photo by: Submitted photo

Cayden Harmon (right) and William Shepherd (left) took home a third-place finish the World High School Bass Fishing Championships in La Crosse, Wisconsin, from June 21-23, 2023.

A Baldwin City teen is now considered part of the world’s third-best high school bass fishing team after reeling in a third-place finish at the Major League Fishing High School World Finals on the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Cayden Harmon, a returning senior at Baldwin High, and teammate William Shepherd of St. Thomas Aquinas in Overland Park competed against nearly 400 of the world’s best high school-level fishing talent on the Mississippi River during the four-day tournament at the tail end of June.

Harmon and Shepherd caught 10 total fish weighing a combined 32 pounds and 4 ounces. Their performance automatically qualifies them for next year’s world championship on Lake Hartwell in Anderson, South Carolina.

“It was an experience,” Harmon said. “I’ve never experienced anything that size. We’d always be seeing people that we know off of social media and stuff. Everyone in the bass fishing community is really genuine people. They always go up and shake your hand and introduce themselves.”

Harmon and Shepherd, who had qualified for the Wisconsin championships at the Lake of the Ozarks earlier this spring, were one of just three Kansas teams at the event. The trip north netted the two teens $60,000 in scholarship offers from Kentucky Christian University.

photo by: Submitted photo

Cayden Harmon (right) and William Shepherd (left) took home a third-place finish the World High School Bass Fishing Championships in La Crosse, Wisconsin, from June 21-23, 2023. Their fathers, Terry (right) and Todd (left) joined them for the trip.

The accomplishment is a long time coming for Harmon, who started fishing competitively alongside Shepherd after the pair connected through mutual friends. Harmon’s fishing origins, though, go back to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As an eighth-grader confined to his bedroom after schools across the country shut down, Harmon found himself making routine trips to Lone Star Lake, just 25 minutes southwest of Lawrence, to log some hours on his brand-new driver’s license.

“One day, I just struck into a 3-, 4-pound largemouth bass, and that’s kind of what got the love going for me,” Harmon said.

After posting a picture of his big-time catch on Snapchat, Harmon found himself diving head first into competitive events and fishing trials as the world returned to normalcy over the next couple of years. He’d eventually drop high school baseball to clear up his spring schedule to get out on the water and build up his fishing game.

By 2022, Harmon even found a way to keep himself busy while the lakes are frozen over during the winter months. He founded Lone Star Tackle Company out of his home back in December and has been selling handcrafted jigs and lures in the area ever since.

“I needed to keep my fingers moving,” Harmon said. “One of my friends in Michigan (Jason Smith) makes his soft plastics and other kinds of bait that you can make. I started looking on YouTube and watching videos and those sorts of things started to pique my interest.”

Fishing gives Harmon all sorts of options right now, whether that’s continuing his entrepreneurial goals or competing at the collegiate level. Whether or not he decides to attend college, Harmon said his dream goal is to fish professionally around the world.

And after last month’s tournament, it’s safe to say Harmon’s on track.