Bryan’s Fishing Camp opened its 10th year last week at the Girl Scout camp on Candlewood Lake in Danbury and this year 60 young anglers were on hand – 20 more than last year.

Ronnie and Ray Kerchal began the camp as a tribute to their son, Bryan, who, in 1994, sat atop the fishing world when he won the prestigious B.A.S.S. Masters Classic in Greensboro, North Carolina … one year after finished 41st out of 41 anglers in the very same tournament.

Bryan was the only amateur to win the B.A.S.S Masters Classic – the single biggest fishing tournament in the world – in 24 years. The win not only provided Kerchal with $50,000 in prize money, it also opened the door into a world as a professional fisherman.

Just five months after winning the B.A.S.S. Masters Classic, though, Kerchal was killed in the crash of American Eagle Flight 3379 near the Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina. He was on his way to an employee-appreciation day for one of his sponsors, Wrangler Jeans. The crash killed 15 of the 20 people aboard.

But with his spirit for fishing, Bryan’s Fishing Camp has opened its doors to hundreds of young anglers over the past decade. This year, the camp – running from August 13 through August 17 (finishing with a big tournament) was under the direction of Jennifer Sposta and Michael E. Wiston.

“Some things are changing,” Mr Wiston wrote in a letter to campers. “We are committed to making the camp the best it can be for the children. To do this, we are planning to have more classes on fishing, fishing techniques, the environment, and ecology of the lake, boating safety and the history of BASS.”

Campers enjoyed talks on ecology, environment and boater safety. The Candlewood Lake Authority and DEP provided lots of insight.

 

From the August, 1999

issue of The Newtown Bee

 

“My grandfather came out with an old steel fishing pole with an old bait-casting reel and nylon line. I just pulled the line out and dropped it down. He gave me some worms and I caught some fish.” – Bryan Kerchal, 1994

When Bryan Kerchal held his first fishing pole almost 18 years ago on the shores of Taunton Lake, he didn’t know a Gitzit or a -ounce black jig or an Uncle Josh No. 11A pork frog from a nightcrawler.

But he soon found out.

Kerchal spent the next 16 years figuring out fish . . . their likes and dislikes, their habits and their habitats, and, most importantly, where they liked to hide. Day after day spent at Taunton Lake with his friends or by himself, Kerchal not only figured out fish but he figured out how to fish and as each day went by the flame for his dream to become a professional fisherman burned hotter and hotter.

In 1993, Kerchal finished first in the Eastern Region of the Wrangler/B.A.S.S. National Championships in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and became one of the only fisherman to qualify for the B.A.S.S. Masters Classic as an amateur.

The finish – 41st out of 41 fishermen – did not discourage Kerchal, a short order cook, at all. The $3,000 prize money might have helped a little. Still, a year later he once again finished first in the Eastern Region of the Wrangler/B.A.S.S. National Championships and once again qualified for the B.A.S.S. Masters Classic in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Only this time, he won it.

Won it all – the only amateur to do it in 24 years.

The B.A.S.S. Masters Classic is the single biggest fishing tournament in the world, attracting anglers from every corner of the globe - North America to South America, Africa to Australia. The win not only provided Kerchal with $50,000 in prize money, it also all but assured him of a life as a professional fisherman – sponsorships … endorsements … lectures.

And fishing – tournament after tournament after tournament.

Life looked good.

But life was too short.

Just five months after winning the B.A.S.S. Masters Classic, Kerchal was killed in the crash of American Eagle Flight 3379 near the Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina.

He was on his way to Raleigh-Durham from Greensboro, N.C., where he had taken part in an employee-appreciation day for one of his sponsors, Wrangler Jeans. The commuter plane, finishing its fifth trip in a day-long hopscotch across North Carolina, crashed in a fog and incessant drizzle, killing 15 of the 20 people aboard.

Kerchal got his first boat, which had a simple bait-casting set up so he could fish using crank bait, when he was 14 years old. He was excited enough about that that he had trouble, sometimes, making it to school. He found fishing on Taunton Lake a lot more relaxing – and far more enjoyable – experience than history or geometry or physics.

“That’s when I really got into it,” he said in 1994. “After I caught the first one, I couldn’t wait to go out the next day and get another.”

He figured out the sport of angling fishing the local tournaments and with a couple dozen of those every year, his skills got to the point where he was able to qualify for the Wrangler/B.A.S.S. National Championships.

He finished 41st in a field of 41 fisherman from around the world, but he learned a very valuable lesson.

“The biggest thing I learned from that tournament,” he said, “is to go out and do what you do instead of fishing the way the other guys fish. All the pros said (in 1993) during pre-practice, you have to go out and fish deep, fish ledges with crank baits if you’re going to win. But that’s not something I do. I like to fish cover, like weeds and docks and trees. I could have done that last year, but I never practiced it and did really bad. You have to stay with what you do.”

He stuck with that idea and that philosophy in 1994 and became the first amateur in 24 years to win the B.A.S.S. Masters Classic.

“The weird thing is,” Kerchal said just a few days later, “I had this feeling I would win the night before the tournament began. I was extremely calm. When you get that feeling before a tournament, it usually calculates into a near win or a win because the key is staying calm.”

His career as a professional fisherman may have been cut short by the tragedy of American Eagle flight 3379, but at least for five months in 1994 Bryan Kerchal was where he always wanted to be . . . on top of the fishing world.

And for what he achieved, Kerchal has become one of the founding members of the Newtown Sports Hall of Fame.