N.C. State University’s “Bass Pack” fishing team defeated 41 other teams during the inaugural collegiate bass-fishing championship at Texas during October. The tournament was created by BoatUS, the nation’s largest recreational boating organization.
Fishing three days at blustery Lake Lewisville, north of Dallas, senior Chad Craven and sophomore Alex Freeman coasted to a fairly easy victory in rough conditions.
Craven, of Greensboro, and Freeman, from Harnett County, were joined by Justin Jones and Josh Quesinberry, both from Black Mountain. After two qualifying rounds, Craven and Freeman survived, along with a two-man team from Eastern Kentucky, two teams from Northwest Louisiana State and a team from Oklahoma State. Jones and Quesinberry didn’t make the final cut.
“We caught 13.57 pounds the last day,” Freeman, 23, said. “The first day we had 14-1, then 5.05 the second day.”
Eastern Kentucky’s two anglers finished second behind the Bass Pack with 8 pounds.
The NCSU team’s final-day strategy was fairly simple, Freeman said.
“The first day, the wind really blew and there was a little cut, actually kind of protected water, a cut-through you might say, and everybody fished there and caught bass,” he said. “But the final day, with only five teams left, nobody but us fished there.”
Craven, 24, said the final day, fishing the wide-open bass-laden “cut” was a stroke of luck.
“We weren’t planning to go there, but we knew it was a good spot,” he said. “We just happened to be going by there and nobody was fishing it. We knew it had fish, so we went over to try it.”
They’d already fished, he said, about two hours without boating a keeper.
“We started fishing about 7:15 a.m. and caught a few dinks and lost some fish, but we didn’t have anything in the livewell,” Craven said. “We caught our biggest fish, a 4 1/2-pounder, in there, then 20 minutes later we caught our second-biggest bass, about 4 pounds.”
The NCSU anglers caught another smaller bass, then tried a rocky, windy point at the main lake, caught one of their final two bass, then added a final bass from a brush pile.
They used small crankbaits, spinnerbaits and a Shakyworm during the tournament.
Although the elements created difficult fishing conditions — the Purdue team’s boat sank in 5 1/2-foot waves during a qualifying round — Craven and Freeman said the wind also might have helped them.
“It was kinda like fishing a really windy spring day at a big lake back in North Carolina,” Freeman said. “You throw (lures) at points.”
“That lake also was 10 feet down (below normal pool),” Craven said, “so you had to figure bass would be shallow.”
The Bass Pack won $12,000 from BoatUS, a trophy and fishing equipment for winning the first collegiate bass national championship.
The Bass Pack, in its third year, fished in five tournaments during 2006.
UNC-Charlotte was the only other college from North Carolina to send a team to Texas.
Jonathan Phillips, an economics professor, is the Bass Pack’s faculty advisor.
“(Phillips) is a great advisor,” Freeman said. “He started the club, and he takes care of a lot of stuff that allows us to fish.”
Ranger and Yamaha are the Bass Pack’s two main sponsors.
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