Fishing Club Casts a Wide Net

When you’re by a river casting your line into the water, you may not think of yourself as participating in a sport. Yet fishing is a growing high school and college sport here in Virginia, so much so that now universities are starting to offer scholarships for it.

One way to get in on this emerging sport is to join the Fluvanna Fishing Club, one of the many clubs offered at FCHS. Started over 10 years ago, the club now has 10 members.

“We get together on club days, and about once a month at night for meetings to discuss strategies, baits, and techniques,” said senior Marshall Taylor, who has been fishing for the team since he was in 7th grade. “We fish for bass. We are part of the BASS Nation Virginia High School League,” he added.

Taylor explained how fishing tournaments between schools work. “We all “blast-off” at around 6:30 in the morning and we have to be in at a set time, usually around 1:30 in the afternoon. We can bring in up to five fish that have to be at least 12 inches long. The team (two on a boat) with the biggest bag of fish by weight wins. For our Junior Division, if they catch three fish in a season, they can go to the state championship. For the senior division, you have to be in the top three of at least one of the tournaments to make it to States. You can also get awards for the biggest fish in the tournament also,” said Taylor.

The Fluvanna Fishing Club competes all over the state. “This year we fished at Lake Kerr, Lake Gaston, and our next tournament is on the Chickohominy River,” said Taylor.

The state championship for fishing is held at the end of April each year, with the top two teams going on to Nationals in late summer. “You can even get scholarships for fishing now,” said Taylor, noting that some of the universities that have fishing teams include NC State, Auburn University, and Virginia Tech.

The club meets in the 3rd floor library on Club days.