Reeling in an education: Central Pa. teens win national fishing open, choice of colleges

Don’t let anyone tell you fishing can’t be educational.

Two central Pennsylvania teenagers took home 2019 TBF Student Angler Federation High School Fishing World Finals on Pickwick Lake in Alabama. In doing so, both won their choice of scholarship offers from Bethel University (Tennessee), Simpson University (California) or Kentucky Christian University.

Anthony Cicero IV and Dakota Snyder, both of Elizabethtown, caught three bass weighing in at 16 pounds, 6 ounces to win the four-day event that consisted of 389 high school fishing teams.

Cicero admitted that college wasn’t exactly on his radar until he won the tournament.

“I might go to college now since we won,” Cicero said in a news release. “At first, I wasn’t sure if I’d go, but I might go now.”

Snyder plans on joining the United States Marine Corps after his upcoming senior year.

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The 2019 TBF/FLW High School Fishing World Finals is the biggest high school fishing open event in the country.

Cicero and Snyder defeated their closest competitors by 1 pound, 9 ounces.

A 7-pound, 7-ounce largemouth anchored their limit and won Big Bass honors for the day.

“We were fishing this stump where we had caught a couple in practice and we caught our three best fish there today and ended it all,” Cicero said.