SWANVILLE, Maine — Eight months ago, Sophia Ames celebrated her ninth birthday a bit differently than most girls her age.
Her father, Rustin Ames, gave Sophia — an avid angler — a gift he knew she’d love: new fishing gear … and entry into a bass fishing tournament.
Sophia continued to practice her fishing on her home water — Toddy Pond — for the rest of the summer, and come open water season this year, she began looking forward to her first bass tournament.
“I knew she was ready for [the full-day event] because she’d proven it to me at camp, many times, fishing for eight, 10 hours and just barely taking enough time to eat her sandwich,” Rustin Ames said. “[She fished] off the dock, [and caught] one right after the other.”
On April 16, she cashed in on the second part of her birthday gift and competed alongside her dad in a tourney on Swan Lake in Swanville as a two-person team.
It was quite a debut.
It didn’t take long before Sophia started to catch fish.
“I didn’t think we would catch eight fish,” Sophia said, referring to the tournament limit of eight weighable fish that make up a full bag limit in an event. “[We did] in like five minutes.”
After that quick start, Sophia admitted she had a few questions.
“Will we catch any more fish?” was one concern, she said. “And, is it normally like this?”
She needn’t have worried.
From that point on, the Ames team began culling their fish — putting the larger fish that they caught in their live well, and returning the smaller fish to the lake. Tournament bass anglers must keep their fish alive, and store them in live wells — aerated boxes full of water — on their boats until the weigh-in.
Rustin Ames said that for one two-hour period, he didn’t even fish. Instead, he was busy making sure his daughter had a lure on her line, and culling the fish as Sophia caught more and more bass.
Rustin Ames said Sophia caught 80 percent of the fish during the day, and at the end of the tournament, they’d amassed an impressive eight-fish bag. The fish weighed 35.31 pounds, and left the team in second place in the tournament. The winning team’s total was only slightly more — 35.36 pounds.
After the bass were released, live, back into the lake, the Ames team took home $180 for their day’s work.
Rustin Ames said he caught the smallest fish of the day, a 2½-pounder. The largest fish they caught weighed 4.5 pounds. And all of the fish in their bag were nearly that size: Their bag averaged 4.41 pounds per fish.
“I’ve been fishing all of my life — 33 years — and that’s the best day of fishing I’ve ever had,” Rustin Ames said. “Obviously, [it was fun] just having it be the first tournament fishing with her, but you just don’t see bags of fish like that.”
Sophia doesn’t fish all the time — the third grader plays some basketball as well — but she said she’s not nearly as tenacious or determined on the basketball court as she is when she’s fishing.
For now, she’s fishing with a spinning rod, but her dad says Sophia will probably step up to the more complicated baitcasting reels that most tournament bass anglers use in the near future.
“I think she’s at the point that she’s ready,” he said. “That’s all she does is fish. She’s such a natural.”
And Sophia is also a natural at another angling skill: choosing the right lure. Want to know what lure was working best? What her favorite lure is? Good luck prying that information out of her.
“I’m sworn for secrecy,” she said with a sly grin.
