YATES CENTER — He doesn’t turn 19 until January. But even so, Remington Wagner certainly qualifies as a seasoned veteran of competitive fishing.
He’s been at it for more than seven years, having won three state titles as a youngster and amassed a collection of hardware large enough that it no longer fits in a single trophy case.
Even his individual achievements have morphed together, he admits.
To illustrate, Wagner and his parents, Bryson and Shelly, sat down this week to reflect on his success with the rod and reel. Coming up with the dates of his loftier accomplishments required poring through old magazine articles and photo albums. Did he win his first team title in 2014 or was it in 2015?
“I don’t even remember Banner Creek,” he told his mother. (All he did there was win his first State Bassmasters Junior Championship. For the record, he accomplished that as an individual. It was in 2012.)
Today, the 2017 Yates Center High graduate is a freshman at Hutchinson Community College and is home for the winter break.
He is gearing up for what may be his last hurrah, by traveling to South Carolina in March to the Bassmaster College Classic National Championships. He qualified by placing second with a teammate at a qualifier competition last April at the Lake of the Ozarks in southern Missouri.
Because of how the rules are set up, however, Remington must find a new fishing partner because his old teammate is a student at Kansas State University.
“He has to compete with somebody from his school,” his mother noted.
“I think I have one in mind,” Remington replied. “We’ll be OK.”
Remington and a handful of his HCC schoolmates banded together in the fall to form their own fishing club, going so far to get the Blue Dragon Bass Team approved by the school’s Board of Trustees and Student Council.
“We don’t know how long the club will last because there’s absolutely no adult supervision,” Shelly said with a chuckle. “It’d be fun if they can keep it going.”
And even if the club disbands, there’s always the option of competing as a professional.
In fact, if Remington is fortunate to win the upcoming national competition, he’ll gain entry into at least one Bassmasters Classic in the future.
“A lot of kids have come out of college to become big pros,” he said. “It’s almost to the point the older pros are saying ‘Why couldn’t we have done that back when we were younger?’”
YOUNG REMINGTON dedicates much of his success to a few individuals.
Of course, his parents have been with him in lockstep, traveling across the country to various fishing holes, and are his most ardent cheering gallery at weigh-in.
But he wouldn’t have even dreamed of turning his hobby into a competitive sport without the guidance of Iolan Melvin Smoot.
It was in 2010 when Smoot, an adult adviser for the Puddle Jumpers, a youth fishing team, extended an invitation to Remington.
His success was almost immediate.
He won the aforementioned junior division state title at Banner Creek on the outskirts of Holton in 2012. He followed that up by winning his divisional competition that year, in Lufkin, Texas.
From there — after rules were changed requiring youngsters to have fishing partners — Remington teamed with Nick Luna of the Kansas City area to win the state senior title in Milford Lake near Junction City.
His third and final state title came with Zach Viehlhauer, also of the Kansas City area, in 2016 on Melvern Lake in Osage County, and then placing 12th at the high school national championships that summer at Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tenn.
THE DUO’S 12th place finish capped what may have been one of Remington’s crowning glories on the lake.
He explains.
He and Viehlhauer were early in the final day of competition for the entire field, and they spotted a largemouth bass feeding on surface bait.
“Those types of fish are everywhere in that lake,” he said. “He’d come up and we watched him blow up on shad on top of the water two or three times.”
Remington cast his topwater lure over the behemoth a handful of times to no avail.
“Suddenly DWOOMP!” Remington recalled. “At first, I honestly thought it was a log. It wouldn’t move.”
But as he set the hook, the fish recoiled.
He reeled in what turned out to be a 7 pound, 15 ounce largemouth, his largest of the event — and his career.
He followed that up a short while later by landing a 5-pound smallmouth bass.
But, as luck would have it, the early success was fleeting. And by the end of the day, Remington and his partner had landed only two others.
That meant others who had filled their five-fish allotment would be weighed against Remington and Viehlhauer’s four, which totaled about 19 pounds.
“Sitting on the bubble is the worst,” Remington explained, “not knowing if you’re going to make the cut. I’ve never felt so sick in my life.”
The pair were in 10th place with three teams to go, “and we knew two of them had pretty good bags. My partner’s about to pass out. I’m about to puke.”
Fate smiled on the Kansas team; the third group was well short.
“At that point, making it to the third day is just gravy,” Bryson said. “The third day, you get to go out and just have fun.”
Placing 12th earned each a $1,000 scholarship.
COMPETITIVE fishing, like other pastimes, depends on part on advances in technology.
The Wagner’s boat, for example, is outfitted with a Lowrance Fish Finder, which bounces sonar waves off the waterway’s bottom, and is capable of showing the water’s depth, the contour of the land below, and of course, the fish.
“We probably spent 30 hours on Lake Kentucky in preparation for that tournament, and we never cast a line,” Remington noted. “We just studied where the schools of fish were, where riverbed channels might be.
“And it’s good to check three or four times a week,” he continued. Currents may have fish one day, and not on tournament day. A lot of guys will tell you that within three or four days of a tournament, you’ll find big schools of fish that are gone by the last day.”
The added technology can be a blessing, his father noted, and a curse.
“There’s nothing more frustrating than dropping a line where you know the fish are, and you can’t get a bite,” Bryson said.
REMINGTON’S passion for fishing, hunting and all things outdoors came about naturally, with his family.
“It was nothing for us to load up on a weekend, and go somewhere,” Shelly said.
“Between Dad and Mom, I never really had a chance of not being outdoors,” Remington joked.
Which, of course, leads to something of a father-son rivalry.
Who’s the better fisherman?
“Depends on the day,” Remington replied, somewhat diplomatically, before admitting his father still has a few tricks up his sleeve.
“He gets to fish with me in practice rounds,” Remington noted. “And he’ll land one. Then another. Then another. It’s not as much fun to be around him those days.”
REMINGTON is studying fire science in college to become a firefighter like his father, “although Remington’s going to be the smart one and get paid for it,” his mother joked.
Bryson recently “retired” after 20 years with the Yates Center Volunteer Fire Department. He remains a volunteer with the rural department.
PHOTO: Remington Wagner holds a 7 pound, 15 ounce largemouth bass he landed at the 2016 Bassmasters High School National Championship in Tennessee. COURTESY PHOTO
