On May 17 Trent Tennison could say he caught the biggest lunker Noxon Reservoir had to offer, and no one would suspect a Fish Story.

The bigmouth bass in question weighed 5.6 pounds and helped Tennison and teammate Wyatt Daken take first in the Montana Student Anglers championship. The two have been friends forever — “I have pictures of them when they were less than a year old,” said Trent’s mom, Angela — and now they’ve been teammates for a couple years. 

That’s when Austin Hoff, another of Daken’s friends, told him about Student Anglers. While Hoff found a different fishing teammate, Daken and Tennison got together. A year ago, in a state tournament that included around 15 teams, they took third. 

This year they bested 33 other teams with a bag — five fish total, either bigmouth or smallmouth bass — that weighed 16 pounds.  

“It was a mix of both,” Tennison said. “There were fish everywhere, and we were catching a bunch. It was a ton of fun.” 

The victory qualified them for the 16th High School Fishing World Finals in Grand Lake, Oklahoma June 24-28. Unfortunately, their boat captain, Kalispell native Jason Krone, had a fishing conflict of his own.  

It is wait ‘til next year for the juniors to be, Tennison at Flathead High and Daken at Bigfork. 

“They’ve got a good chance,” said Krone, a professional fisherman on the BAM Super 60 circuit. “That’s the best part. Last year they were pretty green. This tournament they got to learn a lot about how to make the precise cast, or how they’re locked onto beds. How to be super stealthy on the boat. 

“It was a lot of fun to team them; it took me a while to learn that stuff on my own.” 

Montana Student Anglers compete in roughly five tournaments, spread out from fall to spring. Key is securing a boat and its captain. Krone, who counts Daken’s father as his main hunting partner, was not surprised when his phone rang. 

“I figured once they started a high school program, I’d be asked,” he said. 

The trio, along with the other teams, were allowed to pre-fish Noxon Reservoir a day before the tournament. Then came the tournament. 

“We had a good game plan,” Daken said. “It was to fish shallow. We fished in a spot we thought would be good, but there were no fish.” 

“It was like, ‘Hold on boys, we’re putting the trolling motor on high and we’re looking for fish on beds,’ “ Krone said. “And that’s what happened. 

“Then when the sun came out it was, ‘All right, we’re going back to the shallow.’ ” 

Tennison said they caught their limit within an hour of their 6 a.m. launch, and spent the next six hours trying to upgrade the weight of their bag. Every team came in at 1 p.m. 

If they weren’t hooked before, they are now. 

“It’s a great program,” Tennison said. “You can get scholarships for going on to the world finals. Two years ago they gave out almost three million dollars in scholarships.” 

The possibility is real for anglers to compete in college. Auburn has a team, Tennison said, as does North Carolina State.  

Krone notes the program is getting big in Montana. “There’s more kids that want to do it, but we’re running out of captains,” he said. “If there were volunteers out there, it’s a good experience and fun for everybody.” 

He figures next year, fish willing, he’ll be going to the world finals. 

“Next year I could see it – ‘All right, we’d better go for sure,’ “ Krone said. 

“Oh yeah. He’s stuck now,” Tennison said. “I told him he has to go.” 

Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463 or at [email protected].