By Todd Kleiboer
Communications Specialist
Photo: In front, students Libby Cernero, Addey Kuhn, Drake Holmes, Creed Dobbs, Hunter Purser and Derek Baker all participated in the Regional Tournament. With them are their boat captains, including Fishing Coach Tyler Atnip at far left.
It was a breezy, clear Satuday as 327 high school bass fishing teams cast their lines and crossed their fingers on Lake Texoma as they competed in the Regional Tournament of the Texas High School Bass Fishing Association.
And floating comfortably in their home turf were four Sherman High School boats.
“It’s a huge home field advantage,” said Bass Fishing Coach Tyler Atnip. “Texoma is the lake that’s right here for all of us. All of our boat captains [they act as chaperones] get on Texoma.”
During the regular season, Atnip oversaw seven teams as they competed on lakes all around the North Texas area. With seven anglers among four teams making the cut for Regionals, this was the most students he’s had qualify.
“We were a brand new program a few years ago,” Atnip said. “Each year, we’ve added more anglers, and each year, the anglers we have get better and better.”
And now, two teams are headed to the State Tournament after persevering through the day with solid catches in their creel. Hunter Purser and Creed Dobbs caught a nice 3.71-pound largemouth bass and squeaked in on the cutline after the official results were announced Monday.
The pair had been consistent all season, staying in the middle of the North Texas Division standings before jumping up to 19th at the end.
Sherman’s biggest catch of the day, however, came from Libby Cernero and Addey Kuhn, who fished up four largemouth bass and one smallmouth weighing in at a total of 16.63 pounds for fourth place. The duo had been on fire all-season long, finishing third in the regular season Angler of the Year standings.
“It’s impressive what Addey and Libby have been able to do,” Atnip said. “Each tournament, they’ve been able to get to the scale with their fish and maintain a high point total.”
ANGLING FOR SUCCESS
As you can probably guess, the bass fishing season looks a little different from most sports, and anglers can’t exactly take the athletic period to go fishing. Atnip said team members at home can practice casting, learn proper equipment handling and adjust reel settings.
“They can also spend time watching tournament events that are going on,” Atnip added. “They can watch and see what colors and what lures are catching and where the anglers are.”
Anglers also have one practice day on a tournament lake meant for finding hotspots or mentally marking where the underwater terrain suits bass, such as sunken logs.
“We look for different spots where fish may sit and rest or feed at,” Atnip said. “They can fish, but they may take the hooks off the lures so when the fish bites it, they won’t bring it in.”
In his four years as coach, Atnip has seen everything from the greenest of anglers to the most experienced ones. However they start out, Atnip encourages growth.
“The young man [Derek Baker] on my boat is in his third year [on the team],” Atnip said. “He would get his bait caught up in the trees, have backlash and cast onto the bank that first year, but last year, he figured it out and qualified for Regionals. This year, he qualified for Regionals again.”
All teams are accompanied by a boat captain, who must be 21 or older, have a boating license and pass a background check. Anglers, with proper training, can load and unload the boat and operate the trolling motor.
Over the five regular season tournaments, teams receive points for participation and placement, and Atnip noted Cernero and Kuhn had excelled at staying competitive in the top standings. Consistency, he added, is the key to fishing.
“This is what I always tell people: Fishing is 100% luck - until you start to learn the little details and intricacies that go into it,” Atnip said. “The goal is to drastically decrease how much of it is luck and how much of it is your preparation and understanding.”
ABOUT THE HOTSHOT DUO
Amid the male-dominated field, Cernero and Kuhn stood out in the North Texas Division as the highest-ranked all-girls team. Cernero, a sophomore, competed on the team the year prior and had been taught by family before that.
“She’s definitely the leader on that team,” Atnip noted. “We keep our own points as a program, and she finished as Angler of the Year for Sherman High School.”
In the summer of 2020, Libby Cernero and her brother Dylan fished around at ponds, a pastime that drew her into fishing. Dylan had joined the team that year and competed before the onset of the pandemic.
“He got me into fishing and using newer reels, which I like using,” Cernero said. “It was just interesting. I thought it was so cool.”
Cernero advanced to the State Tournament last year with recent graduate Emma Jones, but she said they fell short of where they wanted to finish. In an interview with the two before Regional, Cernero said she felt more confident on Texoma than at last year’s Regional Tournament on Lake Lewisville.
Cernero and Kuhn fish using a conservative, deliberate method that worm bait calls for, and Cernero works the front of the boat while Kuhn drags her line at the rear, picking up anything Cernero might have missed.
Junior Kuhn wanted to join the team last year, but all boats were filled at that point. Kuhn gravitated toward Cernero because the pair play softball together, and Cernero has tutored her in the sport.
“I learned how to actually cast because I hadn’t been fishing since I was in third grade,” added Kuhn. “I learned how certain rods work, but I haven’t learned how to tie weight on my line yet, but Libby’s helped me a lot.”
Below: Addy Kuhn, middle, and Libby Cernero, right, earned third in Angler of the Year standings for the North Texas Division. Chris Carson, left, helms their boat.
