just1more

I am very glad that IL has started a HS bass fishinf club but! Orange County High School has had a high school competitive fishing club for years and long before Illinois ever thought about it. It is organized under the H. S. 4H umbrella. The anglers can even LETTER in bass fishing along with the other sports. They are totally self sufficient meaning they recieve no financial aid from the school. They started with donated Jon Boats and Trolling motors, A trailer to haul them to and from small waters where the kids have there tournaments. In addition Local adult bass clubs donate there time and money to become boat captain for big waters. The kids do a tremendous amount of fund raising activities, habitat restoration and improvement, go to a local senior citizen home for a take a senior fishing day, and many more support activities. It is more work than fishing. The anglers, because of the volunteer work they do, bring more public awareness and PR to their high school than any other high school sport. When was the last time you heard of or let alone seen a high school football or basket ball team helping a senior citizen home, or cleaning up a river, pond, or roadside. I think its awesome.

Thanks!

Long ago my Grandsons caught a 4 inch bass which we took home and put into an aquarium (later we released the same fish back into the lake). That fish taught me a valuable lesson that has helped me put many a bass in the boat over the years. To feed it we dropped a night crawler into the tank and of course it stretched out to about 7 or 8 inches. That little bass immediately attacked the worm and started inhaling it. After swallowing in about a third of the worm it just couldn't get anymore in so it spit it out and wouldn't touch it again. We went outside and got a tiny lizard from under a rock and dropped it into the tank and the bass attacked it immediately. Now when I get a hit on spinner bait and I miss setting the hook I throw crank bait etc. Some times blessing come in small packages!