need some info to help high school fisherman

[Hughesy]

Who cares who asking for help. Help is help. If I need help for something, I could care less where the help comes from as long as I get help.

[darrencombs]

Nitro sorry this got off a little topic. Have a great time and enjoy every minute out there with the kids. Whether you catch a fish or not we are blessed. My kids (son and daughter) participate in the high school fishing and it is one of the few sports they can compete together. Three years ago my son had a tumor in his head and was on the operating table for ten and half hours at the children's hospital in St. Louis.   I am a grown man, but that day I prayed and I ASKED for help to the power above to heel my son. So I do ask for help.  If my son wants to be a pro someday or anything else he will have my support.  I cherish every day with them.

 

Nitro I fish the James quit a bit. The weather will predict what they will fish with. If you get out (no fog delay) try a top water whopper plopper, buzz bait or spook. I found some success early here recently with these baits. If there is wind a spinner bait has caught a few.  I even caught some on a square bill.  If there is no wind might go to shakey head with a green pumpkin trick worm or a half ounce jig. I usually fish them around the ledges or drop offs.  They will fish from 15' to about 25' dragging them. Right now fish may be in one spot and in an hour be moved. Keep a bait in the water and open mind and fish the conditions. 

Have a great time and I truly hope your kids catch the biggest fish of the tournament. I will be down there and I will be in a dark silver Nitro Z-8. Come say hi and introduce me to the kids with you. Thanks and my God bless all. 

Darren Combs

[nitro]

finally after 43 posts mr.darren combs answered the my question. did not ask how much my boat cost or what patches i had on my shirt. 4800 dollars and 0 by the way. we will fish hard as they want to and let the chips fall where may.but i promise they will have fun first and will not say do not take me fishing again untill we have a 50,000 boat

[RyanG]

7 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Just to be clear, I never said they should stop immediately, or that nobody should offer up their truck, boat and insurance to help them if they wanted to.  Fishing for any reason you choose is what I'm all about.   I just personally don't care to help support it and offered up my reasons why.  

If a kid wants to fish he will fish, he shouldn't need an "event" with all heavy expenses covered to motivate him to do so.    A more important lesson (if we can call it that) is that fishing isn't, and shouldn't be, about expensive boats, electronics, and far away trips.   And it darn sure isn't about competition.   

Introducing a young person to fishing is great, but after that you need to step aside and let them seek out information on their own and practice what they want when they want.   Why aren't all these HS anglers on here reading and trying to learn stuff?   And if they are then freakin' speak up !    This is a thread about THEM, where are they?   Has anyone informed these young anglers that there are places online where they can interact with other fishermen and gain valuable knowledge?   

I seem to be late to the party, I am usually on the beaver forum but decided to take a peek at the table rock forum after fishing it last weekend to see how everyone was doing. Gotta say, seeing this post blow up and some of the things that have been said is kind of disheartening. I'm not a high school angler but I do fish in my college club at the University of Arkansas and I just wanted to offer my perspective on some of the topics you guys have brought up.

First, no. No one told me about this forum or showed me the way. I found it, joined, and contribute when I have been on the lake. Even then, usually my reports are pretty bland considering my limited success on Beaver.

Secondly, fishing for me is about fishing. I love it. This summer alone it has taken me from dropping a size 20 midge in front of wild rainbows and browns in Colorado to meeting at the ramp at 5am to fish against some of my best buds. I love fishing from the bank, my boat, in a tourney or just for the fun of it. I personally enjoy the friendly competition. It pushes me to learn new things, adapt to conditions and just get comfortable with being uncomfortable sometimes. Rain, cold, heat of summer. You cant pick those conditions but when a tournament Ive been waiting for all year shows up I go anyways and everytime I have had a blast no matter the finish. But thats just me. I always learn something.

Third, lets talk boats for a second. Who cares? Why do you care? Every new ranger that goes down the road catches my eye but I love my boat and I am extremely grateful for what I have. My boat is 25 years old and payed for. But my best buddy has a 45,000 dollar phoenix, also payed for with his own money. He works hard, graduated and fishes whenever he wants to now. He has his dream boat and a truck to pull it and that's that. He started in an old skeeter. I started in a 12ft aluminum boat with an electric trolling motor. On the team you'll see everything from an old aluminum boat to a 2014 Ranger and 2016 Basscat. But when it comes down to it, we all love to just fish.

On last thing I wanna touch on is the college fishing in general and what it does for people like me who will more than likely never be an Elite Pro. I have met several owners of local companies from bait companies to graphic design companies. Several of us work with companies like 13 fishing, Pradco, santone, and Aftco every week dealing with our teams sponsorship program with those companies. My point is, we are making connections. We are networking constantly. We are gaining experience in sales and marketing in one way or another. These companies open the door to JOBS for us college guys all the time. THATS just one other reason I do what I do. It all started with fishing. And at the end of the day, we all just love to fish. But you have to make a living and doing so in the fishing industry is possible without being an elite series pro.

Wrench, I quoted you but this wasn't entirely a response to just you I just thought it would help me reference some of the topics I wanted to talk about. Also, I agree with several points brought up just wanted to offer another perspective. I'm terrible at putting thoughts on paper (or the screen I suppose) so if anything sounds rough I apologize, not picking a fight. I know there is much I didnt address but I wanna keep this from becoming a novel. 

Also, huge shout out to Champ. As he mentioned he captained for us last weekend and it was a great time. Never underestimate how much help it can be to offer time and your boat to some young anglers. I know how precious time and our boats can be to us so for him to be there and get these guys on the water, that was really cool! Thank you!

 

[fishinwrench]

2 hours ago, Hughesy said:

Who cares who asking for help. Help is help. If I need help for something, I could care less where the help comes from as long as I get help.

So that's how you're gonna teach them to catch fish consistently......Beg someone to tell them how all the time?  

When I said I helped a couple of HS anglers I didn't mean I schooled them on any particular pattern.  I fixed their boats (cheap) and taught them some things about keeping their stuff working right. These boys, both of them, have jobs and have bought and are restoring older boats.    I can respect that.    

[Hughesy]

7 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

but after that you need to step aside

Whos begging? It beats stepping aside. I'm done.

[dtrs5kprs]

I really feel awful about where this went. My original thought about the boats was just something that occurred to me after being around the April derby at TR.

Honestly, and I don't know how you would do it exactly, it kind of parallels the idea of different classes of competition...6A, 4A, etc. At least that is what I was thinking about.

I've met Darren and his son, even have the chance to speak with him on occasion. Good folks. So are most of the others I've run into, and that is well over 40 or so. 

[fishinwrench]

Will somebody please help me help Hughes?   He's done.   

[Champ188]

Ryan, it was my pleasure and privilege to help a couple of your team members get out on the water Sunday. Just wish I had been a better guide. I think I got more out of the day than they did. Look forward to next time.

I'm with Dave in feeling bad about where this thread went, and I apologize for whatever I may have contributed to its demise. Sorry to hit you guys with such a huge news flash, but I'm not the best at keeping my piehole shut sometimes.

To join Darren in offering a little help (and I do mean  a little), there's a dock bite starting in the White River arm and some of the creeks off the main channel. I will say that it takes a pretty accurate presentation to reach where these fish are holding, which is way back in the slips. Shaky head, finesse jig or white War Eagle spoon all will get you some bites. There's also a bit of a dragging bite (football jig) on bluff-end runouts. That's all I've got.

For gosh sakes I wish fall would get here so we can all get our minds back on catching fish. I'm as guilty as anyone.

[dblades]

This has to be the strangest thread I've read on this site. I have a nephew that has been on his college fishing team for the last few  years. He has been very successful, fished both the FLW and the BASS College national championships, with not a thought of becoming an Elite angler. I've had several high school anglers in my boat when Republic had there summer school fishing class, I had as good or a  better time than they did when we fished together. Good luck with the team.