MBHS fishing team wins third in tournament

Reid Carter and Brother Swagler, members of Mountain Brook High School’s Bass Fishing Team, placed third in the Airport Marine High School Team Trail tournament on Lake Mitchell on Feb. 21. The two caught their limit of five fish and had a 14.73-pound bag. Carter, 18, and Swagler, 17, are seniors at Mountain Brook High School.

The two launched from Higgins Ferry and fished all day almost within sight of the launch. 

“We were fishing a school of spotted bass on a bluff wall half a mile from the launch,” Swagler said. “We stayed there pretty much the whole day. We figured that we were on some fish, so we should just stay where we were.”

 “We caught our limit by 8:30 in the morning,” Carter said, “so we thought we were going to have a very, very good day after that.” 

“We actually caught four limits,” Swagler said. “We caught 20 fish altogether and kept culling the smallest ones.”

All the fish were spotted bass. They caught one largemouth but ended up throwing that one back.

Until the tournament, the two had never fished on Lake Mitchell. 

“We drove down the night before and fished for about 20 minutes,” Carter said. “We caught a four-pound spot on the bluff, and we decided to fish there the next day.”  He added a little ruefully, “Too bad we didn’t catch it again the next day.”

Several local businesses and a couple national ones are sponsoring the high school fishing team. These include The Pants Store; Mark’s Outdoor Sports; Drs. McKinnon, Feagin, Carter, Gee and Dahl, P.C.; Reflexion Swimbaits; and Bandit Lures.

Carter, the son of Amy and Britton Carter, and Swagler, the son of Susan and Rick Swagler, both say they are looking forward to the team’s next tournament.

-Submitted by Susan Swagler