Invitation to all Missouri high schools

The Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) made a great call in allowing all Missouri high schools to enter the Missouri Fall Classic bass tournament here at Lake of the Ozarks Oct. 26 whether or not the schools are signed up with the MSHSAA program.  It was agonizing to get those Facebook messages from students and parents who wanted to participate in the tournament but they were disappointed that they might miss out because their school wasn’t signed up with MSHSAA.   I was glad to see that MSHSAA is giving those students a chance to fish if they can find a coach, some teammates and boat captains.

MSHSAA’s decision shows that the state association is committed to helping the bass fishing activity grow so it will reach the 50-school mark needed for MSHSAA to start holding a state series culminating in a state championship.  Hopefully these kids who will be fishing with an unofficial school team will have a great experience in the tournament and will take back to their school administrators several photos and testimonials from parents on how great an event it was for the kids.  

We saw a great upsurge in interest for high school bass fishing after the Bass Pro Shops Open Championship of High School Fishing at Table Rock in June and hopefully since the fall event will be held in a central location of the state it will attract more teams from schools in Kansas City and St. Louis along with the Lake of the Ozarks area schools.

I also hope the schools that competed in the Bass Pro Shops event will also come up to show off their great programs. I was really impressed by how well organized and dedicated those schools were to the bass fishing program.  They are shining examples of what we hope to accomplish throughout the rest of the state and I consider those high school teams the ambassadors of this program.

There are still some details to work on for the Fall Classic but hopefully those will be ironed out in the next couple of weeks.  Even though schools not signed up with the MSHSAA program will be allowed to send teams to compete in the Fall Classic, the teams will have to follow all MSHSAA requirements. To see a list of the MSHAA requirements visit https://www.mshsaa.org/Activities/Info/BassFishing.aspx and click on Proposed Insurance Guidelines for Bass Fishing.

New York fishing

Thanks to a writers’ trip put on by Cabela’s, I got a chance to experience the smallmouth, walleye and steelhead fishing on Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and the Niagara River.
Fishing the big waters can be challenging, especially when the wind blows as it did the first day of our trip on Lake Ontario. Despite the rough waters, our guide Terry Jones set up the right drift as we caught several quality smallmouth including caught by Chuck Smock of Cabela’s that weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces according to Terry’s handheld scale. We caught a few fish dragging tubes but our most productive tactic was to drift a drop shot rig with a Yum Houdini worm and constantly shake the rig as it bounced along the bottom.
The next day I fished with guide Frank Campbell and since I needed some walleye photos for my file, we started out trolling nightcrawlers on spinner rigs which produced a couple of walleyes for photos. Frank caught the best photo fish, a 5-pounder. After getting the walleye shots we tried fro some smallmouth in the shallows with spinnerbaits and jerkbaits and managed to catch a few 2-pounders and missed a few. Moving on to deeper water we added a 4-pounder and a few 3-pounders while drifting tubes and drop shot Houdini worms.
Our second adventure for the day was a charter boat excursion for king salmon and steelhead. Although we never hooked up with any salmon, we got plenty of action from the steelhead with our largest catch weighing around 12 pounds.
If you plan on visiting the Buffalo area and want to experience the great fishing at Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Niagara River, call either Jones (who specializes in bass) at First Class Bass Charters, 716-875-4946; or Campbell for smallmouth, walleye and trout, salmon and muskie, 716-284-8546.

New York fishing

Thanks to a writers’ trip put on by Cabela’s, I got a chance to experience the smallmouth, walleye and steelhead fishing on Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and the Niagara River.
Fishing the big waters can be challenging, especially when the wind blows as it did the first day of our trip on Lake Ontario. Despite the rough waters, our guide Terry Jones set up the right drift as we caught several quality smallmouth including caught by Chuck Smock of Cabela’s that weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces according to Terry’s handheld scale. We caught a few fish dragging tubes but our most productive tactic was to drift a drop shot rig with a Yum Houdini worm and constantly shake the rig as it bounced along the bottom.
The next day I fished with guide Frank Campbell and since I needed some walleye photos for my file, we started out trolling nightcrawlers on spinner rigs which produced a couple of walleyes for photos. Frank caught the best photo fish, a 5-pounder. After getting the walleye shots we tried fro some smallmouth in the shallows with spinnerbaits and jerkbaits and managed to catch a few 2-pounders and missed a few. Moving on to deeper water we added a 4-pounder and a few 3-pounders while drifting tubes and drop shot Houdini worms.
Our second adventure for the day was a charter boat excursion for king salmon and steelhead. Although we never hooked up with any salmon, we got plenty of action from the steelhead with our largest catch weighing around 12 pounds.
If you plan on visiting the Buffalo area and want to experience the great fishing at Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Niagara River, call either Jones (who specializes in bass) at First Class Bass Charters, 716-875-4946; or Campbell for smallmouth, walleye and trout, salmon and muskie, 716-284-8546.

High School Fishing World Finals

Story date: July 25, 2010

Kentucky duo claims first student angler championship

Fishing mission accomplished as history made on Lake Dardanelle

By Kevin Hill
Assistant Sports Editor

For Full Story Click here

Fishing will be low-cost activity

I was talking to a bass club president the other night about our high school fishing proposal and he told me about a school official he knows in Kansas that thought it would be a great idea but it would be a tough sell to the schools because of budgetary considerations.
I told him it should be the opposite. This program should be appealing to schools because it will be budget friendly to schools. In Illinois' program, most of the mentors for the schools were from the school district staff or unpaid volunteers from bass clubs. The Missouri State High School Activities Association has told us we could have the same volunteer mentor and boat captain setup as Illinois had in the first year of its fishing program.
As for other expenses, the kids will be required to have their own fishing gear (I'm sure we will be able to collected donated gear for the kids who don't have any) and boats will be provided by volunteers.
So in these tough economic times, this is one school activity that will be very affordable for the schools.

High School Bass Fishing

Don Berry Pro Fishing LLC Productions is excited about the introduction of competitive fishing to the high school communities across this great state. Missouri can be a terriffic leader in keeping the public interested in fishing by offering this activity at the school house level. Your school doesn't have to own a stable of bass boats or even spend a lot of money getting this started in your school. This is onw of the most outstanding ways to get the community involvement in school activities and kids that has come along in a lot of years.

The Missouri State High School Activites Association will be meeting in school district regions in January and I encourage every person to contact their school administration and athletic department to show support for their school and students becoming involved with competitive fishing. Not only will the kids benefit from learning a lifetime sport, one that they will use, there will be a whole new host of careers that kids will be exposed to in the fishing industry.

I challenge every fisherman and parent to contact the schools in their area to make sure the school knows that you support this activity issue.

ReSpoolin'