Highland bass fishing team begins qualifying tournaments for 2020-21 season
The 2020-21 bass fishing season began in earnest recently for the Highland High School bass fishing team.
Coach John Rinderer’s club took to the water July 15 and July 18 with a pair of intrasquad qualifying round tournaments which were held at Silver Lake in Highland and Coffeen Lake in Coffeen, just south of Greenville.
According to Rinderer, there are two purposes for the qualifier events.
“It’s just like a practice in baseball and it perfects their skills, No. 1. But No. 2, the IHSA regulates the amount of teams that can attend an event,” said Rinderer, also the bass fishing coach at McKendree University. “So, when I go to an IHSA sanctioned event, I can take two boats and each boat can have two anglers and one alternate in case somebody gets sick or you want to sub, so you are basically looking at six guys to take to an event.”
The events are all held in the major league fishing style where the fish are caught, measured, weighed, and then released immediately.
“With the major league style, which has become very recent the last couple of years, the way that tournament is structured you never put a fish in your live well (box),” Rinderer said.
“So, the way I run them (tournaments) in high school since we want to evaluate them (the anglers), I drive around in the lake and watch these guys fish for a while, and as soon as they catch one, they send me a text that they have a keeper and we fly over there and I weight it real fast, I turn it (the fish) loose and it’s back in the lake and it’s really healthy.”
In the first event, which was held at Silver Lake, Cole Brown took first place with two scoreable bass weighing in at 3.50 pounds, while Mason Darling placed second with a catch of 3.35 pounds.
Three days later, the Bulldogs anglers worked out at Coffeen Lake. Evan Sutton turned in a big day, as he won the event with 10 scoreable bass for 19 pounds. Logan Oestringer placed second with seven scoreable bass for 18.12 pounds.
Rinderer said his qualifiers are ranked by these criteria: Rod casting skills, timed knot tying skills, number of points accumulated by number of fish, and weight of fish caught in tournaments.
“So, then at the end of my last qualifier, I total up their casting evaluation, their knot tying (skills), and all the fish catches made and they have a total score,” Rinderer said. “It’s like (ranking) your five starters on a basketball team.”
Program rebuilding but showing progress already
This group is light on experience as the fall approaches with three freshmen on the roster and just one angler who has considerable fishing experience, but Rinderer is already seeing definite solid early progress in the group.
“It’s definitely a rebuilding year for bass fishing at Highland, but from practice one to practice two, I saw a tremendous amount of improvement and I expect even more in our next tournament,” Rinderer said. “They re starting to get a feel for what it takes and how to present their baits a little better, position their boats a little better (in the water).”
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 10:00 AM.