That Major League Fishing Open high school tournament that Colton Caskey won with teammate Ryan Procell in September 2023 speaks volumes for Caskey’s drive for competitive bass fishing.
Caskey, a senior who’s still fishing MLF events with Procell, came in with the top weight of 12 pounds, 6 ounces, on a blistering hot Sept. 9 day at Lake Sam Rayburn. He prefished in 100-plus degree heat with his mother, Nicki Brown Caskey, for six days from daylight to dark.
His dedication and success in the sport paid off then and other times on the high school bass tournament level. The Riverdale Academy fishing team member committed in mid-November to LSU-Shreveport, giving the growing powerhouse fishing team another proven “stick” who participated in the Bassmaster 2024 High School Combine. Caskey had offers from colleges in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky.
“I’m very proud,” said James Caskey, his father. “They (LSU-S Coach Charles Thompson and the Pilots) didn’t want to lose him.”
A family of fishermen
Before reaching the eighth grade, the lure of bass fishing hooked Colton Caskey but good. His grandfathers were responsible for that as the late Wayne Williams, his paternal grandpa, and the late Sammy Brown introduced him to the sport, he said proudly.
“I had some grandpas that really got me into fishing,” he said. “Both were really into it. I grew to love it and loved to fish with them.”
After Williams and Brown died, another person stepped in to cultivate the passion, he said, expressing his appreciation for Terry Holland, also of Campti. Holland and his father really got him started and he entered the competitive bass fishing ranks as a seventh-grader.
They weren’t his only tutors and fishing companions. His mother, Nicki Caskey, who grew up in Haughton, rides and prefishes tournaments with him in-state and out-of-state, regardless if the weather’s sultry hot or freezing cold, and he said he appreciates that tremendously.
“My grandma loved to fish,” Nicki Caskey said. “My daddy loved to fish. We have a good time out there. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
The angler’s mom eventually saw her first tournament action Nov. 14, 2024, when she fished the Bajio Sunglasses Bass Tournament on Nov. 14 at Lake Sam Rayburn with her son and finished 14th.
Putting his focus on fishing
Caskey gave other athletic endeavors he was interested in a try. As a freshman, Caskey played football, basketball and baseball. Those sports coexisted with his second year of high school bass fishing.
He enjoyed the sports on the field and the court but bass fishing was winning him over, so he trimmed the other sports down to baseball, which he really liked to play, his sophomore season. However, he decided to focus solely on bass fishing his last two years in high school.
“I always loved being on the water. Every day is different on the water. You go out there and it’s never the same,” he said, explaining he felt there was no way he could compete like he wanted to in bass fishing if he played other sports.
He still fishes MLF events with Procell because Procell attends Natchitoches Central High School. Caskey competes in all Louisiana High School BASS Nation (LHSBN) tournaments per the circuit’s rules, with Brayden Pearah, who’s also a senior at Riverdale Academy. The Caskey-Pearah team has four Top 30 finishes, including a 13th in the LHSBN tournament March 2, 2024, at Toledo Bend.
How he fishes
Caskey, who plans to major in business marketing at LSU-S, will throw a big ol’ deep-diving crankbait all day, unless the bass turn their noses up at it. Then he picks up a rod with a soft plastic on it.
“Whenever things go wrong and I have to get bit, I throw a drop shot,” he said. “It’s not my favorite way to catch them but a drop shot will catch them when you need to get a bite.”
As he finishes out his high school bass fishing schedule, including the LHSBN’s opener Feb. 8 (West Division) and Feb. 9 (North Division) at Toledo Bend, Caskey knows he has another bass angler in his corner in retired bass fishing pro Chad Morgenthaler. At age 12, Caskey met the seven-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier while with a church group at a fishing camp at Toledo Bend.
“Chad is a great mentor to me,” the high school senior said, adding he loves catching bass on Table Rock Lake with his Carbondale, Illinois, friend. Morgenthaler has guided professionally for years on the deep, clear lake in the Ozarks.
