Closing Shot: Catching bass after class

Grand Valley State’s Lucas Murphy (left) and Mitchell Gunn show off some of their winning catch at the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series event in Alabama. The win will advance them to the national championship this summer.chris mitchell / b.a.s.s.

With March Madness in full swing, it would be easy to overlook the action that took place March 21-23 on Smith Lake in Cullman, Ala., but college pride was still at stake.

Some 250 boats took to the water that weekend for the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series. It is one of four tournaments in the series that lead to the national championship in collegiate bass fishing.

The number of boats that day mirrors the average annual number of collegiate programs for bass fishing, according to Hank Weldon, tournament director for the Bassmaster College Series. While the bulk of them are club sports, about 15 (primarily at smaller, private schools) offer scholarships ranging from 50 percent to a full ride.

Each of the four tournaments is capped at 250 boats with two anglers in each boat who work as a team. Each participating school can enter multiple boats. For example, at Smith Lake, 74 schools from 28 states took part.

This year’s Bassmaster College Series started in North Carolina in February, moved to last month’s event in Alabama, will stop in Arkansas this month and will finish in New York in June. Teams that finish in the top 10 percent at each tournament advance to the national championship, which will take place in August at a site not yet announced. About 130 boats will be on the water for that event.

Any cash prize for tournament wins, coming in part from the support of sponsors such as Carhartt, Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops and Toyota, goes back to the collegiate fishing club or varsity program to maintain the amateur status of the students.

The tournaments provide good exposure for the students and the sport of fishing. It’s one part of Weldon’s overall work with Bassmaster to encourage youth to wet a line. Programs run from the second grade and on through middle school, high school and college. Bassmaster has more than 750 high schools participating in a fishing program. 

At the Smith Lake stop of the Bassmaster College Series, Grand Valley State University’s team of Lucas Murphy and Mitchell Gunn caught 15 bass in three days for a total weight of 52 pounds, 7 ounces. That was good enough to take the win and the $2,500 prize that went to the Michigan school’s club sport.

There’s one more trophy to hook beyond winning the team national championship. Not to be outdone by college basketball’s March Madness, collegiate bass fishing provides some bracketology of its own.

The top eight anglers from the national championship qualify for the College Classic Bracket, which is individual, head-to-head competition. The winner gets a spot in the Bassmaster Classic, which pits the nation’s top professional anglers against each other. The winner also receives yearlong use of a bass boat and a truck to pull it decked out in school colors.

Just like many other sports, the goal is to make it to the pros, and it’s working. Of the current Bassmaster Elite Series touring field, 20 percent are former college anglers. In this year’s angler of the year race, four of the current top seven were collegiate standouts. With those numbers in mind, it’s easy to see why so many college students are taking the bait.