Bass Fishing Now a High School Sport

Sounds like a good way to get kids outside. I relize it is not a traditional sport, and some folks will be concerned about the fish, but his is something that may well apeal to kids who are not attracted to traditional sports.

So we are officially encouraging people to blast around lakes and ponds at high speeds in overpowered boats, shattering the still, polluting the air, and if every fishery on the planet can be used as a baseline, fishing down the existing stock to the point of extinction? They'd best not try this with my tax dollar...

HG

Not all bass fishers "blast around on boats, [etc]".
I am sure some fish from shore. Maybe some go out in a kayak or rowboat. Maybe some use underpowered electric motors (usually the only power allowed on many lakes).
Fresh water lakes are usually stocked with farm- raised juvenile fish.
Some folks might even eat these things.

I just wouldn't call it a 'sport'. Casting the farthest, that might be the only competitive sporting part. How would you judge if no one caught any fish? (Maybe the lake was fished out?).

I wouldn't lump this in with our (whole world's) salt water fishery problems which are vast.

vsk

Don't forget aggravating the spread of invasive flora like Eurasian Milfoil, etc., HG

This "sport" would be better suited as a conservation class of some sort. Survival training would be a kick@$$ high school sport.

Hey, I thought schools are having funding problems? Now they have the budget to purchase, insure, and fuel bass boats? Not to mention the tow vehicles...

How about low cost stuff like trick frisbee? Or frisbee golf with home-made targets?

Why does everything have to be first class anymore? Why is there such a need for elaborate gear for activities?

How about Boy Scout like activities where students go hiking or camping?

Or running?

Or Mountain Biking? (provide your own)

Give me a break...

@ HG....
I think you might be a bit pessimistic off the gun here. I doubt that all the high schools in Illinois are going to start buying up powerful, gas driven fishing boats for the fishing team in the current economic climate, it's just not going to happen. Besides, whenever I have been out in a boat fishing for bass, its usually an old flat bottom affair with a little electric trolling motor as loud noise disturbs fish, and most of the time we would just stalk the bass from the shoreline, where we could catch small sunfish and bullfrogs to use as bait. On the positive side of things, maybe this will help re-expose kids to being outside, with plenty of time to quietly appreciate the beauty of the surrounding environment they are fishing in. Also, I'm sure they would have catch and release policies in place to insure that they aren't over harvesting the bass. So, chin up.

"So we are officially encouraging people to blast around lakes and ponds at high speeds in overpowered boats, shattering the still, polluting the air, and if every fishery on the planet can be used as a baseline, fishing down the existing stock to the point of extinction? They'd best not try this with my tax dollar...'

Sense when are fishing boats overpowered? They are usually the ones with the smaller motors. It's speed boats that have the big ones. And bass fishing is a catch and release sport, so there won't be any overfishing the stock to the point of extinction, as if bass could every reach the point with all the love people have for them. They would just be restocked like they are everywhere else.

I'm not a bass fisherman myself, but I do work in a University of Illinois graduate ecology position with fish (round gobies, an invasive species) and a bunch of my friends are bass-fishers, and I can say that they generally have a higher respect for the environment than the general public.

I believe that it's attitudes like this that result in environmental-backlashes against conservation and can end up causing a lot more harm than one might think.

Anything to get the kids away from the TV/PC is a good thing. U. Mike siad it right, this may appeal to kids that otehrwise wouldn't play traditional sport. Surival courses, mountain bike , etcc. would be great too.

When I was in High School, they only had your basic sports, you know the ones: baseball, football, basketball, etc..

More variety is a good thing.

Ah, once again we have people on this site angrily weighing in on things they know nothing about. Fishing doesn't require any more muscle than golf or ping pong, and like those examples, any idiot can "do" it, but it takes a tremendous amount of skill and experience to do it well. It's easy to mock activities like golf as a "sport" until you're playing against a Tiger Woods.

Furthermore, a large chunk of government-funded wildlife conservation is paid for by fishing and hunting licenses. Environmentalists would be wise to stop deriding all the hunters and fishermen out there who are (as it was pointed out) generally much more invested (and contribute much more) to preserving nature than the general public. Catch and release sportfishermen in particular tend to be absolutely fanatic about preserving healthy populations of big, strong native fish. State wildlife agencies usually do a pretty incredible job maintaining/stocking game populations, preserving wild areas and keeping out invasives - especially with the trickle of funding they receive. If you really want to preserve the environment, you should work with that sizable chunk of the population who would rather preserve a wilderness for fishing instead of hiking instead of against them.