Bass-fishing passion
Branson Schmidt loves catching fish. Every weekend the soon-to-be Central Valley High School freshman can be found at the nearest bass hole, perfecting his angling techniques.
You see, bass fishing is Schmidt’s passion.
The 14-year-old Greenacres angler won the 11-14 age group at the Washington State Junior Bass Anglers championship tournament at Banks Lake, earning an all-expense-paid trip to Birmingham, Ala., for the FLW-Cup National Championships at the end of July.
“I don’t know where this passion for fishing comes from,” Schmidt’s mother, Sheila, confessed. “We’re not a big fishing family. But since he’s been old enough to hold a pole he’s just loved fishing. He has his own boat now, and he’s always out on the water somewhere.”
At first, it was lake trout or an occasional pike that got Schmidt’s competitive juices flowing
“We don’t have cable TV, so I can’t watch a lot of the fishing programs,” Schmidt said. “But every once in a while, on (locally-produced) Columbia Country, they go fishing for smallmouth bass. That’s what got me hooked on the idea.”
That was two years ago – making the learning curve from neophyte to state champion a steep one, indeed.
“In the first tournament I entered I knew I could have performed better than I actually did,” he said. “It was last year when I really started to understand how to read the water and how to present the different types of bait we use.”
As he moved more and more into bass fishing, Schmidt needed to upgrade his equipment. In competition an angler is limited in the amount of gear he or she can use.
“I can only have five rods with me in a competition, and I have each one rigged differently,” he said. “If I’m just out fishing for myself, I usually take six.”
Early on in his fishing career, Schmidt’s parents bought him a 12-foot aluminum boat with a trolling motor.
But for bass fishing tournaments, where anglers are up against a time limit, a trolling motor just doesn’t cut it.
“It just took too long to get to where the fish are,” Schmidt said. “So my parents took out an ad in the paper looking for a smaller bass boat.”
What the Schmidt’s found is a 1978 model 19-footer with a 10-year-old, 60-horsepower outboard motor.
“My dad built a deck on it for me, and it works really well,” Schmidt said. “It goes about 40 miles per hour, and I can get where I need to go quickly so I have more time fishing. That’s important in a competition.”
That speed paid off in last month’s state championship.
“I got my five fish pretty quickly, and I was able to cull them during the day to make sure I had the five best fish,” he said. “I was the first to weigh in, and I had 8.27 pounds. I had to sit back and wait while everyone else came in.
“There were a couple that weighed in with 5 and 6 pounds of fish. One guy weighed in over 9 pounds, and I figured he had me beat.”
When it came time to hand out prizes and the all-important trip to Birmingham, Schmidt discovered he had, indeed, won his age group.
Next comes the big time, The Bass Federation – Forest L. Woods Junior Championships.
It’s been said that competitive bass fishing, including a professional circuit, ranks No. 4 in the hearts of Southerners, behind only college football, spring college football and NASCAR. For the national tournament, Schmidt will be flying into the heart of bass-fishing country.
“I’m looking forward to getting down there and talking with the other fishermen and finding out what works and what doesn’t work,” Schmidt said.
“Of course, you have to be careful. Some of those guys will try to steer you in the wrong direction.”
The club to which Schmidt belongs, the Inland Empire Junior Bass Club, has dominated the state championship tournament for the second year in a row.
Since it opened in 2005, the IEJBC has produced five state champions and a world champion. This year the club produced three of the six finishers in the two age groups.
Corey Starnes, a seventh-grader at North Pines Middle School, was second behind Schmidt in the 11-14 division, turning in a five-fish total of 6.44 pounds.
Two-time state 11-14 champion Joey Nania of Liberty Lake was third in the 15-18 age group with 8.93 pounds. Nania, a freshman at Central Valley High, won the Bassmaster Junior World Championship in the 11-14 age group last year.