The Bass Fishing Team, consisting of sophomores Trace Jansen and Riley Kudelka, qualified for the state tournament at Lake Belton this weekend by placing 69th out of 290 teams at the regional tournament.

“We both are working towards the same goal. We have a collective team effort,” Jansen said. “I’m pretty excited because I qualified us for state in our first year, so it was a pretty big deal.” 

Tomorrow, Trace, Riley, and their boat captain, Trace’s grandpa, will start their practice fishing day before the state tournament. Riley is predicting there will be over 300 teams competing in the state tournament.

“We just try to locate where the fish are and what they are doing,” Riley said. “We try to find as many spots as we can and see where they are biting from.”

Trace set a record for a bass at 15.32 pounds and 28 inches on Feb. 28 at their home lake, Lake Travis. 

“I was jumping up and down and screaming and I immediately called my grandpa and told him I caught the biggest fish of my life!” Jansen said. “Me, Riley and his dad were all high fiving.”

Trace and Riley have known each other since elementary and have been fishing in tournaments together since middle school.

“We’ve known each other since third grade and we have been fishing together since the beginning of middle school in the Association Faith Angler Network.” Riley said. 

In order to compete in tournaments with the school the team has to go through the Texas High School Bass Association.

“We are in the Hill Country Region so all of our tournaments are within an hour,” sponsor of the Bass Fishing Team Megan Hanson said. “As the sponsor we check grades we help them enroll in tournaments and just kind of make sure everything is in order as far as safety requirements and all that kind of stuff.”

This is the first year Johnson has had a fishing team. The pair is trying to recruit more people to join next year.

“I think this year has gone great and we could get a lot better if we do well at the championship. I’m looking forward to trying to make the top 10 Anglers of the Year!” Trace said.