High School Bass Fishing

[Tim_T]

No doubt I believe that Bass Fishing as a sport at the High School level is a great idea and gives many young folks a chance to compete in a sport which otherwise they may not have had an opportunity to do in other sports, but this would also ensure a growing interest and awareness in our sport for future generations.

The probelm that I do have with the advent of this sport as a sanctioned sport is that from what I have seen, it has already become politcal. From what I have been told by a number of folks both team members and coaches, during the hgh school championships held here at Kentucky Lake this past spring, the teams were allowed to recruit their Boat Captain. Boat Captains are adults that not only drive the boat, but they also are allowed to put the teams on fish and give them advice on how to catch them. So guess what, it is any wonder then that those teams from the schools around this area used their contacts to line up guides and professional tournament anglers that live here in the local community? Is it any wonder that a local team won the championship with a local guide as their Boat Captain?

My question is this: How can a team from say, an Eastern Ky school come here and compete with teams that have local guides and professionals telling them where and what to fish....??

Seems to me this has become a competition between Boat Captains...not between the high school team members....it is a competition to see which team, team member or family member has the best contacts to a professional angler to be recruited as a Boat Captain.

I have already had a couple of high school team members tell me they quit their respective teams because of this situation.

To me, having the rules of competition to allow the Boat Captains to put the young anglers on fish during competition and then tell them how to catch them, is paramount to having their varsity Basketball team be allowed to have a UK or UL player, play on their team during competition.

Where is the level playing field in these competitions if recruited Boat Captains are allowed to make the important decisions for these kids???

I do not see this sport surviving at the high school level unless this problem is corrected...certainly it will never be a competitive sport with a level playing field unless the Boat Captains are restricted to just driving the boat and nothing else.

Hopefully that changes next year when the KHSAA takes over. If not, like you said I doubt it will survive for a long period of time.

[mhall]

LOL....mark, you did have it when you were in high school just like me. the only difference is now its called "hgih school bass fishing" .....when we did it they called it skipping.

Amen brother, I remember that very well...

[raincheck]

Thanks Dave on your input.thats how i feel about the boat & coachs.Someone who has never caught a bass if takin too the spot,told what too use will catch fish thats why guides get payed.Thats why like Nascar they should start on small lakes or creeks with ho motor,I know how crazy & the danger of water that i won't put kids even riding on bass boats.Its not fun when the wind picks up.Was talking too someone who fished the USABassin Championship on Ky when we had the flood a few yrs back.Those guys tore up some boats.Don't think anyone died but bet there was some sore bones.JMO
Terry Adolph

[Aquaman]

Deleted Post!

Sorry didn't see the second page and got on the soap box!

On subject- I'm all for it if they can get rid of the politics and make it sporting!

[SLP]

It really is common sense to not allow professional guides as coaches. Matter of fact it would make total sense that they should just have boat drivers but have the student make all the decisions. Not sure how you police that other than the honor system, but it seems like it is much better than having someone else "guiding" them for tournaments.

I don't know the rules, but it seems like they should also have to have the same coach for the entire season, that way they couldn't just hook up with locals for each lake fished.

I also agree with the above mentioned suggestion about smaller waters. If nothing else there should be a limit on engine size at this level. If they put a limit of say 25 hp it would be safer, eliminate the use of many "pros", probably make it available to a larger number of students, and they would likely learn more about fishing.

[Dave Stewart]

Thanks Dave on your input.thats how i feel about the boat & coachs.Someone who has never caught a bass if takin too the spot,told what too use will catch fish thats why guides get payed.Thats why like Nascar they should start on small lakes or creeks with ho motor,I know how crazy & the danger of water that i won't put kids even riding on bass boats.Its not fun when the wind picks up.Was talking too someone who fished the USABassin Championship on Ky when we had the flood a few yrs back.Those guys tore up some boats.Don't think anyone died but bet there was some sore bones.JMO
Terry Adolph

Actually with the sanctioning as a high school sport, each participating high school will be hiring a coach for the team just like having football and basketball coaches...don't see anything wrong with that....if you are going to have an organized sport, you need a coach to teach and do all the administrative stuff that goes with the job.

Also do not see anything wrong with having Boat Captains.....whether they are parents, volunteers ect which could be guides or professional tournament anglers...the problem comes in if the Boat Captains are allowed to put the kids on fish during a competition and tell them how to catch them. I can tell you for sure, I was approached to be a Boat Captain for the high school championship tourney held here this spring and I turned it down for just this reason. It is not a level playing field for all involved unless the Boat Captain is prohibited from assisting the anglers in finding and catching fish.

I had more than one angler that was in the state tournament here tell me that at the weigh-in, one of the anglers who's parents had recruited a local well know professional tournament angler, turned to him at the weigh-in when he saw his bag was not competitive with some other bags that came in that day and he said "I thought you were better than this"....now tell me, what did that young person learn about competition and sportsmanship and most of all losing......obviously he thought that it was all the Boat Captain's fault he did not win.....whereas if the Boat Captain had been prohibited from assisting him, he would only have had himself to blame....then again, maybe he did learn that even professionals have their off days just like everyone else. Had I been the Boat Captain, we would have had a very close talk with his parents after a remark like that.

When I was coaching the UK team, we used volunteer boat owners as drivers in our qualifying tournaments so that all team members had a chance to fish the tournaments....but they were not allowed to assist the anglers with any information....it is the same way in the FLW college tour tournaments. Using volunteers to drive these kids around in their boats allows more kids to participate that do not have access to boats....actually in the FLW College Tour tournaments, the anglers do not get to use their boats, they must fish out of a boat supplied by FLW with a volunteer driver. This also takes the safety problem out of having inexperienced drivers in the boats.

Hopefully when the KHSAA puts this in place this coming school year, the Boat Captains will no longer be able to assist the anglers. I would think if I were one of the new coaches, I would work hard to make sure this rule is enacted.

[raincheck]

Why not just teach them too drive the boat..after all i learned too drive a boat way before a car and was driving a car at about 14.In the ABA tournaments there was a 16 yr old lady angler who i think drove the boat.More too think about.

[Dave Stewart]

Why not just teach them too drive the boat..after all i learned too drive a boat way before a car and was driving a car at about 14.In the ABA tournaments there was a 16 yr old lady angler who i think drove the boat.More too think about.

Most of the young folks don't have boats...and certainly the school is not going to be able to provide boats for them...so who is going to loan them their boat to learn how to survive in 6 ft rollers...you?

[sweetwater]

Put the kids in the safest boat possible. In the case of most boats, bigger is safer. Nothing is to good when it comes to keeping our kids safe. Forbidding a boat captain from giving advice is an impossible rule to enforce. Let the boat captains give advice, it will make the kids better fisherman and help them learn things too which is what school is all about. If advice is forbidden then someone will inevitably break the rule which will give their boat an advantage anyway. I think every parent out would not mind their kids learning about fishing from a pro.

Do not let the boat captains touch the rods, reels, line and baits. Most important of all, never let the kids be in contol of the boat while the combustion engine is on.

[raincheck]

Most of the young folks don't have boats...and certainly the school is not going to be able to provide boats for them...so who is going to loan them their boat to learn how to survive in 6 ft rollers...you?

A kayak & i did loan my triton out for AOY the last yr i had it before i gave it back too the bank.But thats another story............I did learn in bigger waves than that growing up in Mi & living on my Mom & Dads boat all summer as a kid We had a life boat it was 12ft with a 20hp that you sat in the back too steer It flew Think i was 9 Man i miss that boat.