High school bass leagues

Any one captain for high school kids ? My nephew asked me to be a captain for him and his buddy so I agreed. Last night was our first meeting. Lots of information to take in. But it sounds like a blast. I’m pretty excited for every thing. Only thing I disagree with is they insist on live weigh ins. I’m completely against hauling around fish in my live well in mid July for 4 hours just to weigh them in live, and hope they survive. Seen to many of these bass clubs do this and have floating bass afterwards. But not my rules.
Either way it sounds like it will be pretty exciting.

That does sound like fun. I wish my boys were in to it. I have a few buddies that captain for their kids. They enjoy it, but it’s a commitment. They’ve said the worst part is sitting in the boat for that long and not getting to fish! Get ready to travel.

Joe Jarl wrote:

That does sound like fun. I wish my boys were in to it. I have a few buddies that captain for their kids. They enjoy it, but it’s a commitment. They’ve said the worst part is sitting in the boat for that long and not getting to fish! Get ready to travel.

Rules are, captain can fish but my fish don’t count obviously. I most likely won’t fish due to I don’t want to take there fish away from them.
My son’s pretty jealous, but in 2 years he will be able to do the same thing.

My son joined this year and I signed up to be a caption. I am excited for it. Right now I am just trying to figure out how to be on the water every Tuesday night practice and Wednesday night derby at 4. Most of the lakes are an hour + away. I normally try to stay closer to home on the weekdays. It is going to be a lot of fun.

Your son is the same age as my son. Look into the Jr. league.
I was told you can fish the practice night. During the derby you can’t touch the trolling motor or a rod.

Rodwork wrote:

Your son is the same age as my son. Look into the Jr. league.
I was told you can fish the practice night. During the derby you can’t touch the trolling motor or a rod.

We have no practice nights for the in house tournaments. Just for the bigger tourneys. Ours is on Mondays at 4 pm. But they are in Chisago area. So I’ll have to park my truck and boat at my mom’s and drive the work truck to her place right after work. Our pre fishing days will be the weekends. Just means I’ll have no overtime on Mondays and I’m pretty OK with that

I volunteered to be a captain and let a couple of high schoolers use my boat about 4 years ago (pre covid era). Rodwork is accurate, the worst part is just sitting there watching two people fish for hours. I’m pretty maticulous about my boat and the equipment, but they were very respectful when they used it. All I did was drive it from point A to point B and make sure they were following the rules for the most part.

I discontinued doing it because it was too big of a time investment for me. But I would consider doing it again at some point.

I am with you on the mandatory live weigh ins Bearcat, not my cup of tea either, especially in the searing heat when water temps are high.

They didn’t have trap or fishing as sponsored HS sports/activities when I was in school, so it was a new experience for me, even if I couldn’t really participate.

I’ve been boat captaining for my kids the last few years, never seen a high school league that does live weigh-ins. (Not doubting you just never seen it) SATT is the organization that runs most of the high school fishing in MN and they are strictly catch-photo-release tourneys.

Bass-n-Eyes wrote:

I’ve been boat captaining for my kids the last few years, never seen a high school league that does live weigh-ins. (Not doubting you just never seen it) SATT is the organization that runs most of the high school fishing in MN and they are strictly catch-photo-release tourneys.

All of our in house tournaments are live weigh ins.

B.A.S.S still does live weigh ins. I like SATT events better all online, no take off from the same spot, start fishing at your spot when the tournament starts, live leaderboard is kinda fun to watch when you boat captain.

Krh129 wrote:

B.A.S.S still does live weigh ins. I like SATT events better all online, no take off from the same spot, start fishing at your spot when the tournament starts, live leaderboard is kinda fun to watch when you boat captain.

This is through B.A.S.S, I’m not a tournament guy by any means and don’t pretend to be. Just helping out my nephew, he asked I think so he can get all my secret spots. My main goal is to put them in a solid position on that leader board. He comes to me for most all of his out door needs, and I won’t ever say no.

Krh129 wrote:

B.A.S.S still does live weigh ins. I like SATT events better all online, no take off from the same spot, start fishing at your spot when the tournament starts, live leaderboard is kinda fun to watch when you boat captain.

Krh129 wrote:

B.A.S.S still does live weigh ins. I like SATT events better all online, no take off from the same spot, start fishing at your spot when the tournament starts, live leaderboard is kinda fun to watch when you boat captain.

I think you will enjoy it, I boat captain for several teams including the one my son coaches on the iron range. Just to be clear I do enjoy BASS tourneys just hate the weigh ins, and sometimes long wait to take out at the end of a long day on the water.

I serve on the Board of Directors for the Wisconsin Interscholastic Fishing Association (WIFA). We’re mostly an ice fishing organization, but have been dabbling in the open water stuff.

SATT has approached us to get involved from WI, we just don’t have quite enough man power to jump off, but more conversation has been going on regarding more open water stuff.

One of our schools started a Spring tourney on the Fox and the coach started it three or four years ago. He closed it to 50 boats this year and it filled in an hour and a half and he had ten boats on a waiting list for his date.

We use Fish Donkey for all of our tourneys. They have been fantastic to work with!!! BASS approached us, at the time they wanted all of our contestants and boat coaches to join the Organization at $60 a pop, which pushed us away as we were trying get students into fishing with minimal coast.

Mark

Do they allow live imaging sonar in these youth/HS leagues?

LabDaddy1 wrote:

Do they allow live imaging sonar in these youth/HS leagues?

I am sure they do. It is such a great tool to learn how fish respond to what you are doing. On the other hand I wish they didn’t since I don’t have one. The major thing you need to be a boat caption is a 16’+ boat and live well. They let me be a caption and I have never targeted bass in my life. If you have the time I know these leagues are always looking for volunteers. It is not too late to volunteer for this year.

When I did it years ago, they more or less just asked me to supervise the anglers. I could offer my advice and opinion, but I mostly refrained from doing that. I helped with the basic operation of equipment (since it was mine anyways and I didn’t want anyone changing settings or anything like that). Part of the ultimate goal here is to make them better at what they’re trying to do and let them figure it out on their own. Being a “guide” while your there really isn’t the purpose of this IMO.

I’m sure many of the participants nowadays have a lot more knowledge on things like live sonar. Live sonar wasn’t really a thing years ago when I did it. They probably spend enough of their daily lives staring at a screen already.

gimruis wrote:

When I did it years ago, they more or less just asked me to supervise the anglers. I could offer my advice and opinion, but I mostly refrained from doing that. I helped with the basic operation of equipment (since it was mine anyways and I didn’t want anyone changing settings or anything like that). Part of the ultimate goal here is to make them better at what they’re trying to do and let them figure it out on their own. Being a “guide” while your there really isn’t the purpose of this IMO.

I’m sure many of the participants nowadays have a lot more knowledge on things like live sonar. Live sonar wasn’t really a thing years ago when I did it. They probably spend enough of their daily lives staring at a screen already.

Being a guide and teaching them tactics is exactly the goal. They are 8th graders. I will offer every bit of advice I would do in that situation and teach them what baits to throw in certain situations, that is 100 percent the goal.
Why would you volunteer to help the kids to not teach them anything.

Bearcat89 wrote:

They are 8th graders.

Mine were in HS, and I didn’t know them either. The ones in my boat already kind of knew what they were doing.

Plus I am not a guide either, far from it. lol

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
They are 8th graders.

Mine were in HS, and I didn’t know them either. The ones in my boat already kind of knew what they were doing.

Plus I am not a guide either, far from it. lol

I’m no guide either. But I can still offer my information up. I guess if it were kids I didn’t know I wouldn’t even be interested in being a captain.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I guess if it were kids I didn’t know I wouldn’t even be interested in being a captain.

I understand. I did it because I have a boat, had the time, and had the willingness to help the organization. Not because I knew the kids that I was the captain for and wanted them to win. So the situation with you is probably a little different than mine, (yours being a nephew) you would obviously want them to do well in competition too.

In the end it was just too time consuming for me. It was not a negative experience in any way other than the live weigh in (I much prefer an immediate release format).

Nothing better than seeing moms and dads parade around an access with a sublimated sponsor shirt on.

The whole HS bass fishing thing is way cool. I sure wish they had something like that back in my day. The college fishing has also really took off big time. Hard to believe that there are kids getting full scholarships to fish bass. I’m not even sure how many local schools in this area have it, You would think it would be a prime area for it. I think it would be fun to help get some of todays young kids get into fishing.

I’ve done it the last 3 years. Great experience for both sides.
I did not know any of them personally. Spoke with the parents on the phone beforehand, met them at the access prior to going out and discussed the day’s plans and went from there. Was on Minnetonka, Waconia, Spring.
Couple of them knew what and where they wanted to be and go, others let me “guide” their thinking.
I offered up ideas and tactics and let them do what they do as well as let them make decisions to see how they panned out. Not a Humminbird expert but pretty good at using/interpreting it and did a lot of teaching with that as well.
Sure is fun!

I edited them for safety’s sake

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Question:

Are all the HS leagues all just bass. Is there any walleye or open all species?

I know if I was back in HS I would be way more into this than shagging batting practice for a couple hours and I loved playing ball with my buddies.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Are all the HS leagues all just bass. Is there any walleye or open all species?

In my area there is bass and muskie for the high school kids and only bass for the Jr.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Question:

Are all the HS leagues all just bass. Is there any walleye or open all species?

I know if I was back in HS I would be way more into this than shagging batting practice for a couple hours and I loved playing ball with my buddies.

SATT did a walleye tournament on Mille Lacs last year, I don’t see one on the schedule for this year.

Just bass leagues in our area.

Bass-n-Eyes wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Question:

Are all the HS leagues all just bass. Is there any walleye or open all species?

I know if I was back in HS I would be way more into this than shagging batting practice for a couple hours and I loved playing ball with my buddies.

SATT did a <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye tournament on Mille Lacs last year, I don’t see one on the schedule for this year.

That’s cool.

I captain a team from Rogers HS. This is my 5th year and third team. The boys I had two years ago zeroed in every event and the boys I captained last year had limits each day so I’ve seen both sides. The boys last year and I learned how to use livescope together so that was fun. I have them again next year so hopefully they can improve on an already good season.

I’ve never dinged a prop or polished a slag until I started captaining these kids. I learned that Bass like to live in some skinny water.