South Putnam Bass Club finishes second season

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

The South Putnam Bass Club recently put the finishing touches on its second season.

Nine of the anglers from last year’s team returned, with the addition of a junior team for two middle school students and a pair of Cloverdale students.

This year’s team was Austin and T. J. Wilson, Caitlin Schilling, Jon Hodge, Levi Whitaker, Kyle Hall, Darnell Bennett, Trey Farmer, Andrew Carr, Justin Latham, Nick Perry, Dawson Cash, Tyler Hanley, Matt Rogers and Brodie Carr (junior team) and Mason Thompson and Logan Abner (Cloverdale Anglers).

Although the team did not place high at the state finals last weekend, the team had started the season as fourth in the state, with the Austin and T.J. Wilson team placing third, the Schilling and Hodge team placing 18 and the Cloverdale Anglers placing 26 out of 86 teams.

In the first tournament at Morse Reservoir the Wilson team finished seventh. In the second tournament at Brookville Reservoir four of the eight teams weighed in fish, with the Wilson team again finishing seventh, Schilling and Hodge taking 11th place and Cloverdale 17th. In the third at Monroe Reservoir, the Wilson team placed sixth.

The club was started last fall after coach Nick Teeters, who also owns and operates a thriving fishing guide service and fishing school, approached the South Putnam School Board with the idea. Although not officially adopted into South Putnam athletics, the board did give permission for facililty use.

With 13 anglers, the school as a whole went on to place second in the state, and one team (Austin and T. J. Wilson) placed fifth in the state.

Interest in fishing as a high school sport has grown rapidly in recent years, with the average tournament in the region seeing an average of 30 teams competing.

For more information about high school bass fishing, visit bassmaster.com. For more information about the South Putnam Bass Club, visit facebook.com/southputnam.bassclub.

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