West Hancock’s Grothaus, Scott head to state bass fishing tournament as sectional champions

WARSAW, Ill. — What transpired on the water in Mississippi River Pool 13 the day before the Illinois bass fishing sectional didn’t leave either Gavin Grothaus or Jess Scott very confident.

Getting skunked will do that.

“We didn’t catch a single fish,” Grothaus said. “We were going into the tournament like, ‘Oh, boy, this is going to be a long day,’ because we had no idea what to do.”

It turns out they had nothing to worry about. The West Hancock duo won the sectional championship with five fish weighing a combined 15 pounds, and Grothaus landed the biggest bass of the day at 4 pounds, 14 ounces.

“We rolled up on a spot and had five keepers in about 10 minutes,” said Grothaus, a recent Warsaw High School graduate. “We just kept on catching bigger fish and throwing out the smaller ones. It was awesome.”

It could get better. Grothaus and Scott, a junior, will compete this weekend at the IHSA bass fishing state tournament on Lake Shelbyville. This will be Grothaus third state tournament appearance after being on a sectional championship team for the second time.

As a sophomore in 2023, Grothaus and his brother, Gunner Grothaus, won the sectional at Banner Marsh with 12 pounds of fish. Last year, Grothaus teamed with Nolan Hurt to finish third at the sectional with 6.56 pounds.

A third year in the boat at the state tournament should help Grothaus handle the moment.

“It’s completely different,” Grothaus said of the bass fishing experience. “It’s pretty stressful when you’re out there. You’re on a time crunch. If you’re not into fish right away, you don’t know whether to move or just wait it out. It’s crazy. It’s definitely different from basketball or football or sports like that.”

Although neither he nor Scott has fished Lake Shelbyville — the previous state tournaments were held at Lake Carlyle — they will take advantage of being able to pre-fish the lake on Thursday with West Hancock coach Dave Hurt before the state competition takes place Friday and Saturday.

“I have some intel from some of my coach’s buddies,” Grothaus said. “We’re going to go pre-fish for a day and try to figure some stuff out.”