Chronicles Of A High School Bass Tournament

I started pre-fishing three weeks before our big tournament as part of the Montgomery ISD (MISD) Fishing Team.

They weren’t the best practice days but also could have been worse. We were having boat problems at the time as well. When it came down to tournament day I was not very confident, and I would’ve told you that I would not have a limit. The day started very foggy, we also didn’t have many boats around us at that time either which was a big plus. At the start of the tournament, I was throwing a buzz bait, but nothing was biting on topwater so I decided to pick up a shaky head, about the third cast with a shaky head I wormed it almost back to the boat when I got a bite. I set the hook and fought her. She jumped out of the water shaking her head and right then I knew I had to get her in the boat. Not many big fish are caught in that lake. I finally got her in the net and the boat and my whole mood changed.

I was excited! About fifteen minutes passed by and I got another bite that wasn’t as big but still got the fish in the live well by eight o’clock. We had to scramble to find three more fish. I was just hoping for a limit. It didn’t matter how big as long as I had five fish to weigh in. I made the call that we should go to a spot where we didn’t know if the fish were still going to be in there or not. I had this feeling that I could at least pull one of our bigger fish out of there.

The first flip up to the dock I caught a three-pounder, we fished the other docks but nothing came from them. When we tried to start the boat it wouldn’t turn over and I started stressing because we were a ways away from the boat ramp. Finally, after five minutes we got the boat cranked. We went to our spot from last year where we had put a new brush pile two weeks before the tournament. We went to the very back of the pocket and flipped on it.

The second cast with a shaky head I caught a 2 pounder, we flipped and flipped it again for about 30 minutes, with no luck. I finally picked up a square bill crankbait and threw it down the side of the wall and caught a two-pounder. We fished some more docks in the cove we were in with no luck. We tried to fire up the boat again but it would not crank again. I was so nervous that we were not going to make it to weigh in on time. With the fish we had, I knew we were in contention for first place. We finally got the boat started up after what seemed like forever, and I thought the safest bet was to go back to the cove where the boat ramp was and flip docks that we had put brush under. After flipping all the docks it was about 2:30 it started to rain so we decided that it would be safer if we put the boat on the trailer. We headed to weigh-in just in case the boat had problems again. I’m not one who ever quits early. I’ve always said fish until the last minute. I can not tell you how many fish I’ve caught with three minutes to go.

But I felt like it was the right thing to do at this moment. We got to weigh-in and walked up to the stage to weigh our fish. When we put the fish on the scale our weight was 13.80. We were in the lead for about 45 minutes, a team weighed in fifteen pounds. I wasn’t upset about it because we were still up there in the standings after the weigh-in was done. We were in second place. I felt really good about our finish especially since I’ve never weighed in a five-fish limit at Lake Livingston. We got our awards and in the end, I was very proud of my plaque, scholarship, and to be able to help my team achieve a win at the first tournament of the 2021-2022 season. The MISD Fishing Team won first place with the overall top weight out of the schools in our division.

The MISD Fishing Team was conference champs and regional champs the year before. It was a tough tournament for all of us but we managed a second-place finish and helped our school win the first tournament of the year. We are working towards the conference, regional and state champs this season.

Fallon Clepper