Florence, Ala. — Young anglers fishing in Minnesota’s Student Angler Tournament Trail have had a busy summer thus far, as the upstart high school bass-fishing league attempts to make further inroads statewide.
This past weekend, two high school teams from Minnesota qualified for the final day of the 2018 High School Fishing World Finals and National Championship dual event on Alabama’s Lake Pickwick. That was put on by The Bass Federation, with which the SATT is affiliated.
This, a week after the SATT put on its first Minnesota event of the summer on Lake Minnetonka.
“It was the largest high school bass-fishing contest that’s ever been put on in Minnesota,” said Jimmy Bell, president of the SATT’s parent Student Angler Organization, which has gotten the backing of industry leaders Lund and Rapala, among others.
Bell said the Minnetonka event had 300 students fishing in it, with 150 boat captains.
But there were 384 teams from around the country fishing in the four-day World Finals and National Championship in Alabama.
Among those teams, there were at least 15 that hailed from Minnesota, said Jason Bahr, executive director of the SATT and head coach of the Brainerd High School bass team, which is one of the deepest high school fishing programs in the state.
In Alabama, Bahr captained his sons, Kyle and Tyler, who qualified for the fourth and final day of the event, where they finished 18th overall with a five-fish bag weighing 12 pounds, 6 ounces. A day earlier, in the semifinals, the Bahrs were the top team with a five-fish bag that weighed 20 pounds, 14 ounces.
Bahr said that last year, only four teams made the trip to the World Finals, and his sons did the best among the Minnesota teams that year, finishing 41st overall.
But the other Minnesota team – Easton Fothergill and Alex Timm, from Grand Rapids High School – did even better in the final results, finishing eighth overall with a five-fish bag weighing 15 pounds, 8 ounces on the final day of the competition.
Back in Minnesota, the SATT has four more qualifying tournaments and then a championship on Lake Minnetonka on Sept. 9. The next event will be on Lake Mille Lacs on July 15.
Minnetonka High School’s Charlie Worms and Graham Harris won the opening tournament on Minnetonka. The team, captained by Bill Worms, weighed a 20-pound bag of bass.
It’s been a busy summer for those competing in high school bass fishing in Minnesota, Bahr noted, also pointing to a championship held on Lake Mille Lacs on June 17. The Bahrs took third in that tournament, which was won by Mitchell McGannon and Jon Olmsted, of Minnetonka High, with a 22-pound, 1-ounce bag that will qualify them for next year’s national championship.
Bahr said the sport, which he is hoping to get sanctioned by the Minnesota High School League – which similarly sanctioned a state tournament for the upstart Minnesota High School Clay Target League a few years back – is growing fast.
“We added more than 50 schools to it,” Bahr said, noting that there are more than 100 schools in the SATT at the moment. “Three years ago, there were only a handful of teams. This spring we met with superintendents from 16 schools out in western Minnesota. Now there are not only more teams, but the teams are growing.”
His own Brainerd High School team has about 125 kids participating, one of the largest in the state. Minnetonka High is probably the largest in the state, Bahr said, at about 150 members.
Bahr noted the recent startup of the Heart O’ Lakes Fishing League, made up of about 20 schools in central Minnesota, including Pelican Rapids, Barnesville, Detroit Lakes, Alexandria, Fergus Falls, and Minnewaska, among others.
Bahr and Bell pitched the idea of getting a sanctioned state tournament to the MSHL earlier this year, but the MSHL put a moratorium on adding new sports because it just named a new executive director, Erich Martens, after the previous director, Dave Stead, retired.
“We will continue to provide them with data and comments from students and parents, and hope to get back in front of the MSHL board later this year, shooting for the 2019 school year,” Bell said. “We are continuing to push. If I can change their minds and get it this year, I am going to do my best. The biggest thing is they want to hear about the impact its having on the students and families.”
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