How two Minnesotans became the best high school bass anglers in the United States

If there's a weirder way to win a national bass fishing tournament with 270 entries, Zach Piescher and Cole Semler don't know it.

And don't want to imagine it.

The first day of the recently concluded three-day High School Fishing National Championship on the Mississippi River near La Crosse, Wis., went just fine for the two Cambridge-Isanti High School seniors.

"We were allowed to weigh three fish each day and on the first day we caught all three of our largemouth bass in one spot,'' Cole said. "They weighed 9 pounds, 13 ounces, good enough for 18th place.''

On the second day, Cole and Zach, along with Cole's dad, Jeremiah Semler, clambered into their high-powered bass boat, prepared to take off in the half-light of early morning.

Jeremiah was the boat's required adult "captain,'' and he leaned against the throttle of the 225-horsepower Yamaha that powered the trio's scimitar-shaped Skeeter.

Expecting the boat to pop up quickly on plane, Jeremiah pointed the sleek craft toward the lock that would take the three of them to Pool 8 of the Mississippi — home to the hotspot that produced fish for Zach and Cole on Day 1.

But the motor didn't respond.

"It wouldn't go,'' Cole said. "So we idled out of the way of the other boats that were taking off. We figured it was the fuel pump, but we couldn't fix it, so Zach laid in the back of the boat and started pumping the gas-line bulb. That got the motor going, and Zach laid there, pumping, the whole time we ran.''

Said Jeremiah, "We were going about 60 miles an hour.''

Reaching their destination, Jeremiah switched off the Yamaha while Zach and Cole lowered the bow-mounted trolling motor. The boat's electronics showed water 4-feet deep, and the two 17-year-olds started pelting the thick vegetative slop that matted the river's surface with imitation frogs.

Cole threw a Poppin' Pad Crasher and Zach a SPRO Bronzeye Frog — both surface baits that skittered atop the Mississippi, hoping to entice any bass lurking below to bite.

They did.

"It was so good we could almost call our casts," Cole said.

"The bass really whacked those baits,'' said Zach.

Having fished competitively since seventh grade, the two not-quite-pro-but-pretty-darn-good high school anglers knew they needed a big outing to contend for the championship on the contest's third and final day.

If they could top the field, they would be the first Minnesota students to win the High School Fishing National Championship sponsored by Major League Fishing. Usually, the title goes to a team from the southern U.S., where kids learn to walk and cast bass-fishing rods about the same time.

"We were catching fish on the second day at the same spot where we caught them on the first day,'' Cole said. "And no other boats were around. We had the spot to ourselves.''

Yet as the second day progressed, with Zach and Cole catching one bass after another and keeping the biggest, something occurred that was nearly as weird as Zach doing his pumping thing with the fuel line.

"One of the bass in our live well coughed up a bluegill weighing maybe 4 ounces, meaning at the weigh-in that bass would weigh that much less than he did when we caught it,'' Cole said.

Still, after the competition's second day, the three bass credited to Zach and Cole tipped the scales at 11 pounds, 6 ounces, good enough for second place and 1 pound, 6 ounces behind J.D. McBroom and Carter Pjesky of Maple Park, Ill.

Unable able to fix their boat's motor on short notice, Cole, Zach and Jeremiah figured if Zach could pump enough gas into the outboard to get them upriver and back one more time, they had a chance to win the tournament, or at least to place in its top handful of boats.

But the next morning, the motor wouldn't respond to Zach's pumping.

"That's when the driver of the camera boat that was following us, Brad Wessling, offered us his boat,'' Zach said. "We got approval for that, did a quick safety check, and were off.''

Again the same spot produced for the two anglers, and by day's end they had been crowned national champions, weighing a three-day total of 32 pounds, 7 ounces — 6 ounces better than the second-place squad.

With the win came bass fishing scholarships to the boys' choice of Simpson University in California, Drury University in Missouri, or Kentucky Christian University. If Cole and Zach choose other colleges, they can divide a $10,000 scholarship prize to help out.

"They each also won co-angler entries to the Toyota Series Championship later this year, and a chance to win a new boat, motor and trailer,'' said Jeremiah, adding:

"My dad was a bass fisherman, I'm a bass fisherman, and when our school got a team started, Cole and Zach were interested. They don't play other sports. They just fish bass. It's been a ton of fun.''