3 minute read
Senior Anglers Compete on National Level
Nicholas Dewhirst ‘21 Staff Writer
While you’re at home gaming with your friends, seniors Jenson Kay and Ryan Moss are likely on a lake in the middle of nowhere attempting to reel in some monster bass.
They were only young kids, around five years old, when they started to go fishing for fun.
“It was in Traverse City; that was the first place I started,” said Moss.
“My dad used to take me down to the Moore Lake Dam in Milford, and we’d just go for bluegill or whatever bit,” explained Kay.
Fishing became a regular hobby for them through middle school, and they became much more serious about it by eighth grade and especially into high school.
“I think . . . what really got me obsessed with fishing was when a bass came up and ate my worm instead of a little bluegill, Kay reminisced. “I ended up catching it . . . it was awesome.”
Once they both caught their first bass, they were hooked onto the sport. When Kay moved from Texas to Michigan, he and his family settled into a neighborhood near Pettibone Lake. He was really excited because he had close access to a lake full of bass. Any free time he and Moss could find was spent fishing, trying to catch even larger fish each time they went out. In eighth grade, Moss had his first fishing tournament on Lake St. Clair, and Kay’s was in northern Michigan on Hubbard Lake.
Once they knew they wanted to take their fishing to a higher level, they enrolled in their first national bass fishing tournament. In this particular tournament, there are four competitions scattered across Michigan (and all other states). Teams qualify for the national competition by gaining points in the tournament series or by doing very well at their state’s competition held at the end of the year.
Essentially, the top two teams per competition with the heaviest combined weight of the five fish they are allowed to catch move on to nationals.
In their first year, Kay and Moss placed second out of 150 teams in one of the regional competitions, and they placed third in the state championship that same year.
“For that particular state [championship], you need to be first or second to qualify for nationals, but we were third, so we almost double-qualified,” Kay said.
It’s huge commitment to competitively fish. They said they’ve likely spent thousands in their career thus far. In the year they qualified for nationals, they won $1200 back.
“I’m fortunate enough to be able to pay for this, but a lot of people aren’t . . . people who could have
taken our spots . . . I’m just thankful for that,” Kay explained. Several colleges also offer scholarships for fishing, and one of his main goals as a fisherman is to earn one.
They’ve also had some hilarious and almost creepy experiences while fishing.
One time, while Kay was fishing, a bass got caught on his fishing hook but pulled away and snapped his fishing line. Roughly two hours later, he caught the same bass with his lure still in its mouth.
“One time I was pike fishing, he came up and snapped my line and just was gone. It was a really big pike, and I was also really bummed out because he took a really nice, expensive lure, and a week later that same pike washed up on the shoreline with the lure in its mouth. I just thought, ‘What are the odds of that?’” Kay said.
Moss said he’s reeled in a crayfish, barely hanging on by his claws, and even two fish at once. “We’ve caught some weird stuff, but nothing too insane . . . nothing like a gold nugget that a fish spit up.”
The next time you want to go fishing somewhere, come talk to Jenson Kay and Ryan Moss. They can teach you a thing or two about what they enjoy most.
Seniors Jenson Kay and Ryan Moss look for some fish out of the CC resevoir pond.
Photo by Gomez
