Four teams of anglers from LSU Shreveport and Northwestern State University are in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, competing in the collegiate national championship. They’re up against 85 teams from around the country representing 60 colleges.
The full field of teams started casting Thursday. The top five teams will compete for the national championship title Saturday. Four teams will advance to a three-day, bracket-style tournament and fish until a final weigh-in Tuesday. They’re vying for a spot in next year’s Bassmaster Classic in Oklahoma.
Jared Rascoe, 20, of Stonewall, La., is an education major at LSUS. He says the bass are much smaller on the 6,830-acre Lake DuBay.
“It’s just going to be a matter of executing on every bite you get and finding those keeper bites because they’re few and far between up here,” Roscoe said, adding morning temperatures in the 40s have been a “culture shock” compared to weather he’s used to in the South.
Rascoe has fished with JP Kimbrough of Bossier City since the two were high school freshmen. They balance each other’s strengths and weaknesses on the water.
Kimbrough, 20, a mass communications major, has competed in dozens of tournaments. But he appreciates fishing on the LSUS team because it absorbs almost all of the expenses, which in the past mounted to thousands of dollars.
“Before they had college fishing, I had to fish the Bassmaster Open and it would cost more than $7,000 a year to fish those. As a college kid, it’s hard enough to buy lunch, and stuff like that,” Kimbrough said.
Bassmaster is covering the event with live reports from the lake and live-streamed weigh-ins taking place at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point.
The other LSUS team is James Avant and Justin Gaskin.
The NSU teams consist of John Ledet/Justin Cooper and Aaron Belgard/Logan Laprarie.
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