Eighth grader Mason Jett is more than just a student and a football player, he is also a competitive fisherman. He has been fishing competitively for about a year and a half now. “I have always really been into fishing but just for fun, and I thought that fishing competitively would be a good idea to make some money and also to get better at the sport,” said Jett.

He has had several victories, but his biggest win was last year when he and his partner won with a 19.08 pound fish. “A lot of people think that you have to have a lot of money and skill but you really don’t, you just need to know how to learn from your mistakes. Every time you go out and don’t catch you have to think about what didn’t work, not what would work and then apply that knowledge to your next trip,” Jett said.

Jett fishes on a team trail, which is a group of people that fish against each other for a year and fish on different lakes each month. You have to get out on the lake early if you want to find a good spot to fish for the day and even after that you cannot determine that the fish are going to bite. “Fishing isn’t just going out on a lake, but it’s also about growing as a better person and learning from every cast,” Jett said.