By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

GADSDEN – Both Jacob Drake and Connor Walker have been fishing for as long as they can remember. Walker, a junior at Indian Springs School, and Drake, a sophomore, currently make up the student-run fishing club at ISS that competes in statewide tournaments. The two recently took part in the Neely Henry Lake High School Tournament hosted by the Alabama Bass Federation on Oct. 3 near Gadsden. The pair placed fifth overall out of 25 total teams, and reeled in the second-biggest catch of the day.

Drake and Walker comprise the entire fishing club at Indian Springs this season, though the club has been around for roughly five years, according to both. This is the first tournament the two fished together, in a tournament that has grown in recent years.

“For this certain trail, last year it was smaller than this,” Drake said in an Oct. 20 interview. “Twenty-four (teams) is good, but they want to have at least 30 or 40 in the future.”

The pair also caught the second-largest fish at the tournament, a 4.7-pounder that Drake hauled in.

Although the two have some time before decisions have to be made about colleges, both said they would be interested in pursuing fishing at the collegiate level.

“I would love to go to college on a fishing scholarship,” Drake said. “I knew a guy last year who went to school on a fishing scholarship. If a college wants to let me go to school for free to do something that I love, I’ll do it.”

Walker said he is also interested in looking into fishing at the collegiate level, but also has a passion for baseball as well that he wants to pursue.

The two will fish in roughly three more tournaments before the state tournament in the spring, with the next one scheduled for the first weekend in November, according to Walker.