MISD Fishing Team: Clean Sweep!
The smell of crawfish coming from Pappa’s on the Lake, equated to the smell of victory and a “Clean Sweep” for your MISD Fishing Team at the TBF Student Angler Federation State Championship held Saturday, April the 1st. The TBF/SAF is the organization that got competitive Bass Fishing at the High School level started 15 years ago and is the event that Fallon Clepper and Wyatt Ford won in 2022, and then proceeded to go to the National Championship, and win that as well.
Fast forward to 2023, and both Fallon and Wyatt are advancing, but with different partners this year. This will only be for the TBF event, as they are still Team Partners for the Texas High School Bass Association events.
Winning the event in dominating fashion was the Team of Wyatt Ford and Reece Findley, who brought in an impressive 5 fish limit that tipped the scales at 21.04 pounds. In fact, Reece came by my classroom on Friday before the tournament and said, “you better put your money on us,” which indicated that he was supremely confident. For anyone that knows Reece, you know this is how he carries himself, confident, but not cocky. You need that to be successful in Competitive Tournament Fishing, and he and one of the reining National Champions in Wyatt Ford, were supremely confident and earned this victory.
Coming in 2nd with a 14.10 limit of their own was the other reigning National Champion Fallon Clepper, and her TBF partner Matthew Jones. This newly formed duo have punched their ticket to go to the TBF/SAF National Championship to be held in June on the Mississippi River in Lacrosse, Wisconsin.
Newcomers to the MISD Fishing Team Blayne Beall and Aidan Castro, brought 3 of the right ones to the scales, as their 3 fish weighed an impressive 14.03 pounds. This pair of Montgomery High School Students also had the distinction of catching the largest fish of the event, a 7.03-pound Lake Conroe Stud. By coming in 3rd, this pair have earned a coveted birth in the prestigious TBF-SAF National Championship as well.
Earning the 4th and final spot from the State of Texas in this year’s National Championship, went to Lake Creek High School Seniors Jack Haag and Jackson Wilkerson. This seasoned pair of anglers brought in a 5 fish limit weighing 13.12 pounds, thus securing a “Clean Sweep” for the MISD Program, securing all 4 National qualifiers spots available for this event.
MISD Fishing Team: Onward!
On Saturday, March 18th, the MISD Fishing Team along with 21 other area Houston Division Programs descended upon Lake Limestone. The week before was “Chamber of Commerce” weather, with temperatures in the 80’s, and as one of our Captains Sean Hoernke said, “the fish were munching.”
Well, “Mother Nature”, or possibly “Old Man Winter,” or both of them combined, and had other plans for us. A blustery cold front blew through on Friday before the tournament, dropping temperatures by 30 degrees, and of course, changing the wind direction out of the North.
The combined squad from both Lake Creek and Montgomery High Schools were not deterred in the least bit. At stake, was the chance for the MISD Fishing Team to win their 8th Divisional Title in 9 years of competing, as well as the opportunity for many of our Teams to qualify for the Regional Championship.
Leading the charge was the team of Trevor Mahoney and Kason Cryer. This pair brought in an impressive 5 fish limit that weighed 18.02 pounds, claiming first place in a field of 134 Individual Teams from 22 programs. By winning this event, these Anglers were awarded two thousand dollars in scholarship money.
Following closely behind was the team of Morgan Scott and Michael Smith. These Anglers captured third place with 4 fish, which weighed a whopping 17.08 pounds, anchored by the biggest fish of the event, a 7.1 pound behemoth, which on Limestone, is a true giant.
Anchoring the third best team for MISD, which is how the overall School or Program Champion is crowned, were the 2022-23 Anglers of the Year Curtis McCauley and Nate Millner. Due to prior commitments for Nate, Curtis fished solo for the event, bringing a 5 fish limit to the scales that weighed 14.03 pounds, claiming sixth place.
Combined, the top three teams for MISD brought a whopping total of 49.13 pounds to the scales, easily outdistancing the second place finishers from Magnolia by 8 pounds. This event brought the Divisional season to a close, where the MISD Fishing Team was able to win two of the five events, and come in second at the other three events. The consistency of this squad helped them earn 497 points out of a possible 500, outdistancing College Station by four points, and Magnolia by six, thus earning their 8th Divisional Title.
MISD was also able to qualify 21 Teams that will be competing at the Regional Championship, which will be held at Lake Conroe on April 15th, where the weigh in will be at the MISD Stadium beginning at 3:00. It will be there where MISD will be looking to advance as many teams “onward” to the State Championship in May on Lake Sam Rayburn, where our Fishing Team will look to claim another State Championship.
