I was thinking the same thing and can't find much on YouTube. This one covers a few points, but there is definitely room for a 30-45 minute video discussing all aspects for a newcomer to tournament fishing. Someone needs to hit it all in a video ... from launch to weigh-in.

Take over a lake? Sorry haven’t experienced or had any issues with that either. I think some of y’all go looking for confrontations on the water.

Two different schools here in two different trails and neither of them had anything like that. My son's school has a booster club attached and sell sponsorships on their jerseys. Each team member pays $25 for the year and has all entries paid by the club including championship. Sponsorships takes care of the majority of it.

They had a championship on PK a couple of years ago and had 200+ boats and yea they took over the lake. They need 5-6 divisons and whittle it down for a championship.

I’ve been apart of THSBA for 4-5 years now, and I would agree that to move on, they need to trim the field. I also understand they want to make as much money as possible.

Should be top 40% to Regionals and 25-30 to State. Belton is going to have way too many boats next weekend for a championship tournament.

….and to the point about highschool captains being rude on the water, I had a basschamps tournament this year with my son and a boat cut me off 20-30 yards away while running docks and stared me down while they were pulling in to the next dock we were trolling to….almost like they were daring me to say something. There certainly are people looking for trouble on the water, even in the bigger tournaments.

THSBA actually has 9 divisions and take a percentage of the AOY from 3 different divisions to come up with the 3 separate regionals. Then take half the field into State. We have been talking about the size of the events for the past year.

Every organized sport cost a bunch of money to play.

I think it’s a good thing! I’ve been involved with high school fishing for several years. The problems most complain about happen in adult tournaments too. It’s up to the boat captains to teach the kids fishing what or what not to do. That’s why we have rules for high school and adult tournaments as well. The kids don’t drive the boat so when a team pulls in on someone or pulls up in front of another boat and starts fishing the bank the first boat was fishing you can bet that’s the same guy that will do it in an adult tournament or just out pleasure fishing. Overall the good out weighs the bad and it gets the kids outta the house and their heads out of video games.

Hey, I like that idea. Maybe some guides/captains/experienced tournament guys would be willing to put something together. Sit down round table and on the water type stuff.

Really? What are high school football players paying?

Thanks for all you guys do Ken! I know it isn't easy. I’d be for narrowing down the numbers at regional and state events. 300+ on Belton is a lot of boats.

Get tha hell outta my yard!!!


Hey you're fishin my spot!!!


I think it's just old man syndrome setting in.

Also a big problem, it is billed as HS fishing but it really has nothing to do with HS other than the age of the participants. The association, even though it’s intentions are noble, is a private company not the UIL. Because the teams are basically after school fishing clubs they can and do charge to belong. A super cool experience for a kid that I would have been all over were it available when I was in school, but I believe it has gotten bigger than can be reasonably controlled.

I think an elementary division would be a better approach. I’m sorry but when I was in high school I fished against the other grown men. Out of piece of junk boat…. I did ok.

Let’s face it. 15/16/17 year old kids fishing out of a $60,000 boat being pulled by $65,000 truck with their boat captains guiding them to their fish waters everything down a bit??? Lol

Then they graduate and borrow their dads boat to fish in bass champs. It’s hysterical

Or even apply to a $35,000 boat and a $25,000 truck… same same

Any sport where parents or relatives can be directly involved is doomed to poor behavior