Out on the water at the crack of dawn just as the fog rises over the lake. Its another chill crisp morning of another Galena bass fishing practice. Everyone is tired but more than ready to fish and to earn points for the upcoming sectionals. “This season has been better than any other so far,” says Mr. Kluzek, “I see good potential for this year.”

Another student rocks back, setting the hook into another big Illinois largemouth. It’s not a wall-mounter, but no doubt a tournament qualifying fish. “We have been out quite a few times so far,” says Mrs Watson, “and our students have been consistently catching good sized fish.” The Galena Bass Fishing Teams does a majority of their fishing out of the Mississippi River and the Galena Territory. Sectionals slowly approach and have been creeping into the minds of all the fisherman who are hoping to qualify and possibly even make it to state. The confidence levels are high throughout the whole team when it comes to the thoughts of sectionals, especially because they had made it to state three years before.

It is up to coach who gets to qualify for sectionals but at the same time it is up to you as a fisherman. It all runs on a point system. For every practice or meeting that the students show up to, it is two points. For every fish that is caught, no matter the size, it is one point. It is also possible to lose points. If you have said that you’d be attending a practice and then you don’t show up without letting the coaches know, you automatically lose a point. “We are cracking down on student behavior this year,” says Mrs. Watson, “from now on, for ever behavior referral or detention that a student receives, one point will be lost.”
Weather has not been too kind to this team in earlier dates. Due to rain and hot weather the river and lakes have been rising and dropping very rapidly, causing the water to become very muddy and discolored. This in return causes the fish to become very pressured and harder to catch. You can see on the faces of every student that they are not discouraged whatsoever, and that they are ready to give it their all.