The sun comes up as  crashing waves hit the boats, the day ready for a new adventure. The feeling of comradery surrounds the water as the team gets splashed and the new catch is reeled in, the scales of their new friend touches their hand and the team yells with a new victory in sight.

The Bowie fishing club was founded four years ago. The team, of about 10 people, meet in AG teacher’s, Shelby Fisher’s fit every Wednesday to prepare for their many tournaments they fish in. These competitors not only get together for the beautiful waters and early mornings, they also earn trophies and prizes.

“They fish in several different tournaments, Faith Angler Network being one of the main tournaments, however teams can fish in other tournaments as well,” Fisher said. “Last week one of our teams placed sixth out of 179 teams in the High School Bass Association Tournament.”

Co-president Kayden Drake and his teammates spend hours working on  special fishing techniques to improve their changes of winning the tournaments.

“I would definitely recommend this club because you get to go out and wake up early and catch some big ol’ fish,” Drake said.

The group is open for any interested students, and advertises itself through the AG classes and through their members.

“I joined because I got here last year and I knew some seniors who had been doing it so that got me interested,” sophomore Tyler Deithloff said.

There are many tournaments a year, usually they are every other weekend of the month throughout the state.

“We compete at multiple tournaments a year,” Drake said. “We compete at most lakes around the central Texas area and some further south and some further north.”

The club’s main purpose is to allow students to come together and to do something they love competitively.

“The club was created because we need a name in order to fish a lot of these tournaments and there was a good amount of people in our school that was interested in fishing in tournaments,” Drake said.

Although, the group mainly gets together for competitions, the team also practices or pre-fishes the lake together so that they can bond as a team.

“We fish in different tournaments and fish for fun together but my favorite part is the tournament style,” Deithloff said.

The only thing needed to join the club is a passion for fishing and a boat.

“To join students can show up to meetings in my room, Ash Two,” Fisher said, “They just need access to a boat to participate in tournaments.”

Not all are familiar with this club but, in reality it is a more popularized sport for students around Texas.

“We compete with different schools in tournaments. Most schools, including some in this district, have a fishing club but not every school has it,” Deithloff said.

The club usually competes together but sometimes they compete separately and go beyond the state lines.

“We compete all over the state of Texas and I went to Alabama last year so sometimes we compete out of state,” sophomore Hunter Amidon said.

With lots of hard work, dedication, and time, the members can win many different prizes in the tournaments.

“You can win a lot of fishing related activities and money,”  Deithloff said.

Focusing on more than what’s just on the other end of the line, this organization was founded on the importance of coming together, in the end as a team to compete together.

“I would recommend this club because we have really comradery which makes it really fun,” co-president sophomore Tanner Patterson said.

The fishing club is an opportunity for students to gain knowledge about fishing and to provide them with opportunities to enjoy nature and have fun as a team on the water.

“Fishing is a skill that not only is relaxing and fun, but also practical as you can catch your dinner,” Fisher said,  “The students who participate are willing to help new students out, and it’s just an overall great club to join if you like fishing.”