Izak and Pursifull placed 11th and Grayson Cox and Carsten Dunn placed 12th to finish off the tournament.
“I believe the best part about fishing is the relaxation,” Pursifull said. “And the satisfaction of outsmarting the fish and the other anglers in the tournament and the competitive atmosphere.”