Bass fishing has been a sport here at Lakes since the 2008-2009 School year. Talon Sports had the chance to interview the top bass fisherman at Lakes, Zach Stall.
“[My] favorite fishing memory would have to be my trip to South Africa last December, when I won gold in the USA Bass youth trinationals tournament, getting to be around a ton of like-minded people who are willing to help each other grow and learn more about fishing,” Stall said.
Stall is proud of his accomplishments. His biggest bass was a 9.03 lb largemouth. Although, he is very proud of his personal record of a single bass. That’s not how tournaments work though. The way to win in a tournament is to have the biggest bag. A bag is the total quantity of the weight of fish caught. Typically consist of the anglers 5 biggest fish.
“[My] biggest solo bag would be 27lbs for my best 5, and 32lbs with one of my friends,” Stall said.
One of his hardest tournaments was recently on Lake Santee Cooper in South Carolina, where he struggled all through practice and the morning of the tournament. Eventually, the team decided to try a different strategy. Most of the team switched to slow moving baits. These baits included speed worms, Texas rigged senkos, and ned rigged crack n’ crawls.
“This allowed us to find the right fish, but we couldn’t keep the fish hooked,” Stall said.
Stall struggles at times, despite being a great fisherman. In this tournament, he lost two very key bites, with one of them being a bass that was close to 8lbs. Stall doesn’t see not winning tournaments as a loss, but a learning experience. This is who Stall is as a person as well. Stall finds a positive in every situation he is in, whether it is at school, on the lake, or hanging out with friends. Stall is a great fisherman and an even better person.
Stall has a huge outlook on the season coming up. He believes he has what it takes to place at all his high school tournaments. Stall will be headed off to North Alabama University in the fall to continue his passion for bass fishing.
