UPDATE May 17, 2021 – Daxx Huddleston and Nate Stamper took 6th place in the THSBA STATE Championship out of 271 teams. They each won a $3000 scholarship and $150 Lews and Strike King gift card. A big thank you to their boat captain, James Stamper. Congratulations on a great season!
ROCKWALL, TX – May 11, 2021 — Rockwall-Heath High School anglers Daxx Huddleston and Nate Stamper are casting off to the Texas High School Bass Association (THSBA) State Tournament this month after placing in the top 25 in the regional tournament. Daxx and Nate, a team of anglers with the RHHS Bass Club, fished against 223 teams at the regional tourney and got 23rd place with two Largemouth bass and three Spotted bass weighing in at a total of 13.61 pounds. They will fish at the two-day State Tournament at Lake Texhoma on May 15-16th.
A total of 455 teams made up the THSBA this season. The THSBA was started in 2013 by six dedicated team advisors in the North East Texas region, with the hopes of getting more young adults interested in the outdoors. They launched the idea with eight schools participating, with more calling every day looking to join.
This season, teams in nine divisions across the state competed in THSBA tournaments. At each tournament, the THSBA awards thousands of dollars in scholarships and fishing gear to the young anglers. During the regional tournament this season, $20,000 in scholarships were
awarded, and the THSBA plans to award $40,000 in scholarships at the upcoming state tournament.
RHHS joined the THSBA in 2014, and have had several young anglers go on to fish at the collegiate level. The RHHS Bass Club saw a total of seven teams (13 anglers) fish in tournaments this season.
Any fisherman knows that the early bird gets the worm (in this case, the fish!). For the tournaments, the teams can start casting around 6:30 a.m. and fish all day long through mid-afternoon. They can start docking their boat in the water at 4:30 a.m., so the teams are usually up well before 4 in the morning. Each team has an adult Team Captain who is allowed to help with netting the fish but is prohibited from doing any fishing for the team.
“They teach the boys all about fishing etiquette, rules and laws, and give them advice,” said Christy Huddleston, Daxx’s mom and a parent sponsor of the RHHS Bass Club. “The boat captains really drive the teams.”
Each team can bring up to five fish to be weighed for points. Per state law, the teams are not allowed to keep any fish under fourteen inches long.
“So let’s say you have five fish that are at least 14 inches long, and you catch another one that’s at least 14 inches long, you’ll want to toss the smallest of the six you now have. That way you always have five of your biggest fish to be weighed,” Daxx said.
The only types of bass that can be weighed at tournaments are Largemouth, Spotted, Guadalupe, and Smallmouth bass. Prior to the tournament, teams will usually go pre-fish the lake to scope out the best spots for catching fish. Daxx said he and Nate usually pre-fish a lake for two weekends before a tournament. But for the upcoming state tourney, they plan to pre-fish Lake Texhoma a whole month before – the same amount of time they prepped for the regional tournament.
According to Daxx, to find the best spots where the fish will be, you have to look at weather patterns.
“It’s often based on the weather, if it’s hot or cold, cloudy or sunny,” he said. “You also have to look for structures such as docks. Fish love to hang around docks because they provide nice shade for them to ambush little bait fish coming by. The time of the year also plays a big part in determining where the fish will be. Right now in the spring is their spawning season, so you’ll usually find them in the really shallow fishing beds where they lay their eggs. As the water warms up, the fish move deeper.”
When Daxx was around 8 years old, he competed in the Rockwall Fishing Derby and won it. That’s when he became hooked on competitive fishing. Daxx said the biggest fish he has ever caught came in at 7.3 pounds, which he reeled in during his very first tournament as a freshman last year. He said the key to successfully hooking a big fish (or really any fish) is to keep the fish from jumping and keep reeling.
“To keep the fish from jumping means putting your pole and your line in the water and reeling really fast, really deep, to keep it underwater,” he said. “If that fish starts jumping it’s likely going to come off the hook, so you want to keep it in the water as low as you can.”
Daxx said he owes a lot of his success as an angler to the great relationship he has with his childhood best friend and fishing partner Nate, and their team captain James Stamper, who is Nate’s dad.
“Being successful as a competitive angler not only has to do with knowing how to fish and studying the lake you’re fishing, but also with how well of a relationship you have with your fishing partner,” Daxx said. “Nate and his dad and I have such a good relationship that we’re
able to communicate better than most.”
By Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News. Courtesy photos.
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