When Jack Story first started fishing tournaments, his target was simple: beat the result his dad once posted at the BFL All-American. Two decades ago, Brent Story finished 34th at the same event. His son just won it.
The 18-year-old from Atlanta led from start to finish at the Phoenix Bass Fishing League All-American on Lake Murray, South Carolina, weighing 61 pounds, 8 ounces across three days to claim the $100,000 first prize. In doing so he became the youngest champion in the tournament's 43-year history, breaking a record that had belonged to Jacob Wheeler for 15 years.
Story opened with 22 pounds, 11 ounces and sealed it with a 17-7 limit on the final day, edging Marietta's Brooks Anderson by a slender 10 ounces. Brought up on Lake Lanier, he relied on the offshore, herring-chasing bass that define summer fishing on the region's big reservoirs.
The nerves were real. "This morning, I had to tie my leader knot four or five times, because my hands were shaking so bad," he said of the final day.
The advice that set him on this path came from his father. "Listen, I don't care what you do, but whatever you do you're going to have to dedicate yourself to it," Brent Story remembered telling him.
The co-angler division produced the week's most moving result. Zachary Howell won it with 28 pounds, 6 ounces and $50,000, then dedicated the cheque to a relative who had died days before the event. "She grabbed my hand and told me 'Go win $50,000.' She passed away on Tuesday," he said.
Story's run is part of a broader boom in junior bass fishing in the United States. In the same stretch, Tallahassee's Chiles High School won Florida's Elite Anglers state title on Lake Seminole - an unbeaten season and the program's first championship - and booked a trip to next month's national event in Kentucky.
Story, for his part, skipped his own high school graduation to stay on the water for championship day. The trade paid off handsomely. Next comes a far stiffer test: the 2027 REDCREST, and the professional level where Wheeler now reigns.
"When it's your time, it's your time," he said.