Despite tough weekend, fishing team ranked seventh

Last weekend, the Georgia College bass fishing team, which is ranked No.7 in the country out of 300 schools, sent four boats with eight of their top anglers out to two different tournaments. The tournaments were held on both Lake Guntersville in Alabama and Lake West Point in LaGrange, Ga.

Before the weekend tournament began, expectations were high. Team president and senior management major Walker Smith said that the team expects to win every tournament they participate in, especially since they have some of the top-rated collegiate fishermen in the country representing Georgia College.

Team member and sophomore pre-engineering major Grant Kelley agreed with Smith in his prediction that they could do well and win the tournament.

“There’s no reason, in my opinion, to fish (in a tournament) if you’re not planning to win it,” Kelly said.

The Faculty Advisor of the team Allen Gee knew it would require a lot to win in Guntersville as the competition would be tough and waters were warming in the South, but he still expected the team to place at least top 10 in each tournament. However, these high expectations the team had for themselves fell short due to the bad weather and other complications of unfamiliarity.

“The Guntersville tournament was very tough,” Smith said. “We had a terrible weather system move in the night before tournament day, and all of the wind made a lot of the open-water spots we found in practice obsolete.”

As for the Georgia Southern Tournament trail on Lake West Point, team members Jared Hendrix, sophomore environmental science major, and Jonathan Rotureau, a junior environmental science major, finished in fifth place and the team of brothers, sophomore pre-engineering major Mitchell and junior pre-engineering najor Mathew Dockery finished close behind in sixth place.

Despite the weekend’s disappointments, Smith and the team members are appreciative to even compete at the high level that they are and at the prestigious locations the tournaments are held this year.

“Guntersville is one of the most well renowned big fish lakes in the country,” Smith said. “It’s just a privilege to get to go there and compete.”

“Every lake fishes differently, some have a lot of grass and others have barely anything in it like Lake Sinclair, but Guntersville is definitely known for having big fish,” Kelley said.

The members of the fishing team took their weekend loss with a grain of salt and plan to work towards their future wins and successes.

“Fishing is the sport that will always keep you humble. Bad days happen, and you can’t win them all, and you shouldn’t expect to,” Smith said. “(We’ve) just got to focus on winning our next tournament.”

However, the team is hopeful for their future competitions such as the national tournament they have qualified for again this year, which will be held in Texas in May of this year.

“So far, we have budgeted to send two boats and four anglers. We may even cut another smaller tournament that is less important to send another boat with them,” Smith said.

The team also has a two day qualifier coming up on March 12 and 13 on Lake Sinclair. The plan is to launch out of Little River Park with weigh-in at 3 p.m. on both days. The public is welcome to join and watch the event.

Posted by Brina Potvin on Mar 10 2011. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.