Spartan Fishing Team Newsletter - Oak Lawn Community High School

Summer 2013O a k L a w n C o m m u n i t y H i g h S c h o o lSpartan Fishing TeamFor all the latest news and information on the Spartan Fishing Team, be sure to check out our teams website!The best way to contact Coach Kuchyt is through email: ckuchyt@olchs.orgSpartans Name 2013 Plano-Frabill Team of the Year!INSIDE THIS ISSUEFall Bass TournamentDate2013 Plano &Frabill’s Team ofthe YearDistrict 230 Tournament4Sports PsychologistDr. Don Kalk-5steinFishing for Panfish 7MVP, Sportsmanship,and ScholarshipWinnersSectional BassTournamentMaking Our OwnPlastic BaitsRecipe of theMonth13781013Fun Fishing Info 16What an amazing springit has been for the Spartan FishingTeam! First, Jim DaRosa andDon Dziedzina of the Fishingand Outdoor Radio Show presentedthe 2013 Plano &Frabill’s Illinois High SchoolsFish Here Team of the Yearaward to the Oak Lawn CommunityHigh School Spartan FishingTeam! Read the article on page3 to find out the details of thisprestigious award!The Spartans also qualifiedfor their first state basstournament this spring by placingsecond in the sectional tournament.John Neubauer shareshis sectional experience ofcatching the big bass of the tournamenton page 8. John alsowrote an article about the District230 tournament on the DesPlaines/Kankakee River onpage 4.Team members alsopicked up some valuable informationby attending a presentationby an Oak Lawn alumni whois the sports psychologist for theMembers of the Spartan Fishing Team were honored byDon Dziedzina and Jim DaRosa as the2013 Plano-Frabill Team of the Year!Dallas Mavericks and TexasRangers. Read what welearned in Jon Metelski’s articleon page 5.Team members werealso presented the uniqueopportunity to pour their ownplastic baits thanks to alumniRhett Wheeler. Read aboutthe lures and molds the kidscreated and see their creationsin Mike Sutko’s articleon page 10.This issue is also hasarticles on fishing for panfish(page 7), scholarship winners(page 7), awesomerecipes (page 13), and funfishing information (page16). We hope you enjoy thisnewsletter that the kids onour fishing team created.The Spartan FishingTeam is always looking fornew and unique ways toenjoy the outdoors, so if youare a person who has anyideas or ways to help,please consider contactingus at ckuchyt@olchs.org .Correction on the date of the Fall Bass TournamentThe Spartan FishingTeam is planning the fourthannual Spartan Bass Tournamentto be held on theKankakee/DesPlaines River atthe DesPlaines ConservationArea on October 12, 2013. Theteam has partnered with UniqueBassmasters and Rayjus Outdoorsto bring this event together.Over 170 high schoolanglers took part in the 2012tournament, making this tournamentone of the largest highschool fall bass tournaments inIllinois. The 2012 tournamentdetails and results can be foundhere and you can check out thehighlight video here.The 2013 tournamentwill have a similar format to the2012 tournament. Schools willagain be able to enter as manyboats as they would like with a$40 entry fee per boat. Thenumber of boats in the tournament,however, is limited to thenumber set forth by the DNRpermit. Entries will be allowedon a first come, first serve basisand registration will begin August115, 2013. Registration forms andmore information can be foundhere.Tip of the MonthNeed worms for bait?Take dish washingsoap, pour it on an areawhere worms will beeasy to find, and soakthe area with a gardenhose. The worms willcome to the surface!

Spartan Fishing Team Named Plano & Frabill’s Team of the Year!After advancing to the State bass tournament, themembers of the fishing team gathered for what they thoughtwas a send off ceremony. When the team entered into theschools theater, they were surprised to see their parents, administrators,classmates and Jim DaRosa and Don Dziedzinaof the Fishing and Outdoor Radio Show. At this ceremony, theSpartan Fishing Team was honored as the 2013 Plano andFrabill’s Team of the Year!The team won an enormous prize package that wasdistributed to team members. The prize package includedproducts from Plano, Frabill, Rayjus Outdoors, Berkley Havocand Trilene, Bolingbrook’s Bass Pro Shops, StandOut Hooks,Daiichi, Real Magic, Shakespeare, War Eagle, Bass Minder,Strike King, and Evon’s Trophies (Tinley Park).The Spartan anglers would like to thank Jim DaRosa,Don Dziedzina, Plano, Frabill and all the other wonderful companiesthat sponsored this contest and are helping to promotethe high school fishing program. We would also like toencourage any and all high school anglers to join the IllinoisHigh Schools Fish Here Facebook page to share ideas andand fishing success stories. You can also read more aboutthe Illinois High Schools Fish Here program here.3

Sports Psychologist Dr. Don Kalkstein Offers Advice to Anglersby Jonathan Metelski (grade 10)On May 14, fishing team members were granted theopportunity to meet with Dr. Don Kalkstein to discuss psychologicaltraining and preparation. Dr. Kalkstein currently serves as thesports psychologist for both the Dallas Mavericks and TexasRangers, and has served in the same capacity with the BostonRed Sox. He is also a 1980 graduate of Oak Lawn CommunityHigh School.Dr. Kalkstein talked a lot about mental toughness andexplained that if someone is physically tough, that that does notnecessarily mean that they are mentally tough. If you want toexcel, you need both. He used many acronyms to get his pointsacross. One of the acronyms he uses when mentoring his athletesis S.A.V.E. This acronym can also be applied to fishing. Itstands for Self-affirmation, Anchoring, Visualizing, and Executing.Self-affirmation means to believe in yourself and your abilities.Anchoring means to evaluate the situation and to “anchor” yourself,or put yourself, into the moment. Focus your attention onwhat needs to be done and tune out distractions. Visualizingmeans that you are able to see in your head what the lure lookslike underwater or that you are able to imagine how the fish isbehaving. Finally, executing refers to physically doing the rightthing, like making the perfect cast. This acronym can be used fora variety of sports, and can be used as a general description ofuseful steps in any sporting situation.Another acronym that he shared with us was “A.E.I.O.U,”this stands for Attitude, Effort, Interest, Opportunity, and Urgency.You need to have a positive attitude that you are going to catchfish, no matter what the weather is like. You have to be interestedin learning new techniques and more about the sport andyou also have to create opportunities for yourself to go fishing.You also have to make every cast count and feel the urgency ofcatching a fish with every pitch, cast, or flip. Make everyonecount. This acronym is applicable to a variety of situations, fromschool, to fishing, to life at home. These acronyms were some ofthe keys of the presentation.He also offered advice on how to minimize pressure. Theexample he used was of a basketball player who could hit 100free throws in practice but when he is in a game he cannot makeone! What he said you must do is concentrate and forget abouteverything internally and externally, whether it is pain, nerves, or50,000 people in the stadium watching you. Then and only thenwill you be able to hit the shots you need to.Mr. Kalkstein touched a bit on team morale as explainedeveryone on the team must be committed to the goal of winning.For each bass tournament we fish in, you are allowed two kids ona boat. If you have one student who wants to win and feels asense of urgency to win this tournament, and the other studentin the boat is not as interested in winning but is instead happy tosimply be on a boat, their goals are not the same and you maynot have as high of a chance at winning the tournament. This iswhy the entire team must be focused on one goal. Mr. Kalksteinwas asked this question by an audience member: What do youdo with a player who thinks they are the best but won’t put fortheffort in practice? His answer is to video tape him/her practicingand when they put forth effort in a game and at practice thenshow it to them. Then you can confront them and show them thatthey are not doing their best. From there, you can show if theyare truly trying or not. This would be like a fishing team memberbeing better than most other team members, but never attending5any team meetings or outings.At the end of his presentation,he said that sports are ninety percentmental and ten percent physical. Peopleneed to start spending more time preparingmentally because, on average, onlytwo percent of people spend time trainingmentally. As our state bass tournamentapproaches, I will use his advice as I prepare for the biggesttournament of my life.

Fishing for Panfish by Andy Jensen (grade 10)Fishing for Panfish is one of my favorite things todo. Whether it be crappie, perch, or bluegill, I always have agood time fishing for them. Panfish are relatively easy tocatch. They tend to travel in schools rather than just alone.Once you locate a spot where can you catch a consistentnumber of panfish, you can easily catch your limit and havea nice meal for the day. Nothing beats the feeling of reelingin a 10-inch bluegill. It’s almost like reeling in a dinnerplate! In my opinion, panfish are one of the most aggressivefish out there. They hunt by using their eyesight, so I wouldrecommend using a brightly colored jig head or soft plastictipped with a red worm or wax worm. It’s all about the presentation.Crappie are probably my favorite panfish to fish for.They will bite on a wax worm or minnow. I have even caughtcrappies on crankbaits! My preferred method for fishing forcrappie is simply using a slip bobber and a crappie minnow.Crappie tend to be at different depths when they are feeding.Using this technique allows you to find the fish even ifthey are at different depths. The best time to fish for crappiesis in the spring. They spawn during the spring so it iseasy to locate them. Catching bluegills in the summertimeis easy to do. If you want to catch thehogs, I recommend deep water withsome sort of structure in the area, liketrees, stumps, or weeds. I like to usea small jig and red worm. The biggerbluegills tend to travel together, so ifyou catch one, there should be othersas well.Finally, fishing for perch isalso fun. Perch will bite on minnows,worms, and event shrimp. A lot of people go to catch perchon Lake Michigan during the summertime. If there is anorth wind, cold water flows into the Chicago harbors andwith that cold water come the perch. And the size of someof the perch are ridiculous! A biologists told me once thatthe perch I had caught on the lakefront could be as old as10 years since they are so big. Overall, panfishing is almosta way of life. It helps me focus, since I’m feeling for thesmallest bite there is. It is also great for the little kids becausethey are almost always biting.2013 MVP, Sportsmanship, & Scholarship WinnersAt this years Spring Sports Awards Night, the Spartan Fishing Team named their award recipients. The 2012-2013Most Valuable Player award was presented to Jonathan Metelski and the Sportsmanship Award was presented to MichaelSutko. This year’s $250 Happy Hyundai scholarship award winner was Alexis Kosek and the $250 Spartan Fishing Teamscholarship was awarded to Jamie Schuld. Up to date, through the generous contributions of our team sponsors, the SpartanFishing Team has awarded $3,250 in scholarships to graduating fishing team members!Scholarship award recipients Jamie Schuld,Coach Kuchyt, and Alexis Kosek.Sportsmanship recipient Michael Sutko,Coach Kuchyt, and MVP Jonathan Metelski.7

2013 Sectional Tournament at Wolf Lakeby John Neubauer (grade 10)When sectionals come around, it is always a dramaticending. This year was no exception. On April 22, 2013, theSpartan Fishing Team competed against other schools for achance to compete in the IHSA State Bass Tournament onCarlyle Lake.When the tournament started, my fellow teammatesAndy Jenson and John Metelski fished the first shift on ourboat. On our teams second boat were teammates Ed Swiesand Lauren Cappel. At the start of the tournament, the watertemperature was 45 degrees. We knew it was going to be achallenging day on the water.After the first couple of hours, no one on our teamhad caught a bass, but we did lose one. Andy had a bass hithis War Eagle spinnerbait right alongside the boat, but a fewseconds later, it was off the hook. When my chance to get onthe boat came up, Coach Kuchyt took Andy and I to our firstspot told us to really fish this area hard. He took us along aflooded shoreline with cattails and lay downs. I was pitching aJD Lures Live Craw flipping bait. As I made a pitch, I felt a littleweight at the end of my rod. I swung back and set the hookon a nice large mouth. My partner Andy quickly netted thefish and we were on the board! That fish ended up being ourteams only bass, but it was enough to put us in second placeat the sectional tournament!The fishweighed 2.1lbs, whichmade it the big bass ofthe tournament. Thefish also put us in secondplace, therebyqualifying us for thestate bass tournament.Andy, Jon, andI are very excited forstate and we know wewill fish till we dropwhile we are at CarlyleLake! The tournamenthas been postponedfor nearly a month,which has given usextra time to researchthe lake. At this sectional tournament, we all learned that justone cast, pitch, or flip could make the difference in a day offishing. Now, we must move on and hopefully do well at ourteams first state finals appearance.2013 State Qualifying Team: John Neubauer, Andy Jensen, Jon Metelski8Explore the Blue by DiscoveryIf you are a grade school teacher, check out Explore the Blue.On this site, you will find resources for teaching about fishingand the outdoors. Lessons include Grades K-5 cross-curricularlesson plans for Science, Social Studies, Math, Language Arts,and Health/Physical Education, plus Grades 6-8 Earth and LifeScience lesson plans. All plans are standards-aligned and featurevideos and multimedia tools on conservation, aquatic habitats,the importance of boating and fishing to societies andeconomies - designed to seamlessly integrate with your currentplans. http://exploretheblue.com/

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Making Our Own Plastic Baitsby Mike Sutko (grade 10)May 21, 2013 was a good day for our team meetingbecause my teammates and I got the chance to make ourown lures! I was very excited to do this. As we began to thinkof how we wanted to design our lures, we were first taughthow to make them.Rhett Wheeler, a former Oak Lawn Community HighSchool graduate and owner of Convincing Custom Lures,offered to show us how plastics are made. He had a lot ofstories to share with us about his homemade baits and howhe caught fish. He said that he caught a fish on every lure hehas made!Mr. Wheeler was going over everything on how tomake these soft plastics. He said he uses products fromthree different companies to help him create his plasticbaits. The companies are Make Lure, Alumilite, and MoldPutty. He showed us all the molds that he has made and heexplained how he made the molds. He then went on to showus how to pour and mix the chemicals to create the plastics.The next step was to color the plastic. I was amazed that youonly needed two little drops of coloring for each container ofplastic. Once the plastic is colored and in a liquid state, youcan add your flake to it. There were many different colorcombinations to choose from. Mr. Wheeler also showed ushow to layer colors on our plastics, which was cool.The second thing Mr. Wheelershowed us was how to paint lures. Thepaint is not exactly paint. It is morelike a dust that sticks on to the lure. Igot the chance to do this with threeother people. Mr. Wheeler gave us"pro tips", as he called them, and itwas good advice. He specifically saidto use the darker colors first and towork your way from the top of the lure to the bottom. One ofmy teammates colored a blue gill pattern, another did abass, another had bright florescent colors, and I painted minea trout pattern. To keep these paints from wearing off, wehad to dip them in a hot plastic so the colors do not wear off.On our next team fishing outing, we are having a contest.The biggest and the most bass caught on the baits weeach made will win a prize. We are all looking forward to tryingthe baits we designed. At the end of the presentation, Mr.Wheeler gave out a lot of his home-made baits and I am veryexcited to use these. It was so cool to make our own lures, Ican’t wait to make more color combinations. I want to thankMr. Rhett Wheeler for coming out. I just hope that will catchbaits on the lure I colored. Check out the custom lures andcolors we created below!10

Spartan Favorite Recipe:Pecan Crusted WalleyeIngredients 1 egg1/4 teaspoon garlic powder1/4 teaspoon onion powder1/4 teaspoon ground paprika1 pinch cayenne pepper1 pinch salt1 cup ground pecan meal4 (4 ounce) fillets walleye1 tablespoon butter1 tablespoon vegetable oil6260 W 95th St708-233-0368Directions1. Beat the egg with the garlic powder, onion powder,paprika, cayenne pepper, and salt untilevenly mixed. Spread the pecan meal into a shallowdish. Dip the walleye fillets into the egg mixture,then press into the pecan flour.2. Heat the butter and vegetable oil in a large skilletover medium-high heat. Place the walleye filletsinto the pan. Cook until golden brown on bothsides and the fish flakes easily with a fork, 3 to 4minutes per side.Source: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pecan-crusted-walleye/detail.aspx13

Fish Tales Fishing Club consists of a group of individuals who love tofish. The goal of this family oriented group is to increase angler knowledge.Meetings with guest speakers to discuss fishing tips and techniques areheld on the third Thursday of each month . The group meets at the BremenTownship Building located at 15350 South Oak Park Ave in Oak Forest.For more information on Fish Tales, please visit their website at:http://www.fishtalesfishingclub.com/14

Oak Lawn Community High SchoolSpartan Fishing Team c/o Chris Kuchyt9400 Southwest Hwy.Oak Lawn, IL 60453About our logo...The Spartan Fishing Team logo was createdand designed by Matt Jensen.Matt graduated from Oak Lawn CommunityHigh School in 2010.E-mail: ckuchyt@olchs.orgFish FactCarry-Out & Delivery SpecialsLarge 14” CheeseThin Crust Pizza$6.45Extra Toppings $1.75Grassano’s Pizza5651 W. 87th St.—708-424-8000Limited Time Only. Tax and delivery not included.Carry-out and delivery only. Offer expires8/30/13.Thank you for supporting the SpartanFishing Team!Carry-Out & Delivery Specials$2.00 OFFAny Jumbo 18”PizzaGrassano’s Pizza5651 W. 87th St.—708-424-8000Limited Time Only. Tax and delivery not included.Carry-out and delivery only. Offer expires8/30/13.Thank you for supporting the SpartanFishing Team!Carry-Out & Delivery SpecialsMon-Thurs2 Large 14” Thin CrustPizzas$11.00Extra Toppings $1.75Grassano’s Pizza5651 W. 87th St.—708-424-8000Limited Time Only. Tax and delivery not included.Carry-out and delivery only. Offer expires8/30/13. Thank you for supporting the SpartanFishing Team!Scientist say that the number oflarge fish in the ocean hasdecreased by 90 percent overthe past 50 years.Source: National Geographic NewsDid you know…90 percent of adult outdoor enthusiasts wereintroduced to nature based activities betweenthe ages of 5-18.Fishing Quote“Most of the world iscovered by water. Afisherman’s job issimple: pick out thebest parts.”~Charles WatermanSource: http://exploretheblue.com/educate.cfmVideo of the Month:The World’s MostDeadliest Fish!http://www.weather.com/news/science/nature/scary-dangerous-fishpictures-2013040216