BASSMASTERS held its 2005 Bassmaster Casting Kids semi-finals in Orlando, Florida on Saturday, April 30th. The semi-finals were held at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex. Rachel Simon and Dave Saterbak from Minnesota along with 2 state champions from 45 other states (consisting of five divisions: North, South, East, West and Central) came to show their flipping, pitching and casting skills. This was Rachel's first time at the semi-finals and Dave's fifth time.

Rachel and Dave competed against 8 other kids in their own age bracket from the Northern Division states. There are two age groups, 7 to 10 and 11 to 14. Rachel and Dave had practiced together in the hotel parking lot where they stayed at up until Saturday morning when the bus picked up all the competitors and their parents to take them to Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex. The competition was intense. These kids all showed how their casting skills got them to the semi-finals. The 7-10 age group went first that morning followed by the 11-14 age group. It took almost two hours for the competition to complete. Even with the large crowd on hand it was almost dead silence through out the competition.

After all the competitors had finished, it was announced there was a tie in the Northern Division's older age group. Minnesota and Iowa had tied, each with a score of 140. A cast-off now had to be done in order to get a winner from the Northern Division. Each one went to the 30 foot mark and had no practice cast, just one cast each. The competitor from Iowa went first and hit the 20. Dave, having his back turned as that competitor made her cast, having no idea of their score went to the line for his cast. He hit the 40 mark. The applause from the crowd let him know he had won the Northern Division and had advanced to the National Casting Kids Championship. The scores were then read from the younger and older age group. The 2005 National Casting Kids Champion in the 7-10 age group from Ontario had won the Northern Division again with a score of 140. Rachel was a little disappointed, but was already talking about this years upcoming Casting Kids contests in Minnesota. She has 6 more years left to compete and I am sure she will be back.

Dave, along with his parents, now advances to the National Casting Kids Championship in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 30th. He will now compete against 4 other Casting Kids Divisional champions in his age group for the National Casting Kids Championship. He will compete for scholarships of up to $5000.00. This coincides with professional fishing's largest event, The CITGO Bassmaster Classic this July 29th-July 31st in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Along with that, Dave has qualified for the 2005 Junior Bassmaster World Championship that will be held north of Pittsburgh, PA on the Alleghany River on July 24th and 25th. Dave has become the first Junior Bass Federation Angler and Casting Kid finalist in history to compete in the same year for both titles. This is Dave's second visit to a Junior National Tournament. Derek Jacobson (also from Minnesota) will be competing in 2005 Junior World Championship also. Dave and Derek are members of the Minnesota junior federation club, The Bassin Boys.

The 2005 Junior Bassmaster World Championship also coincides with the CITGO Bassmaster Classic. The Jr. Anglers come from Junior Bassmaster clubs throughout the BASS Federations, currently derived from 33 states, Canada and the District of Columbia. The Junior World Championship contenders from both age groups (11-14 and 15-18) will be paired randomly together along with one of the top anglers that have qualified for the Classic for the two day event. The anglers will fish one practice day with one of 35 anglers in a Celebrity Pro/Am format on July 24th, followed by a one-day tournament on July 25th with the same angler. Imagine the excitement of spending those two days with someone like Jay Yellas, Mark Davis, or Dean Rojas as your mentor. The pro will be there as a mentor and boat driver only on the actual tournament day. ESPN which owns BASS will be there filming the event, which will be broadcast on ESPN2.

For more information on these events, check out Bassmaster web site at www.bassmaster.com. For this year's upcoming Casting Kids events in Minnesota, check out our MN Bass Federation website.