Coaches and Mentors

Caleb Taylor

Founder of New Wave Angler Initiative

Qualifications

  • 9 years of volunteer service with junior anglers
  • Coast Guard Boating Skills and Seamanship Course Certified
  • 13 Years of fishing experience
  • 10+ years of athletic experience (basketball)
  • Former Captain and scholarship angler at Adrian College
  • Current Assistant Coach at Adrian College
  • Summa Cum Laude Graduate
  • Bachelors of Business Administration
  • National Professional Anglers Association Member
  • CPR Certified
  • Endorsed by former clients and Head Coach of Adrian College Fishing Team, Seth Borton

Caleb has been involved in fishing for 13 years. Through this time he acquired in-depth knowledge, learned valuable life lessons, and fished on scholarship for Adrian College.

Caleb has volunteered for 8 years with junior anglers in Indiana and Michigan. He has taken anglers to numerous fishing tournaments out of state on lakes like Pickwick Lake in Alabama, and Douglas Lake in Tennessee. This gave him the experience necessary to pursue the creation of New Wave Angler Initiative. Caleb also participated in organizing and running the first ever Bass Camp held by Adrian College in 2016. He has worked and coached kids from 7 to 19 years old in fishing and basketball.

Caleb has also helped aid anglers in their successful transition into college fishing. He has provided advice on decision making, connected anglers with coaches, given recommendations, and helped develop skill sets in these anglers during tournament events.

BIO

My name is Caleb Taylor and I am from Zionsville, Indiana.

My fishing story really begins in 2011 when I began fishing with a few of my close friends. Sure, I had been fishing before as a youngster but I never really discovered my passion for the sport until I started pond hopping with some buddies when I was 16. One 5 pound buzzbait fish and well you know the rest of the story!

Being a natural born competitor and having played highly competitive sports (mainly basketball) I decided I wanted to take fishing to a competitive level as well. Before long I was in a 12ft jon boat taking on lakes with my best friends and not long after my grandfather and I found ourselves in our first bass boat ready to enter into some junior and local adult tournaments.

My junior tournament career in Indiana was competitive and short. In those two years, I was able to win a few tournaments and also win the Indiana BASS State Championship my senior year. This allowed me to move on to the Northern Divisional on the Mississippi River which I was also able to win. From there I moved on to the 2012 Junior World Championship held on Lake Wilson in Alabama where I finished 2nd. Not bad for a kid flying by the seat of his pants who didn’t grow up with anyone involved in the sport. My tenacious hunger to learn and win was blessed to say the least.

Following high school, I was contacted by the current head coach of the Adrian College Fishing Team about coming to fish at Adrian on scholarship and helping start the inaugural Adrian College Varsity Bass Fishing Team. What an opportunity! I eagerly made my way to Michigan after a year at Indiana University to continue my fishing career and become a member of the first fully funded college bass fishing program in Michigan!

At Adrian, I was selected to be the first Captain of the team and serve this role for my full 3 years. Fishing at Adrian was one of the greatest experiences of my life despite the ups and downs. I learned a great deal traveling the country fishing and also met some of my best friends for life. Through dedication, hard work, and investment from the school, we were able to create one of the best fishing programs in the college scene and quickly rose to prominence by way of winning tournaments such as the FLW College Open and Bassmaster College Tour events. We qualified multiple teams to the FLW and BASS National Championships as well. Adrian was ranked the #1 team in the nation multiple times in the Cabela’s Collegiate School of The Year race during my career. To this point, the team has been featured in over 25 articles nationwide including a feature in the New York Times, and we have also been featured on national television multiple times by multiple outdoor television series. The connections made and opportunities through fishing for a program like Adrian were invaluable and I recommend the program and college fishing as a whole to young anglers.

Upon graduating summa cum laude with my degree in marketing from Adrian, I have continued to fish local events in Indiana as well as participating as a co-angler the 2018 FLW Costa Series semi-professional tournaments to increase my knowledge and experience. My goal now is to create a career in fishing revolving around developing an organization that builds up junior anglers so they can position themselves favorably for receiving fishing scholarships and be successful in their fishing endeavors.

I have a passion for business, fishing, developing young anglers, and seeing them be successful in the sport, college, and in life. Nothing is more fulfilling than helping others achieve success and that is my goal for NWAI

Caleb Taylor – Founder

 

Nick Marsh

Qualifications

  • 7 years of volunteer service with junior anglers
  • USCG licensed captain
  • CPR Certified
  • 12+ Years of competitive fishing experience
  • Former scholarship angler at Adrian College
  • Bachelors of Business Administration
  • National Professional Anglers Association Member
  • One of the top regional anglers
  • Collegiate open champion
  • 6 time National qualifier

Nick has been competitively tournament fishing for about 14 years, though he has been fishing his entire life. He has vast knowledge he looks to pass down to youth anglers on and off the water.

Nick has now dedicated the last 6 years of his life to helping teach and mentor youth anglers. In doing so he has traveled across the country to help them compete at the highest level. This is part of what makes Nick one of our top coaches and mentors. He has helped light the way for many of our anglers into their college fishing careers.

BIO

My name is Nick Marsh. I am 28 years old and I am a Michigan native, currently living in White Lake Township.

Fishing started at an early age for me as my dad is a true outdoorsman. He instilled a passion and love for the outdoors that I took to the next level. I’ve had a fierce competitive drive since I was young and that transitioned right into the fishing world. My fishing career started when I was 12, I fished my first tournament and took 1st place in the junior division. From there my resume built quickly with many top finishes. I won 3 Michigan high school state championships, 1 regional and 1 national title. The train rolled on, I fished the men’s division for one year when I was 16 and made the state team. From there I took 2nd at regionals and 3rd at men’s nationals as a non-boater. That qualified me for the All-American where I took 10th as a non-boater as well. It was a blessed few years.

At the time going into college I was looking to be recruited by a few schools soccer teams. Growing up playing club soccer I was set on playing in college and I did just that. My first year of school I played at Schoolcraft community and was looking to transfer to a D-1 school the year after. That all changed when Adrian’s head fishing coach Seth Borton contacted me. They were starting a team and wanted me to come fish. This changed my trajectory all together as I transferred over and started fishing competitively in college. With the full support of school funding the program was quick to succeed. Being ranked #1 in the nation multiple years and consistently qualifying teams for both the BASS and FLW Nationals. The team rose to be one of the top competitors in college fishing and has continued to do so ever since.

Upon graduation I was not quite sure which direction fishing would take me. I ended up taking a boat sales job where I had immediate success. It was about 9 months into the job when Caleb approached me with an idea about helping to get more kids involved in fishing, and at a high level. I dove head first into our development program and now non-profit.

Since then we have helped our anglers continue their careers into college where they may receive scholarships and opportunities in the outdoor industry.  It has been an extremely rewarding endeavor thus far and I want to continue to help coach and mentor kids into their careers, be it fishing in college or working in the outdoor industry.

The age-old saying rings true “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”. Continuing to help educate and grow great young people with bright futures is an absolute blessing, and I’m excited to continue doing that with NWAI