Texan is first female to win high school bass competition

WHEN the High School Bass Fishing National Championship began June 22, 236 two-person teams representing communities across the country motored their way onto the expansive waters of Pickwick Lake.

It was the first day of a three-day tournament that would begin and end in a big way for an unusual team from a small town in Texas.

Located outside the city of Florence, Alabama, Pickwick Lake is an interstate reservoir that boasts 490 miles of winding shoreline and 43,100 surface acres of fishing opportunity.

Completed by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1938, the impoundment’s primary purpose is flood control and the generation of hydroelectric power. The waterway also provides multiple outdoor recreation opportunities and is known as a quality bass fishery.

That reputation proved to be wellearned as day one of the tournament drew to a close. Teams finishing in the top four places each weighed in with more than 14 pounds of fish, but those were not the five-fish bags we are used to seeing during tournaments at Lake Mead or Lake Mohave.

The youthful anglers were limited to three fish, which meant their fish averaged nearly 5 pounds, for those in places two through four anyway.

Taking first place after day one was a co-ed duo from Lake Creek High School in Montgomery, Texas. Fallon Clepper and Wyatt Ford weighed in a tournament-leading sack that tipped the scales at 18 pounds, 8 ounces, nearly 4 pounds more than their nearest competitors. That is an average weight of more than 6 pounds per fish.

For Clepper and Ford, that opening day lead proved to be the tournament-winning difference and enabled Clepper, already a St. Croix Rod staffer, to become the first female to win the highest title in high school bass fishing.

“I want to see more girls out here getting in it,” Clepper said in a news release. “Just because a boy says you can’t do it doesn’t mean you can’t. Just keep after them.”

Clepper started fishing early. By the time she turned 11, she was already fishing competitively with her father, Julian Clepper, who also happened to captain the boat for the winning team during their run to the National Championship title.

The duo found a fish-laden spot during their practice runs and that honey hole kept producing throughout the tournament.

“When we found the spot in practice, we drove over it with the graphs and saw a really big school of fish,” Ford said. “It was like something we had never seen before.”

Day two was not as kind to Clepper and Ford as the first day. They weighed in three fish, but their bag weighed only 8 pounds, 3 ounces. Going into day three, they led the field only by a single ounce.

“I was nervous at takeoff,” Clepper said. “I thought we were going to get gapped by everybody. But when we got to our spot, there was only one other boat there.”

Ford said “their spot” was the only place they had caught fish weighing more than 2 pounds, so they made the decision to stay put. That decision proved to be the difference.

It was there along a ledge that a 7-pound, 8-ounce largemouth inhaled a plastic worm Ford presented on a shaky head jig. That fish was the largest bass weighed in during the tournament and gave Clepper and Ford a 12-pound, 14-ounce bag for day three, a 39-pound, 9-ounce total and a winning margin of more than 5 pounds.

In addition to cash and other prizes, Clepper and Ford each received four-year scholarship offers from California’s Simpson University and Kentucky Christian University valued at $180,000. They also advance to the 2022 Toyota Series Championship in November.

The National Championship Tournament is run by The Bass Federation.