IOWA BASS NATION High School State Tournament

Bassmasters is a world-wide organization who started the bass fishing tournament craze in the late 60's.  That same organization is the one that these young kids of Independence compete under.  BASS created the youth movement about a decade ago.  The Iowa Bass Nation began the youth state tournament at about the same time.  The Independence High School Bass Club was created about two years for the youth of Independence.  This year the kids had a chance to fish in 4 local tournaments and a couple of seminars organized by club coaches Todd Reed, Keith Donnelly and Garry Anderson.

September 23rd was the annual Iowa High School State Bass Tournament, it has two divisions, one for 7th/8th grade students and one for high school students.  The Indee Bass Club had three teams consisting of Karter Wendling and Ryan Williams, Peyton Lolwing and Ryan Thompson, and Jackson Toale and Dalton Hoover.  These three teams all weighed in bass at the end of the day and all finished in the middle of the standings.  The Indee Bass Club had two teams represented in the Junior Division.  Camerson Wilson and Ashton Lolwing finished 5th out of the ten teams and Justin Schmadeke and Hunter Patton ended up Champions of this division.  They caught 5 keeper bass that weighed 9.17 pounds that beat all other Junior Division teams.  Boat captains for the five Indee Bass Club boats were; Brent Roluff, Eric Johnston, Trent Beier, Chad O'Brien and Dave Wilson.  The captains are responsible for driving the boats around the tournament waters and keeping the kids safe throughout the day.

Hunter/Captain Eric Johnston/Justin
Junior Division STATE CHAMPS

It was a great showing for the club this year with every team catching bass to weigh in.  As each group came into the weigh-in area I was thrilled as each told me that they had some bass to weigh in.  Another wonderful weekend on the Mighty Mississippi River and one that these 10 young men will never forget!

None of this would be possible without the support of our CLUB SPONSORS, please support them or offer a thank you if you have a chance.

Seminar Time- Indee Bass Club

A huge turnout of Indee Bass Club members showed up for the fall seminars held at the Triangle Pond here in Independence, Iowa.  When Keith Donnelly and I started this club we had one goal in mind; to help the kids learn about bass fishing and help them get better.  This night is always a great way to keep that goal alive for the kids in the Independence area.  About 20 students were there to learn about casting techniques, rod and reel selection, bait choices and get any questions answered that they may have.  All students left the seminars with some new baits thanks to PROW (Preserving Recreation On the Wapsi), myself and Dale Gooding (fishing friend of myself).

Students were able to get 1 on 1 attention while they casted, flipped and pitched there baits at targets, something that looks easy at first but isn't.  Most anglers at this age are pretty efficient at casting, but the art of pitching a bait to a certain target is still very hard for them.  Practicing in the backyard is the best way to learn this skill, your neighbor might think you are a bit weird, but in the near future you can show them all those pictures of bass you have been catching!

Thanks to the other adults that helped out with the learning on this night: Paul Schmadeke, Dave Wilson, and Randy Toale.

Final Bass World Sports Tournament of 2018

Saturday was the last Bass World Sports tournament of the year for Kevin Christensen and I.  We had placed 5th in our first one this year and the second one we got caught behind the locks, but our weight would have put us in 4th place.  We were determined to make this last one better than the previous two.  We both took our boats to Pool 9 the weekend before to search out areas where the bass were hiding.  We were able to cover a lot of water using two different boats and we had a pretty good plan going into this weekend.  The bottom half of the pool would get our attention and we stayed there the entire tournament looking for our 5 bass limit.  In the areas we fished the bass were not in a chasing mood.  Texas Rigged Hot Rod Baits Tubes, Big Craws and Wig's Jigs were the ticket to getting the bass to bite.  Black and Blue, and Mississippi Craw worked well when throwing jigs and the Green Pumpkin/Blue tube really shined this past weekend with the somewhat dirty water.  Working both of these baits on QuantumPT flippin rods were key to getting the proper hook set in the current.  Water temps were in the low 70's and fish were still in or close to current areas.

Catch and Release is mandatory at all bass
fishing tournaments.  Our fish were
 in great shape as they swam
 away to be caught another day.

We chipped away all day long and had a decent limit by 9am.  We were able to upgrade a few times but just couldn't get one last upgrade to take us over the top.  We knew we had about 12 pounds but that doesn't cut it in this league, too many top river anglers, it is a guarantee at each of these events that a few teams will load them up.  We fished our best, and covered all the water we wanted to.  We ended up with 12.51# for our 5 keepers and ended up in 5th place out of about 20 teams.  It was one of those weigh-ins that you say to yourself, "yep that is about what we deserve".  We had 4 nice largemouth bass, but that last one that weighed about 1.75# was the one that soured the day.  We were only 0.30# away from a 3rd place finish, so in the end that "stung" a bit but it also told us we had a good fishing day but just missed out on a good payday.  There will be more chances for us!

Indee High School Bass Club September Event

September 1st was the high school fall event on the Wapsi.  Several storms rolled through Northeast Iowa this past week and the Wapsi was on the rise.  This definitely turned the bass off on this day making them difficult to find and catch.  However, like any tournament there are always a few teams that seem to figure things out.

The bite on the Wapsi was good the previous weekend and all throughout the week, but the river started to rise on Thursday and the bass were relocating come tournament time on Saturday.  Of the nine keepers that were weighed in, only one was a smallmouth bass, very unusual for this time of year, but as past experiences have taught me, the smallies will be the first fish to "get out of town".  Tournament day was no different, the smallies were all but gone, and the largemouth stole the show at weigh-in.  Top baits for the students during this event included; spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and buzzbaits, no surprise as the clouds and rain ruled the day.

Twenty students showed up on the wet, rainy morning to fish.  Ten boat captains took them up and down the Wapsi searching for those moving bass.  Here are the results:

Place	Anglers	Captains	#Bass	Big Bass	Total
1	Jackson/Dalton	Randy Toale	4	**2.89**	6.69
2	Peyton & Ashton	Dave Wilson	3	2.14	4.85
3	Karter/Connor	Rick Wendling	2	1.50	2.49

1st Place and Big Bass

2nd Place

3rd Place

This event was made possible by Farmers State Bank.  Their donation paid for the DNR tournament permit and plaques for the top two teams.  The club was also able to give away 4 rod and reel combos and PROW (Preserving Recreation On the Wapsi) gave away tackle bags and snacks to the kids also.  Although the weather made the day a wet one, the prizes and grill-out provided by Farmers State Bank left all kids and captains with smiles on their faces.

As the competition season ends for the club, we all appreciate the following companies and organizations for everything they have done, without the following and the boat captains, the club would not exist.