Out on the water at the crack of dawn just as the fog rises over the lake. Is 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 most of their fishing out on the Mississippi River and the Galena Territory. Sectionals are not until May 2017 but they 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 thoughts of sectionals, especially because they made it to state three years ago.

It is up to coach who gets to qualify for sectionals but at the same time it is up to each team member as a fisherman. It all runs on a point system. For every practice or meeting that the students show up to, they earn two points. For every fish that is caught, no matter the size, it is one point. It is also possible to lose points. Team members have said that they would be attending a practice and then don’t show up without letting the coaches know, you automatically lose two point. “We are cracking down on student behavior this year,” says Mrs. Watson, “from now on, for every behavior referral or detention that a student receives, two points will be lost.”

Weather has not been too kind to this team on 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 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.