Keene bass fishing competes for second straight state championship Saturday
Sep. 30—ENFIELD — On Saturday morning, the Keene High bass fishing team will compete for its second consecutive state title, and fourth in the 11 years of the program's existence.
Seniors Connor Holbrook and Aidan Doyon will launch at 8 a.m. on Mascoma Lake in Enfield and return at 2 p.m. with the hopes of reaching the eight-fish limit with the most weight.
Head coach Sean Graves said he went Tuesday and Wednesday to scout out the lake and has a game plan in mind.
"We've got two larger areas with some weed beds that we're going to try first," Graves said. "When I was graphing, I found two big underwater trees with large stumps on them. ... The bigger fish were on the trees, but I'm hoping that they're hard enough to find where they'll be left alone until we get to them."
Three days will have passed since Graves and the team pre-fished the lake, but based on the time of year, Graves isn't worried about the fish moving around too much.
"It's always better if you have a long period of stable weather," Graves said. "Those fish tend to stay in the same patterns. If anything, they'll move a little shallower to where they are now."
The Keene High team will be the first on the lake on Saturday, based on their winning the qualifier last Thursday.
Graves said the level of advantage that gives depends on the body of water. A bigger fishing area means there's less of an advantage for the first boat. But at Mascoma Lake, which has a small fishing area, Graves feels like it's a plus.
"In my experience there, there's just not a ton of areas that hold quality fish," said Graves, who has fished there four or five times.
"I think it's going to fish small, meaning the fish are going to be in certain locations and key areas," Graves added. "I don't think the lake has a broad area where the bulk of the population of fish lives."
Graves said he has 31 student-athletes on the team, with only the top two fishing in the qualifier and the championship.
Holbrook was part of last year's championship team, but this will be Doyon's first time fishing in the championship tournament. Doyon finished third on the team the past two years and broke into the top two this year.
Keene has eight scored events within the team throughout the year to determine the top two fishermen. There are three skills assessments (skipping, flipping and casting accuracy). Attendance also factors in, as well as a written test. Then there are two tryouts at Spofford Lake, which each count individually, as well as combined. The top six athletes in each of those assessments earn points, the top four make varsity and only the top two fish.
"It's not easy to make those top two spots," Graves said. "[The process] does a great job at putting the best fishermen at the top, over the course of those categories. ... It's a great process, because it's based on the athletes themselves."
The assessments begin in mid-August and run until the end of the month.
Holbrook and Doyon were the top two finishers, teamed up to win the qualifier and now will be competing against 10 other schools for the state championship.
But it's not the other anglers that Graves feels like they're competing against.
"It's really more of us against the fish," Graves said. "We have to be able to figure out how to catch our eight fish and put our eight fish on the boat. At the end of the day, if we've done our homework and we found the right fish and we executed without losing any, then you have a good chance of doing well.
"There are always rivalries that you want to beat certain schools," Graves added. "But it really comes down to whether or not we can catch the fish better than they can catch the fish."
Chris Detwiler can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1411, or cdetwiler@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @Chris_Detwiler.
