The quartet of 2025 graduate Max Moore, senior Mark Cerja, and juniors Peyton Hills and Tyler Page will compete in the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S. for short) High School National Championship July 31-Aug. 2 at Clark’s Hill Reservoir in Appling, Georgia.
The four belong to Anglers of Aledo, a club that is open to all anglers in Parker County through the B.A.S.S. Youth Nation Northwest Region. They qualified through their accumulation of Angler of the Year points, with Cerja and Hills placing first and Moore and Page second.
The Aledo trail is open for anglers in two divisions, Juniors and High School, covering grades kindergarten through 12.
The club is not to be confused with the Aledo Anglers high school team for AHS. They competed in the Texas High School Bass Association.
The Anglers of Aledo club was started last year by Chris Moore, Max’s father. The first season featured only two members before growing to seven this year.
“I started this club so that our son could fish the B.A.S.S. Nation High School Division,” Chris said. “It gives the kids opportunities to work together as a team to make a strategy to reach a common goal. They make a tournament strategy during pre-fishing, but more often than not they have to abort the plan and change gears because of weather conditions, etc.”
The Northwest Region in which Aledo competes was also started last year and is one of three Texas regions. As with pretty much all sports, it didn’t take long for Aledo to stand out as they have two of seven Texas teams to qualify for nationals.
Anglers have the opportunity to win $30,000 throughout the season, along with an opportunity to represent the state of Texas at the national championship.
Cerja is the lone Aledo member with prior experience in the event, winning a junior national championship in middle school before moving to Texas. He also teamed with Miller Hill to finish 19th at the Texas High School Bass Association State Tournament on Lake Conroe in early June.
During the regular season of B.A.S.S. competition, Moore and Page teamed for a pair of top-10 finishes, including first place at the Eagle Mountain Tournament, second at regionals, and seventh at state.
As for qualifying for nationals, Max said that while it was expected after their high regionals finish, it was a thrilling moment when it became official.
“We kind of saw it coming because we had second and they took two last year via Angler of the Year,” he said. “But whenever we officially got announced that we were going it was awesome. We were thrilled.”
Each tournament typically features more than 100 boats and over 50 teams.
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