The Strawberry Crest fishing club team made its mark on the Florida high school scene by winning its first-ever tournament in November. On Sunday, May 31, the team became top dogfish and plans to be for a while.
Two Crest teams took first and third place at the B.A.S.S. Nation State Championship, on Lake Okeechobee near Clewiston, and punched their tickets to the national championship tournament next month. The team of Rafet White and Colten Smith placed first, and the team of Jonathan North and Russ Butler Jr. placed third.
These anglers expected to do well at the tournament but may not have expected the ending to unfold like this.
“They (North and Butler) placed top five, pretty much every tournament,” White says. “We haven’t had the best tournaments — we’ve placed — but we really pulled our game up.”
LEARNING LAKE O
Smith, North and Butler are all freshmen, and their performances this season are encouraging for the future. But White, a senior, would have been fishing in his last tournament with the team had he and Smith not placed in the top three. He was hoping to go out with something to show for it, and Lake O requires all anglers to be on their A-game.
Because of its size, Lake O presents a series of challenges that no other lake in Florida has. Each day of the state tournament conditions were different.
“It changed so much,” North says. “On the first two days, we caught fish on the inside of the grass while we were pre-fishing. The first tournament day, we caught them all inside. The second day, we caught them all on the outside.”
Weather changes affected the fish’s behavioral patterns even when it was something as simple as a clear day following up an overcast day. Wind patterns also came into play.
“On the second day, there was hardly any wind in the morning, so we could fish better that day,” Smith says. “We caught a lot more on that day. There was no wind getting in the way of what we were trying to do.”
White and Smith each caught the bag, with White filling up on the first day and Smith on the second.
The fish out there are bigger, to the point where the boys had to throw back bass that they’d normally have kept.
“It really is the land of the giants,” North says. “It truly is. There’s big fish all over that lake.”
North caught an 8.53-pound bass, the second-biggest of the high school tournament.
Now that that’s over, the boys are getting ready for nationals.
UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY
From July 22 to 25, the Crest anglers will be on Kentucky Lake, about 100 miles outside of Nashville, competing against the other top high school teams in the country.
This is going to be a new experience for them, as this competition will have more rules than anything they’ve entered in Florida. Also, Kentucky Lake itself is unlike anything in Florida: While most lakes here are quite shallow, Kentucky Lake’s initial drop-off is around 25 to 30 feet, and only gets deeper from there.
“Any other state will have deep, clear lakes,” Butler says. “Florida, what’s the deepest hole in Florida? Eight feet, maybe. It’s a completely different element for us.”
For starters, the depth affects the way the anglers will cast their lines and will also change what they’re putting on the lines. This means the boys will probably have to fill their tackle boxes with a whole new arsenal of natural-colored lures.
“I’m used to flipping bass lines in a foot of water,” White says. “Now I have to throw a hare jig in 25 feet of water, over a ledge, 100 yards from a creek.”
The tournament will also take the boys offshore quickly, which requires a different strategy. In Florida, the boys stay close to the grass because that’s where bass tend to gather. Up north, the fish are more mobile.
The anglers are going to have to learn a lot about fishing up north over these next few weeks, but they’re up for the challenge. And come tournament time, they expect to be ready for whatever happens.
“Fishing’s all about confidence,” North says. “Every cast, you’ve got to expect to get a bite. You have to work your bait just right. You have to do everything right.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
INVESTORS? POSSIBLY YOU
The fishing team has added several sponsors since the original Plant City Times & Observer story ran, but the team is always looking for more to help mitigate the travel and food, and tackle costs of making the trip to Tennessee next month. Any persons or businesses interested in sponsoring the boys can contact Dale North at (813) 695-4200, or email schsbassmasters@gmail.com.