Levi Rodgers and Dakota Mansell from Phil Campbell

By Kadin Pounders

For the FCT

Bass fishing teams from Phil Campbell and Russellville competed in The Bass Federation’s 2015 High School World Fishing Finals that took place at Pickwick Lake from July 8-11.

Teams were made up of two anglers, and scores were determined by the weight of the fish caught. Phil Campbell entered the tournament with two teams, and Russellville entered with three teams.

Marquis Shelton and Hayden Suddith from Russellville

For the first two days, teams competed against other teams from their own state. There were 166 teams representing more than 20 states to open the tournament. The state of Alabama had 25 teams competing in the tournament. Only the top two teams from each state moved on to the semifinals.

Levi Rodgers and Dakota Mansell made up one team for Phil Campbell, and Eli Jackson and Cade Baker made up the other. After the first two days, Rodgers and Mansell’s catch weighed in at 18 pounds, 7 ounces, good for 49^th overall. Jackson and Baker’s catch weighed in at 11 pounds, one ounce.

Eli Jackson and Cade Baker from Phil Campbell

“(Pickwick) is my home lake, and that’s where I fish a lot,” said Mansell. “I feel like we did pretty good with what we had.”

Both Phil Campbell teams moved on to the consolation round, where Rodgers and Mansell finished in 69^th and Jackson and Baker finished in 43^rd.

“These kids get up at three in the morning and fish until about two or three in the evening,” said Shane Mansell, Phil Campbell’s fishing coach. “To be able to be in the world finals is something a lot of kids aren’t able to do.”

Hunter James and Shelton Bird from Russellville

Russellville, who has been no stranger to success as of late, had two teams finish fairly high in the world championship. Dylan Hatton and Caleb Mays finished first in the state of Alabama after the first two days and then moved on to the final round after their catch weighed in at the five-fish limit of 24 pounds, 9 ounces in the semifinals.

“I felt confident going out there, but I didn’t think we would do that good,” said Hatton.

Dylan Hatton and Caleb Mays from Russellville

Russellville’s Hayden Suddith and Marquis Nelson moved on to the consolation round after finishing tenth in the state and then moved on to the final round after having a top 20 catch combined between semifinals and consolation teams.

Shelton Bird and Hunter James made up the third Russellville team.

In Saturday’s final round the Hatton-Mays and Suddith-Nelson teams fell just short of bringing home another championship to Russellville. Hatton and Mays finished in 10^th place with a final catch weighing 15.13 pounds and Suddith and Nelson finished in 20^th.

“I was really excited for them. They competed hard all year, and they had to beat 140 other teams to get there,” said Russellville fishing coach Dennis Hatton. “To finish two teams in the U.S. in the top 20 is amazing.”

Hatton also thanked and attributed the team success to Bobby Boyd and D & D Marine for allowing Russellville to use their boats after one of the team’s boats broke down.

“Without them there’s no way we would have been able to even get out on the water and compete,” he said.

Going forward, coaches and anglers believe that competitive fishing will start to gain more popularity among students.

“It’s a growing sport,” said Mansell. “I think it’s going to start passing other sports in schools.”

Suddith says that placing high in competitive fishing tournaments like the world finals creates notoriety for his schools, but it also shows there are other alternatives to traditional sports.

“(Placing high) helps to get our school’s name out there, but it also shows there are other sports besides football and baseball,” he said. “If you like to fish, then you can do this too.”

This was the first year The Bass Federation held its world championships in Alabama. Close to 1800 fish were caught over the four-day event and 98 percent were released alive.