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  1. #1
    Member RANGER487's Avatar
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    Ohio High School Bass youth coach

    Well I got first taste of being a coach for some High School anglers at the Bass Nation Championship 2 day event on Mosquito Lake this past weekend Were the top 2 teams advance to the national championship. We started Saturday with rain but warm temps so expected a descent topwater bite but that did not happen first thing. The boys ended catching some fish on chatterbaits early then about 10:00 the sun started to peak through the clouds and the topwater bite picked up and lasted the rest of the day, we ended up with 9.96 good for 3rd place on day one with two 11 lb bags being first and second. day 2 warm again no rain and a light North wind. We ran to our good spot first thing to find another boat sitting on it from another smaller club event going on. I told the boys these are things you have deal with in tournament fishing. I noticed the other boat fishing a little further out from were we wanted to be so I decided to go past them and work down on the inside of them with no problems. We hit our area very good doing many different things with no success so we kept moving. around 9:30 we boated a topwater fish at 3lbs fish number one for the day. It was long grind the rest of the day and I had to give the boys a little pep talk to keep them motivated a bit. around 1:15 we still ad one fish and I was even a little stumped after trying multiple things. There was an area that we caught some fish close to the ramp on day one so we said lets give that a shot and went there, It was not long fish number 2 was in the boat and then another bu 1:55 we had a limit and the kids were giving high fives and happy again. They ended culling a few more fish before 3:00 weigh in and ended having over 11lbs of fish and moved from 3rd to second place to qualify for the state championship. We tied for big bass so the director was going to send both teams there plaques. I can say it was really fun getting to see the excitement on the kids faces at the weigh in and we lost by less than ounce it was that close.

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    #2
    That's awesome Mark! Sounds like a great time. Thanks for being a mentor to some young anglers!

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    #3
    I boat for a high school team here in PA and I feel more pressure when it's a grind like that, than when I'm fishing myself. It is a challenge to keep the kids focused when it's tough, especially on day 2 of a two day event.
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  4. Moderator 200xp's Avatar
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    #4
    Thanks for being a coach for these young men and congrats on the qualification.
    What we cannot obtain from intelligence, we can learn from experience.

  5. Member RANGER487's Avatar
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    #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Pagregss View Post
    I boat for a high school team here in PA and I feel more pressure when it's a grind like that, than when I'm fishing myself. It is a challenge to keep the kids focused when it's tough, especially on day 2 of a two day event.
    I know the feeling at a certain time of the day we started scrambling and I did not want to let the boys down.

  6. Member RANGER487's Avatar
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    #6
    Quote Originally Posted by 200xp View Post
    Thanks for being a coach for these young men and congrats on the qualification.
    For sure really glad to help the kids

  7. Member Jeff Hahn's Avatar
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    #7
    Good job, Mark!
    "The man of system is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamored with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it…He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chessboard.” Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments

  8. BBC SPONSOR Whitaker201's Avatar
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    #8
    Great job! Sounds like a good weekend for the kids and you!
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    #9
    Great job Mark!

  10. Member RANGER487's Avatar
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    #10
    THANKS GUYS