Antioch high schoolers juggling baseball and bass fishing

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‘Probably my most memorable fish was my biggest brown trout of 22 pounds,’’ Antioch junior Evan Schmidt said. ‘‘I was with my dad and didn’t have a net. My dad was dangling off the side of a pier [in Kenosha, Wisconsin] and trying to grab it.’’

His dad, Mike Schmidt, couldn’t lip the brown because the treble hooks on his son’s KVD 1.5 crankbait had treble-hooked in the thrashing brown’s mouth.

‘‘We ended up getting it in,’’ Evan Schmidt said. ‘‘He kind of, like, bear-hugged.’’

Schmidt’s partner for Antioch’s bass-fishing team is sophomore Zach Rubin, who said, ‘‘Evan is a crazy multispecies guy. He will catch anything.’’

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They qualified for the state finals in bass fishing with a second-place finish Thursday at the Chain O’Lakes North Sectional. Antioch’s other team — senior James Sheehan and junior Jason Lee — took first place, anchored by Sheehan’s big bass of 4 pounds, 5 ounces.

The finals are May 17-18 at Carlyle Lake.

Schmidt and Rubin juggle two sports. Both are also varsity baseball players who rushed to games after winning the Northern Lake County Conference tournament on the Chain for the second time last month and again after their sectional finish.

‘‘It was kind of hectic, but you’ve got to change in the car on the way,’’ Rubin said. ‘‘Then grab your bag. We didn’t even get to watch the weigh-in. We had to head back to school for baseball.’’

High school anglers at state sometimes juggle prom and fishing in the tournament. This is different. Schmidt and Rubin will go to state for bass fishing.

‘‘There was a little question because of baseball, but [the state tournament] falls the week before playoffs,’’ said Schmidt, who plays first base and outfield. ‘‘We had a conversation with our coach [Frank Fracek], and he said, ‘Go for it.’ ’’

Rubin has good reason for being a third baseman. He was at the Cubs game in which Kris Bryant got his first major-league hit in 2015. Rubin said right now his dreams are of playing baseball.

He is also a good bass fisherman. His dad is Antioch coach Brad Rubin, the only coach in Illinois history to medal in bass fishing with teams from two schools (Zion-Benton and Antioch).

Both anglers are good students. Rubin had just been inducted into the National Honor Society when I talked with him Sunday. Schmidt takes advanced-placement and honors classes and is carrying a 4.2 grade-point average.

They are different as fishermen.

As befits the son of a former charter captain, Schmidt favors salmon and trout fishing. Like his dad, he’s serious about fly-fishing. His dad builds rods. Schmidt built a 5-weight fly rod, which, he said, ‘‘I use it on the Fox River for smallmouth bass.’’

As for college, Schmidt said, ‘‘I’m planning on playing baseball in college. I would like to do bass fishing in college, but I will fish anyway.’’

Rubin is a bass guy.

‘‘I love throwing ChatterBaits,’’ Rubin said. ‘‘But my favorite is frog-fishing. The blow-up is pretty awesome.’’

He’s got that right.

‘‘So my grandparents live in Texas,’’ Rubin said of his most memorable fish. ‘‘There are nice ponds around where they live. There is a 20-foot-high wall around this one pond. I hooked a 4- or 5-pound bass, then fought it for five or 10 minutes and had to find a spot to land it.’’

Naturally, Big Texas Pond Bass" is on his YouTube channel, ZBRFishing, where he started posting during COVID.

Chicago River Day

Friends of the Chicago River will hold its massive cleanup and restoration day (more than 2,000 volunteers) from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 11. Registration is required at chicagoriver.org/get-involved/volunteer/chicago-river-day.

Stray cast

Chicago baseball is like a pop-up storm: It depends where you are.