On an early June summer morning, Maggie Harris and Gracie Marion cast their fishing lines from the shore at the Rockland Boat Ramp in Hendersonville. The competitive anglers are teammates on the Sumner County Junior and High School Bass Fishing Team and about to compete in the state championship.
One experience they look forward to: tight lines. That moment when a fish grabs some bait.
“At first it makes your heart stop a little bit,” says Maggie. “And then you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ Then once you realize what it is, you have to rear back and get it, and you about fall off the boat.”
She motions with her rod and throws her weight to one side.
“You have to take your whole body — and wham!”
These rising sophomores are part of the explosion of competitive student fishing. And Tennessee now has the largest Bass Nation program in the country, with over 250 clubs and 2,400 student-athletes. Students can join as young as second grade.
Unlike other sports, there are no physical requirements to join a fishing team.
“We take everybody. That’s the beauty of it: that it’s open to absolutely everyone,” says Josh Harris. He is Maggie’s dad, a teacher at Beech High School and the coach of the large Sumner County team.
“And the fish don’t discriminate. They don’t care who you are. If you’ve got the right bait on, they’re going to come get it, and then you get to weigh them in.”
Student fishing is a relatively new school sport. In 2013, the pro league Bassmaster started an open high school series that culminates in a national championship. Individual states started competitive circuits shortly after as another path to the national championship.
Teams can be tied to one school or a local club. The Sumner County team evolved into a countywide team when Harris met interested students in nearby schools who wanted to compete but didn’t have a team.
“Beforehand we would just only represent one high school. And now to reach all these other kids, having almost 50 students total on our team, is outstanding,” Harris says.
Teams compete for scholarship money, a chance to fish in the national championship, and to earn places on college teams.
David Lowrie, who started fishing with his dad and grandfather, got involved in tournaments when his own son wanted to compete when he was 6. Lowrie later started a team at his son’s school in Grundy County, outside of Chattanooga, to give more kids the opportunity he never had. He now directs the state program.
“The idea that you can get a scholarship to go fish for a college? You know, I tell everybody, I say, ‘The only thing left better than that is eating, sleeping and drinking — and they’re not going to give scholarships for that.’ ”
Fishing might seem relaxing, but competitive junior and high school fishing is not for the faint of heart.
Individual teams are made up of two students and an adult captain (who drives the boat). Teams must provide their own boat and equipment — and be willing to spend 10 or more hours at a time on the water together.
“If you just come into this head first and you don’t know what you’re doing, it will shock you,” says Maggie. “You have to wake up at like 2:30 in the morning and you’re not home until 8 o’clock at night. You have to mentally prepare yourself for that long day.’
The student anglers “pre-fish,” or practice, as much as they can. They also study fish behavior and scour reports and YouTube videos about where they’ll be fishing.
“We see, like, what they were fishing with, how they were fishing, like, were they fishing shallow or deep? … Who’s been fishing it recently and what have they caught them on,” Gracie explains.
At tournaments, students use fake baits, some made of silicon with embedded glitter, to entice fish. All of the fishing is catch-and-release and teams are penalized if their fish die.
“Your end goal is to make sure that all of the fish get back ‘cause you want to come back and catch them again,” says Maggie.
The state organization in Tennessee also requires students to complete volunteer hours each year. Students often work on conservation, either helping with lake clean ups or creating fish habitats. In January, for example, students collected and submerged old Christmas trees as part of an effort to create habitats that provide protection for small fish in lakes.
Lowrie’s direction is part of making Tennessee’s program the largest in the country. In 2017, he and the state leadership team divided the state into five competitive regions. This approach created a new path in which students can compete on their local lakes to qualify for the state championship. They can also choose to compete on the “open trail,” which requires travel across the state.
“It made it more affordable but also it gave more opportunities because each one of those regions is a way to make it to the national championship for Bassmaster. And the No. 1 goal of all these kids is to get to nationals,” says Lowrie.
Another reason Tennessee has such a strong program: the army of committed parent and adult volunteers who organize and run the teams and the events. Not every involved adult has an in-depth knowledge of fishing.
Harris, for one, is upfront about his strengths.
“There are many other great coaches out there that do have a lot more technical expertise than I do when it comes to bass fishing,” he says.
What he is good at? Logistics — like making sure teams have completed entry forms, finding needed stand-in adult captains, and making sure all equipment is up and running. “I tell [the kids], I’m [the] team dad. I’m here for whatever you need when you need it. You call me, I’ll make it happen. I make sure they all go out and come in safely and have a great time.”
Courtesy Lee Marion Lee Marion, left, captains the boat with his daughter Gracie Marion and her teammate Maggie Harris during the Tennessee State Bass Nation High School Championship.
In early June, 203 teams, including Gracie and Maggie, competed in the Tennessee State Bass Nation High School Championship at Douglas Lake in Dandridge. Of those, 45 high school teams qualified for the nationals next month in South Carolina.
Easton Drennon, a rising senior who fishes for the Mt. Juliet Fishing Team, will be fishing the championship for his second time. And out of 400 students, he was recently selected as one of 12 for the Bassmaster High School All-American Fishing Team.
“My favorite thing to do before a tournament is clean my boat, ‘cause gotta look good to be good, in my opinion,” says Drennon.
Gracie and Maggie will try again for nationals next year. Gracie’s dad, Lee Marion, will continue to captain their boat.
One of the cherished things about competitive student fishing is that one-on-one time kids get with a parent captain.
“We’ve always been close but I feel like it always gives us time together,” Gracie says. “It’s so nice to be able to hang out with him like that.”
“It’s been awesome to see her grow through this,” says Lee. “Three years ago, it was really hard to catch a fish. Now these girls are pretty competitive.”
Gracie and Maggie, and the thousands of other student anglers in Tennessee, are looking forward to keeping the fish busy over the summer and competing again next fall.
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