My first name is John Gipson Jr. I am 17 years old and was born on July 24th 1987. I first got into fishing when I wasn't even a year old. I would ride in the bottom of my grandpa's row boat with building blocks and Lincoln logs on Big Fish lake when I was 4 my grandpa moved to a small 40 acre lake in Dowgiac, Michigan called Priest lake. That year I was standing on the neighbors pier one night and caught a 20 inch largemouth, about 4 1/2 lbs, so large that I had to yell for my grandfather to come and help me reel it in because I couldn't move him. After fighting the fish for about 15-20 minutes he finally came over and helped me crank it in. From that moment on I was hooked!!! I kept fishing as often as I could, or every time I was at his house. When I was 11 my father started fishing bass tournaments so naturally I saw how fun it looked and asked grandpa if we could get a fishing boat and fish some tournaments. Opening day came around t hat year and we found our selves on Eagle Lake in Edwardsburg and I weighed in my first keeper bass, I'll never forget that 1.14 lb fish. Later that year we fished a small Wednesday night tournament of about 10-15 boats and I caught 2 fish to win that tournament, which I will never forget either winning my first tournament at 12. When I was 13 the people started calling me "Little Van Dam" and we placed in almost every tournament on Barron Lake, and grandpa only caught one keeper the whole year. When I turned 14 my grandfather got us a 17 foot ranger, which I still use today, and fell in love with it. We placed in a few more tournament that year winning a lot on barron again. I joined Four Flags Bass Masters when I was 15 years old and was the runner-up for angler of the year. Once again this year I was runner-up for the angler of the year title out of about 25 guys. My largest tournament is is a 4.65 lb largemouth I got this year but my largest largemouth was 8 lbs taken in Dowagiac when I was 14 years old. My largest smallmouth was taken at the state tournament this year and is in my right hand, your left, in the pictures included, and on the digital scale he was 4.12 lbs, but wasn't weighed for big fish because the big one was already 6 something. This year I finished 15th and was very happy with my performance for staying in Lake Charlevoix the whole tournament.

Thank You, John Gipson Jr.