Another MN College Kid Is Going To The Bassmaster Classic

 

Easton Fothergill from Grand Rapids, MN won the B.A.S.S. College Championship for the right to go to the Bassmaster Classic next year at Grand Lake next year. Minnesotan Trevor Lo made it to the 2016 Classic, which was also held at Grand Lake, as a college angler. The Sleepy Assasin, Austin Felix, won an FLW College Championship 2015 for the University of Minnesota as well. 

It's great to see MN kids representing.

Story at Bassmaster.

The Bogus Bassmaster College Classic

BASS, just like FLW, has come to the conclusion that a good way to promote tournament bass fishing is to make tournament bass fishing a legitimate collegiate sport. Generally I applaud their efforts and think it's a good thing, but that is not the case with the upcoming "Bassmaster College Classic."

This "Classic" is nothing but a 2 school event in which the 2 schools involved did nothing to qualify but were invited. I think Alabama and Auburn were picked because the Bassmasters Classic this year happens to be in Alabama, bass tournament fishing is very popular in Alabama, and Alabama vs. Auburn is a great college rivalry that BASS is trying leverage to it's own benefit. So basically this "Classic" is predicated upon populist political considerations. I think this is totally bogus!

In the BASS article promoting the event it says 220 colleges and universities have tournament bass fishing programs. I see nothing "Classic" about a tournament that excludes more than 99% of fishing schools based on considerations that have almost nothing to do with bass fishing. Also from the article announcing the event we learn that BASS plans to make this an annual event with the winning school fishing against a school based out of the State hosting the next Bassmaster Classic. So for this "Classic" all schools far enough North to have cold winters that restrict bass fishing need not apply. Once again bogus!

State of the Union: Bass Fishing.

Blogger TBrinksFishing.com put together a State of the Bass Fishing Union essay on his blog. It is worth the read, so check it out.

So what does the BP think about the State of the Bass Fishing Union?

I see a difference between the state of bass fishing in a general sense and the state of bass tournament fishing in a particular sense. I think bass fishing in general is in pretty good shape, maybe the best shape it has ever been. To start things off a world record largemouth was just caught and officially certified. Next I think in most places that bass inhabit the populations seem to be thriving and in many of places the fishing has never been better. Then there is the excellent state of bass fishing equipment, which certainly has never been better in terms of quantity and quality. Bass fishing wisdom and knowledge is widely available in all forms of media both old (Books, TV, Magazines, VHS) and new (blogs, Internet forums, websites, DVD's, computer games, podcast/Internet radio, social networking sites, etc.) Indeed the general state of bass fishing is very good.

The state of tournament bass fishing, however, is not nearly as positive and this is true for the Professional Bass Angler, aspiring Pro and semi-professional bass anglers and the weekend warrior clubbers. The problems are well known; Money and Sponsorships are leaving the sport while the costs of participation are increasingly prohibitive at all levels; For this and other reasons participation on the whole is down instead of growing. However, before one gets to down on the whole enterprise there is a silver lining because the current difficulties present an opportunity for those in the tournament industry to re-evaluate, innovate, and build upon the good things that remain.

I think I should acknowledge that even with the set backs there are things about tournament bass fishing that remain positive such as that thanks to the Internet ESPN/BASS and FLW have been and will continue to take steps to make Professional Bass Fishing more fan friendly. Many if not all of the things that I mentioned earlier as being positives for bass fishing in general also apply to tournament bass fishing. As Tyler Brinks mentioned in his essay on this subject:

One of the most positive things I have seen in fishing has to do with the future of our sport. The youth and college programs in bass fishing have never been better. Youth clubs are becoming hugely popular and are even being seen at the high school level. College fishing is exploding and is training our young anglers for a long future in the sport.

And last but not least tournament bass fishing is still fun so if you are inclined to this kind of thing it is worth the price we have to pay, whatever that may be.

College Bass Fishing Top 25 Rankings

Ok I am stealing this from TBrinksFishing.com blog and he stole it from the ESPN 2010 College Bass Blog entry by Tommy Edwards. It looks like ESPN has a host of people contributing to this College Bass Blog (scroll down for blogs) for them.

Here are the Rankings: (No clue how they arrived at their conclusions)
1 North Carolina State
2 North Texas
3 Northwestern State
4 Virginia Tech
5 Eastern Kentucky
6 Florida
7 Auburn
8 Stephen F. Austin
9 Texas A&M
10 Murray state
11 Alabama
12 Arkansas
13 Indiana
14 San Jose State
15 Arizona State
16 Louisiana - Lafayette
17 Oklahoma
18 LSU - Shreveport
19 UCF
20 Arkansas - Little Rock
21 Sacramento State
22 Texas State
23 Tarleton State
24 North Alabama
25 Faulkner

I think it's a travesty the Iowa State Hawkeye's didn't make it.

College bass fishing has come on really strong in the past couple of years, but between FLW and ESPN/BASS and whoever else is involved, the picture is kind of muddled about how exactly things are sanctioned and who all is participating. Hopefully we will see some Minnesocold Teams in the Future.

Update: I've just noticed a list of participating schools. The U of M and St. Cloud State appear to be the only MN schools. Lots of Cheesehead schools though.