Red Devils Angling for Big Catch at State

Whenever team captain Brent Phillip and coach Bob Barber happen to mention they’re part of the Hinsdale Central bass fishing squad, the reaction they’ve received tends to be a mix of surprise and curiosity.

“Unless you follow high school sports you’re not going to hear much about bass fishing,” Barber said. “There’s eighth graders that come in [for freshman orientation] and say, ‘You have a bass fishing team?’”

“People think it’s really cool,” said Phillip, who just graduated from Central and was on the varsity bowling team for two years. “People don’t make fun of us too much because we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Because of that, the school really has embraced us. It gets a lot of support from students and faculty because it’s a cool, new activity.”

Bass fishing isn’t considered a sport by the IHSA, but as Phillip mentions, it is an activity. No matter the classification, bass fishing has been an officially sanctioned IHSA activity since 2009.

On Friday and Saturday, two Hinsdale Central teams—each consisting of two teammates fishing in one boat—will take part in the third annual state bass fishing tournament at Carlyle Lake near Vandalia in southern Illinois.

Phillip and junior Nichole Mara will fish out of Hinsdale Central’s No. 1 boat, while Mara’s classmate, Austin Lanioz, pairs up with freshman John Flaherty in the No. 2 boat.

Both teams qualified for state after taking first and third place, respectively, at the Tampier Lake sectional (near Orland Park) held in late April. The state tourney, originally schedule for early May, had to be postponed until this weekend due to flooding at Carlyle Lake, the largest man-made lake in Illinois.

Rules and regulations

The state bass fishing tournament is conducted in much the same way as professional bass fishing tourneys.

“It’s almost identical to a bass master’s fishing tournament that’s on TV,” Barber said.

The two team members in each boat are accompanied by an adult captain (either a coach or chaperone), who drives the boat. The adult captain is not allowed to help competitors in any way (for example: to remove hooks, undo snags or tie knots). Live bait is not allowed.

The teams fish from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. both Friday and Saturday.

Each team—55 teams qualified for this year’s tournament—keeps its five best fish. The team that has the heaviest combined weight of those fish is the winner.

While fishing, teams can keep up to five fish at a time in a live well, or hold tank. If they catch a bigger fish during the day, they can throw a smaller fish back (a process called culling).  

Teams are penalized for submitting a dead fish at the weigh-in (a half-pound per dead fish is taken off the team’s total weight). If a team arrives late to the weigh-in site, it is penalized one pound for every minute they're late.

In addition to crowning a new champion, the IHSA gives a certificate for the largest bass caught during the weekend, and also conducts a casting contest in which participants are judged on distance and accuracy.

State-ing their case

The Red Devils’ sectional title at Tampier Lake was their second in a row. Phillip and Lanioz are returning state qualifiers who last year made up a team that placed 34th out of 51.

Phillip believes Hinsdale Central will fare better this time around.

“I think we have a greater chance of placing higher because of two boats [qualifying],” he said. “We have four fishermen who are very competitive and very knowledgeable about the sport. We’re going to try and embrace it and have fun with it. I think we have a good chance of placing in top 20.”

Phillip and his teammates will certainly put their angling skills to the test this weekend. Good, old fashioned luck, though, factors in to where the Red Devils eventually place as much as their skill-set, if not more.

Some southern Illinois high schools also will have an edge because they regularly fish Carlyle Lake.

“We have really talented fishermen who have the potential to do well,” said Barber, who’s also Hinsdale Central’s girls varsity swimming coach and the boys’ assistant varsity swim coach. “Everybody brings a different skill. Last year when we went for the practice day [at state] it was 90 degrees; the first day of the tournament it was 62. That’s when the skill comes in, but most of fishing is luck. We’re bringing the skills we have, and I think we’re counting on a lot of luck.”

Honing their skills

Even though fishing involves a good deal of luck, Red Devil team members fine-tuned their skills by practicing twice per week this season (two hours per session) in order to increase their chances of landing nice-sized bass. 

Around 12 team members participated in practice sessions and meet on a regular basis during the season. Barber says he’s enjoyed interacting with, and teaching, the talented anglers on this year’s team.

“I’ve learned as much from these kids as I’ve tried to teach them,” he said. 

Practice sessions were held mainly at small ponds around Hinsdale and Oak Brook. Sometimes the team would go to the Sag quarry near Lemont or Bullfrog Lake near Hickory Hills.

Going out on boats to practice would be the ideal scenario, but Barber explains that there simply aren’t enough available boats to accommodate team members—or enough adult supervisors for each boat. Even if there were, he said, the time it would take to launch the boats, practice, bring the boats back to shore and put them on trailers would take away from practice time.

“It’s a very large time commitment,” Barber said. “Even if we had access to two boats, how do you pick four kids [to go out in those boats]? It’s better to sit by the pond for two hours.”

The team didn’t take part in many tournaments during the season because of the difficulty getting boats. Barber said he’s always on the lookout for individuals who have boats and are willing to allow the team to use them for meets.

“It’s hard to have competitions,” he said. “A lot of it when we compete is [dependent] on equipment and time. When we do have main competitions we definitely need boats. We look for people to share their time and their equipment."