Area teams compete in sectional at Shabbona Lake - The Sun - Naperville (IL)

'The Future Fishes Here!'

That is the theme of the Illinois High School Association's most recent addition - tournament bass fishing - to its growing schedule of competitive sports that it sanctions at schools throughout the state.

How popular will the IHSA bass fishing tournament circuit be? During this first competition, held April 24, 199 schools across Illinois were entered. Many of the schools fielded more than one team.

The venues selected as tournament sites were as diverse as the communities from which the teams were drawn. Among them Argyle , Banner Marsh, the Fox Chain O'Lakes, Clinton, Coffeen, Evergreen, Forbe , Egypt, Shelbyville, nearby Heidecke and LaSalle cooling lakes, Pierce, Sangchris, Shabbona, and Cook County Forest Preserve District's Skokie Lagoons, Busse Woods Reservoir and Tampier Lake.

Teams were assigned to fish on waters that were close to the schools they represented.

Among the competing squads, 18 teams from 10 area high schools competed in the IHSA Bass Fishing Sectional at Shabbona Lake.

Teams from Aurora Christian, IMSA, Marmion Academy, Bartlett, Batavia, Geneva, Naperville North, Plano, Sandwich and St. Charles East and North comprised the Shabbona Lake Sectional.

Shabbona certainly is large enough to accommodate that many teams.

At 318 acres and surrounded by a beautiful state park, the Shabbona reservoir is the only lake in Illinois designed and built exclusively for fishing. Among its accolades, Shabbona has produced four Illinois state musky records, has state record-sized walleyes, huge populations of channel catfish, panfish, crappies and is one of the finest largemouth bass fisheries within a day's drive.

Anglers could fish every conceivable type of structure on what is one of the prettiest lakes in the state - from huge weed flats, to deep creek beds lined with standing timber. There are roadbeds that were left when the lake was flooded, building foundations, steep drops and gradual slopes were cut into the hillsides, dozens of cribs were laid out throughout the lake and there are rock bars built by area clubs working in concert with the DNR.

In short, Shabbona is a bass angler's dream and it seemed a perfect venue for kicking off the new IHSA tournament series.

Every detail had been worked out. Except the weather.

'The fishing conditions were certainly tough,' sectional Director Joe Large of Marmion Academy said. 'However, the tournament still went very smoothly, and some teams were successful in finding fish. Winds steadily increased throughout the day to speeds of 25 mph at the end of the tournament, with 1-2 foot waves. Water temperatures ranged from the low 50s on the main lake to 60 degrees in the back of the no-motor zone. Water clarity was murky throughout most of the lake with visibility less than one foot. Thunderstorms and cold rain on Thursday night seemed to offset any positive effects from the new moon. All fish were caught in staging areas on dropoffs near the creek channel.'

As the teams pulled to the weigh-in area, the wind was merciless. Tournament winner Derrick Hoffman (St. Charles North) caught a huge 4.10-pound bass on a bend in the creek channel in the no-motor Zone with an X-Rap lipless crankbait at 9:15 am.

Brad Warland (Marmion Academy) took second place with a 3.60-pound fish taken off the deep weedline on the road bed, with a Rapala DT-10 crankbait at 12:30 p.m.

Connor Stapleton (Naperville North) slid into third place with a 1.35-pound fish he took on a Mimic Minnow spinnerbait on Somonauk Point at 1:00 p.m.

In all, 18 teams from 10 different schools participated in the tournament, according to Joe Large. The DNR had allowed a special limit of five fish, minimum 12 inches. The tournament hours were 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Naperville's colors in the winners' circle were carried by an unlikely team from Naperville North High School.

Coach Don Zedrow had been working with his teams, teaching them tactics as well as how bass react to changing conditions, even taking them to Shabbona Lake to learn the lay of the lake they would be competing on.

'The lake was a mess,' said Zedrow, a veteran who doesn't pull any punches.

'The wind was brutal. We pre-fished Thursday and actually caught a musky! A 40-centimeter musky! So, at that point, we thought things would be great for the following day.'

Zedrow had a plan.

'I had one of our boats try a subtle presentation with plastics and bottom bouncers,' Zedrow explained, 'But the wind blew us off every point. The other boat went to ripping right about a half hour into the tourney. They were throwing shad imitations and spinners off of the usual hot spots and finally connected about 1:30, with an hour left in the tourney. We caught one of the only three fish boated that day.'

Don's son, Matt Zedrow, was the coach in the qualifying boat.

Director Joe Large was encouraged after the awards presentation. An experienced tournament bass fisherman competing on the Illinois Bass Federation circuits himself, the math department chair at Marmion sees the potential that the circuit has to introduce Illinois' high schoolers to the sport.

'This was definitely a positive experience for all who were involved,' Large said. 'And hopefully it's helping to hook a whole new generation of fishermen. Anyone who fishes knows that all it takes is one cast and they'll be hooked on fishing for life.'

From left to right: St. Charles North, Marmion Academy and Naperville North finished first, second and third in the IHSA's Shabbona Lake Sectional on Friday (April 24). They all qualified for state, which takes place at Carlyle Lake on May 8 and 9 in Carlyle.Submitted photo