Southern Fishing News followed-up with Brianna Tucker and Mitchell Gowen, Decatur Heritage Christian Academy Fishing Eagles team, as they came off the water on Lay Lake. This is the last in the series of articles that followed this youthful team from preparing to journey to the tournament site thru the day of fishing the exhibition.
SFN: What was the surface temperature where you fished today?
Mitchell: It varied from 46 to 53 degrees. Good fishing water. The bass should start moving back shallow now that the water warms up – we just could not find them.
SFN: What type of structure were you fishing today?
Brianna: Early this morning we were fishing a creek cut that ran out into the river. There was sharp river current and shad
Brianna and Mitchell ham it up backstage.
activity and we thought we could pick up a limit of bass and then go looking for “kickers.” It was not to be and we then elected to make a run to one of our prior productive areas of the lake which has isolated grass pods. But when we got there it looked like a parking lot at Wal-Mart with so many boats. We moved in and was able to fish the entire area but got no strikes. We then moved to the back of a creek slough that had previously been productive but they must have all moved below the dam.
SFN: Any particular depth that was more productive?
Mitchell: Based on our performance today, I am not sure you could say any depth was productive for us. However, on practice days, most of our fish were caught in 2 to 3 foot depths.
SFN: What was the most productive lure/color/technique?
Brianna: None today. But in practice Thursday and Friday morning, the square bill crank bait in yellow with black back and a steady retrieve around grass worked best for us.
SFN: What area of the lake did you fish?
Mitchell: The creek cuts up river from the Wilsonville Steam Plant to all the way down to the creeks just above the Narrows. Coach Brown is methodical and when you fish an area, you fish it thoroughly. If a fish is there it is caught or it will not strike anything.
SFN: Did you have to move a lot?
Brianna: We moved a number of times but unfortunately, we struggled trying to locate bass and that means we keep our boat captain on the move. Still, we are not a “run and gun” team.
SFN: Did you run into many of the other high school student angler teams fishing?
Mitchell: We ran into one of our best competitor boats back in Spring Creek. It must have meant we were in the right area because we watched them catch four bass in the same area we were in. We just could not get the bites.
SFN: Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently, if anything?
Brianna: We believe we were on winning fish so we would not have changed areas where we fished but probably would have switched to the square bill bait earlier. The square bill got more strikes, but in retrospect you can always second guess what you should have done but that is why they call it fishing instead of catching.
SFN: It is evident that you were not satisfied with your performance today. Any thoughts?
Mitchell: Certainly we can not be satisfied with just one bass in the live well in such a prestigious event as this. But we consider ourselves to be fortunate, maybe lucky, maybe even skilled student anglers to have won the first ever B.A.S.S. High School Student Angler Invitational Tournament and placed 3rd in the Alabama BASS Nation High School Classic in November. As pro Gerald Swindle always says, to be a winner, you have got to learn how to be a loser! We are just glad to be here and consider it an honor to be representing our chapter club and student anglers nation-wide in this event.
Brianna: We had the greatest boat captain in Mr. Brown that anyone could have asked for and coach Blake Gowen. The other coaches are super too! We would not be here without them.
SFN: One final question. How was the view from the Bassmaster Classic Stage?
Brianna and Mitchell: AWESOME!!!!! To stand on the Bassmaster Classic Stage with Mr. Weldon (Bassmaster Tournament
The Fishing Eagles were the first team to weigh-in for the Bassmaster Classic Student Angler Exhibition Tournament. (L-R) Norman Brown, boat captain, Brianna Tucker and Mitchell Gowen.
SFN photo Don Gowen
Director) and Mr. Mercer (Bassmaster emcee) and look out across 20,000 folks in the BJCC is out of this world. The stage lighting and TV and video cameras running, the audience clapping and screaming and the recognition being given for our accomplishments is just out of this world. Our heads swim and we are so thankful to be honored in such a way. And to see and get to congratulate Randy for his World Championship win made our day.
We heard one of the pros make the statement that most of them spend their days trying to win the Classic and the rest of their time trying to get back because it is so cool! We feel the same way….can’t wait to get back and start working on making it back to the B.A.S.S. National High School Student Angler Classic next year.
From SFN Field Reporter Don Gowen
