(moderate music) - High school, where kids go to learn about things they like and a few things they don't, like math.

Sports have always been a big part of the high school experience, and in recent years, the sporting opportunities have expanded to include more of the outdoor world like archery, the Clay Target League, and now fishing.

(moderate music continues) The Student Angler Tournament Trail is a non-profit organization that offers competitive fishing events for students in Minnesota.

Each angler must be a member of the Student Angler Federation and fish for their local school team if it has one.

- I also coached the Brainerd Warrior Fishing Team, which our first year, we just kind of did some local stuff.

Our second year, we said, "Hey, let's have a trail."

So we started a trail, we gave away a brand new boat to the winners of our trail.

And it grew, we were getting, you know, 30 to 40 boats per event, which at that time was pretty big, pretty cool.

And then we all grew the Brainerd Warrior Fishing Trail and we started the Student Angler Tournament Trail.

In a nutshell, we do five qualifying events, and we take the top 10% from each event qualifies for our TOC.

- They were on Whitefish, La Homme Dieu.

We were supposed to have one on the Mississippi River, but unfortunately, we had to cancel and change that one to Mille Lacs.

And we had a regular open on Mille Lacs.

And then our TOC is tomorrow on Big Stone.

- So welcome to Big Stone Lake.

We have 95 boats that are gonna fish tomorrow, okay?

You guys are the cream of the crop.

Some of you guys and gals have been here for many, many years.

Some of you, this is your first TOC.

- It's really grown, especially in the northern region of the country, I guess.

I know South was always big fishing, and we've been here for a little bit, and it's cool to see all the younger kids like we were.

Cool to see that and how good they're doing.

- Our program started from about four people last year, and now we have about 14, 15 this year.

- Oh, really?

- It's been a massive growth.

We have three teams at the TOC.

If you told me that before this year, I wouldn't believe you.

We have guys who just finished eighth grade year.

They're at the TOC this year.

I mean, that's something me and my buddy Noah weren't able to do.

So it's cool to know that we're building a program here.

(moderate music continues) - Minimum countable length of a bass is 12 inches.

It's gotta hit 12 inches on your bump board, then you're gonna round it up a quarter inch.

So your smallest bass in the app is gonna be 12.25 inches.

Absolutely no fish at all period ever in your livewell.

- I think it'll be a tough bite, and if we can get seven of 'em, I think we'll sit pretty good if we get seven, but... - I'm sure all you guys got out there and practiced a little bit.

I've heard multiple different things as far as how the bite was, but I guarantee one thing.

Somebody is gonna figure it out.

- This is my first-ever day fishing Big Stone in my entire life.

So I have about 7 1/2 hours of time on the water out here.

(Tommy chuckles) - How did it go?

- It didn't go very well.

(laughs) I've heard that there's some big fish in here.

We didn't catch any, but I've heard that you gotta keep moving, and we did not do that today.

So hopefully, we're gonna try that tomorrow, and hopefully, we'll bump into a few big ones tomorrow.

(rousing music) ("The Star-Spangled Banner") (wind noise) - Let's get going.

- Woo!

- [Chris] Good luck out there.

Live well check, thank you (stirring music) - Well, that's what it's all about right there.

Almost a hundred boats lined up and taking ff for the Tournament of Champions here on Big Stone.

Normally, they don't do a lineup takeoff.

Normally, they can just start from anywhere on the lake.

At seven o'clock, the app opens up and they can start fishing and entering fish.

Now they have to use a timestamp.

That way, you know that the fish was caught after seven o'clock.

So right away, after a couple of minutes when the fishing started today, there were a couple of really nice bass that were entered into the app.

So they're all out there now.

They gotta be back in by two o'clock.

They'll have the award ceremony.

We'll find out who wins this tournament.

It's a big deal.

There's some scholarship money up for grabs.

There's some bragging rights.

And how great is it for these kids who are in high school to be in a moment like this?

- So Lund donates us a boat each year, as well as Scheels donates some prizes, and then each school in Minnesota is able to check out tickets and they sell those tickets for $20.

For each ticket, $5 goes back to the school who sold it as a fundraiser, $5 is kept by the SATT just for administration costs, and then $10 goes straight to college scholarships.

So this year, we sold 6,027, I believe is the number.

So we're able to give away $60,000.

The $60,000 is split between 1st and 15th place, and then we also draw four random spots.

So it might be 25th place and 38th place, and they'll get $1,000 scholarship and those are split between the two anglers.

And they don't have to go to a specific school.

You can go to a tech school, a four-year school in-state, out-of-state.

You can even do an apprenticeship and we will pay for that as well.

(steady music) - Fishing with SATT, you meet so many great people.

You get great opportunities with them as well, winning a bunch of scholarship money.

I mean, last season, I won two big bass, checks back to back, one on Leach Lake, one on the Mississippi River with a 5/8 largemouth.

There's so many great opportunities with the fishing.

- I've talked to many girls, and they're like, "Oh, I'm too nervous, I don't want to."

It's like there's nothing to be nervous about.

You can whoop these boys' butts.

- Being a female is awesome in the fishing community.

So many people are supportive of you.

You get so many opportunities.

I mean there's separate checks just for you, just for the females.

So if you're female, you should really join fishing, and it's great.

(steady music continues) - When we do our informational meetings, you know, we tell 'em whatever level you're at, you know, if you want to come on and you just wanna learn how to fish, if you wanna learn a Palomar knot, we're gonna teach you how to tie a Palomar knot.

- We have a lot of people who join the team, and they've almost never fished before in their life.

So it's a great way to teach people how to fish.

I'm a captain.

Every week in a derby, I got two other kids in my boat who tend to be pretty fresh.

So it's a good way to kind of help other people learn too.

- I've been doing this since the summer after my eighth grade year.

Me and my buddy Noah, we kind of just found out about it and we both like fishing.

I don't own a boat or anything, but he does.

And I mean I didn't know that much about fishing before this, but then I joined in the league and I've learned a lot from it.

(steady music continues) - [Jason] If you want to come in and you want to travel down to Florida and fish competitively, we'll provide that platform too.

- Yeah, the dream is to go on and college fish somewhere.

- But we've had several kids that went off and fished to college, and our best success story, we had a kid that started on the SATT who fished Bass Master Classic this year, and just a few weeks ago qualified for a second Bass Master Classic and likely is gonna be an elite BASS angler starting next season.

And high school fishing and college fishing gave them that platform to do that.

(steady music continues) I think there's a lot of kids out there everywhere that just really like to fish.

But I think when you add that competition to it, that competitiveness to it, it completely changes the game.

Then just going out is obviously very important to go out with grandpa and go fishing.

But when you're competing against your peers, and then you add elements like scholarships and things like that, it completely changes these games.

And some of these guys are just built for that.

They want to compete.

- I've always liked just competitive stuff 'cause it's just, it's a way to make things just like, it elevates the adrenaline rush for me.

I'm just naturally a competitive person, and I think that fishing was just another way to keep that going throughout the year.

- It's a great community.

I mean there's some rivalry that goes on and it's fun beating people.

(Bret laughs) (steady music continues) - There's days when football are very hard, baseball is very hard, but when you come out here, it's calm, it's peaceful, you're out here.

And even when the fish aren't biting, you're just out there.

I mean you're fishing and then you get, there's that competitive aspect on Sundays, but before that, it's just fun to come out here and fish.

And that's probably my favorite part about it.

Throughout an entire summer, I might have pre-fished for tournaments more than I've had football practice, and I want to change that.

(steady music continues) - I think it's only gonna get bigger.

Kids are gonna get better, stakes are gonna get higher.

- I don't see us slowing down anytime soon.

We've been, you know, steadily growing, just, I mean it's obviously not as much as we grew from say 2017 to 2019, but we are coming back up to numbers pre-COVID right now.

So I think we'll at least stay here or probably grow a little bit more too.

(bright music) - Pretty awesome derby.

Some of you guys caught 'em, some of 'em, some of you guys, it was a pretty tough bite.

The fish definitely changed, as you guys know.

We had a pretty big shift in temperature.

Our winners, I can say dominated.

Anytime you win a derby with 98 boats, 97 boats by two pounds, you can say that's a pretty dominating derby for them.

They made $12,500 today.

They're from Cambridge-Isanti.

We have Zach Piescher and Cole Semler with 27.77 pounds.

- Yeah, it did not go like practice at all.

We just showed up to our first spot and we just pulled a couple five-pounders out and we're like, "Oh my gosh, what's going on?"

Went to the next spot, same thing happened, and we just went back and forth two miles apart about the size of our boat each spot, and just went back and forth all day.

- Well, awesome job.

Mom and Dad are gonna be a little happy.

Their college tab just went down.

So congratulations, and congratulations on a fantastic couple seasons.

(bright music continues) - A bunch of friendships that changes your life.

I mean, I know people from Little Falls, I know people from Owatonna that have graduated, and I still hang out with them, or meeting people from Louisiana that we travel down there once a year and see them.

So friendships, that really changes everything.

- I've thought about joining the DNR because of this.

I love fishing that much that I've thought maybe I could do something.

I kind of want to go to community college for wildlife and fishery management because of this, you know.

So yeah, again, it's definitely, it's impacted my life for sure.

- Definitely do it.

It's life changing.

And I know that sounds like a big thing, but it truly is.

(bright music continues)