Just as Noah Boyett dishearteningly ties up to a nearby tree and envisions a possibility of defeat, the trolling motor of his not-so-reliable boat starts back up again just in time for him to fill his fish limit within only a few minutes left in the tournament.
On Jan. 25 the fishing team took first place in the high school fishing tournament at Swepco Lake in Gentry, Arkansas. Thier winning weight was over 18 pounds, meaning that they beat the second place team by over 10 pounds. The first place team consisted of, sophomore Noah Boyett and senior Hunter Hanby. The second place team was seniors Dakota Smith and Jared Brown.
“After school started I needed a high school partner so my brother told me he knew a kid that fished a lot named Noah. So, I texted him and we went fishing the next day and we fished well together. We practice every chance we get. We practiced one day a week before our tournament and got lucky to find a wad of [fish]. It doesn’t always work that way. I’ve practiced for 3 or 4 days before a tournament and not find any fish,” Hanby said.
Fishing usually takes about about 7 or 8 hours out of the day to complete a full tournament.
“A tournament will usually start at safe daylight, which is about 7:00 this time of year, and ends around 2 or 3 o’clock,” said Boyett.
Fishing is as much of a strategy sport as any other sport.
“We won the tournament throwing Carolina rigs and deep diving crankbaits around schooling bass feeding on bait fish all day, but we caught them better earlier in the morning when the wind wasn’t so bad. In all we probably caught about 30 fish before we had some boat issues,” Boyett said.
Although the duo was seemingly in sync, the day didn’t go as smoothly as planned. Boyett and Hanby began experiencing numerous issues with their boat when their trolling motor shut off.
“The wind was awful blowing about 30 mph and our trolling motor quit working for about an hour was some of the challenges we faced,” Hanby said.
“I like to fish for fun,” Boyett said, “but I also like the competitive atmosphere that tournament fishing provides as well as the paycheck at the end of the day.”
