While most people see fishing as a leisurely activity that only takes place over the summer, senior, Landon Siggers views fishing as a sport that has no off-season.

“I love the outdoors, getting up early every morning, riding to the lake, the whole experience; seeing the sun rise, I’ve experienced so many sun rises and sunsets that I don’t think I ever would’ve done in any other sport,” Siggers says.

Siggers claims he has had a love for the sport since the age of three when his father began taking him fishing out on lakes.

“[He] is my biggest supporter; from boating for us at states and traveling with me [to] helping with gas and other expenses. He has always been there when I needed him,” Siggers says.

Although he discovered his love gor the sport early on, and began fishing competitively at age 7, Siggers says his passion didn’t ignite until his first year of high school when he began competing in high school tournaments.

“Before [high school] I had always competed against adults and didn’t ever realize I was any good because I had never won anything but when I started to fish high school I realized that all the time on the water had made me an extremely competitive angler and I never lost a high school event for 2 years.”

At the beginning of the 2015-1016 school year, Tustall’s first fishing club was created and Siggers led the club as vice president. Although many of the members had never fished competitively before joining the club, the fishing club was very successful. With Siggers’ leadership, the club attended states where they reeled in first place.

Before the states tournament began, the participating club members went to the Chickohomany River, where the tournament was hosted, and practiced fishing out on the river.

“We spent either 4 or 5 days up there practicing. We went up on a Tuesday and stayed until the Saturday of the tournament,” Siggers says.

Siggers not only prepares for the tournaments with the rest of his club, but he also prepares for the tournaments individually.

“I spend countless hours in my boat preparing a dozen or more rods and reels for an upcoming event. I also use many online resources to look up winning ways on that body of water in the past,” says Siggers.

The club showed Tunstall, the community, and the state that they could bait a hook when they brought first place home after only existing for a year.

While Siggers is proud of the club’s wins, he has higher goals set.

“As a high school goal, I want to win the national championship. If I finish in the top ten percent at regionals then I will qualify for the High School National Championship; where if I win I could have the opportunity to fish in the College National Championship.”

Siggers plans to attend either Dallas Baptist University or Campbellsville University where he intends to major in marketing and join their fishing team. After graduating, he hopes to be able to gain enough sponsors to join the pro tour or find a job in the fishing field.