Meet the Tigers

Hampden-Sydney College headed to CF National Championship

(Editor’s note: Leading up to the inaugural National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship, which will be held at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn., April 10-12, CollegeFishing.com will post semiweekly feature stories highlighting the 25 teams that qualified. At stake in the tournament is a prize package of $100,000 and a chance to compete in the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup.)

Q&A

CollegeFishing.com: How were you introduced to fishing?

Parrish: I was introduced to fishing as soon as I could hold a rod by my dad and grandfathers. I grew up at the mouth of the James River and spent countless days with my best friends Miles Suttle and Carter Ailsworth fishing for croaker and rockfish. We got in trouble almost every time we went fishing because we would always get home too late on a school night. I started freshwater fishing like most with a cane pole and crickets in farm ponds. My first memorable bass came fishing with my Uncle Tucker Buchan on Lake Gaston. I remember the day very clear; I used a Zoom U-Tail worm. Since I was 7 years old I have been going to Lake Gaston every school break and several weeks over the summers. It was there that I gained a lot of my knowledge.

Luck: When I was young, my parents and grandparents would take me fishing on farm ponds with a hook and bobber. Once I reached middle school or so, I really lost interest in fishing; it took a back seat to deer season and spring gobbler. Last spring, my partner Charlie Parrish invited me fishing on one of our three campus ponds. After no success, we sat our rods down from crappie fishing and just talked. A few minutes later, out of absolutely nowhere, we looked to see that my bobber was missing. I later went on to reel in a 15-pound catfish. After bringing in the catfish on light line, we cooked a great dinner on our grill. Since that day I have been hooked. Over the summer, I fished just about every day and learned a lot. I have learned that no matter how much time you spend on the water, there are always new things to learn or perfect.

CollegeFishing.com: What style/method of fishing are you most comfortable with?

Parrish: I am most comfortable fishing for spawning bass. I have the most confidence in this strategy of bass fishing than any other style. I have won more money in the springtime fishing for bedding bass. When it comes to this style of sight fishing I can see if there are bass in the area and the size of the fish. It is a pattern that is easy to decide whether you are on fish or not.

Luck: I really enjoy using soft plastics; fishing plastic worms was the first skill I learned. For anyone just beginning, Texas-rig a green pumpkin Senko with a chartreuse tail and I guarantee you will be hooked. Thanks to the new Hampden-Sydney Anglers sponsors Culprit, Secret Weapon Lures, Hopkins Lures, and Poor Boy’s Baits, I hope that I can become more comfortable with many different styles and techniques. Without our sponsors, we would not be able to participate in all the new and exciting adventures we are embarking on. Lately, I have been doing a lot of jig pitching, a skill that takes much time but will result in success in the long run.

CollegeFishing.com: What did it feel like to qualify for the inaugural National Championship? How do you plan to prepare for the big event?

Parrish: It was such an exhilarating feeling and a rush of emotion. We had so many places to climb from being in 13th place after the first day all the way to the top five. I had confidence in our pattern, but we couldn’t get bit on the first day unlike our practice. We were the first team to the scales on the second day, but we had the largest single-day weight on day two. We watched as 19 teams slowly weighed in and pushed us from first down to fifth with three teams left to weigh in. I had never been so nervous in my life and my partner felt like he was going to pass out. It was a great opportunity and we hope to replicate our good fortune at the National Championship.

Luck: Qualifying for the National Championship in April was by far one of the greatest moments in my life. For many fishermen, such an accomplishment might never happen. The Lord has truly blessed me in ways I could never have imagined. From communicating with Charlie all summer, writing up the constitution and starting the club, to signing up for the Lake Gaston tournament two days before the deadline and qualifying for the Northern Regional Championship, everything has just fallen into place. The greatest sense of accomplishment for me was knowing that Charlie and I were getting our college’s and club’s name out there. From a private school of less than 1,000 students to the National Championship, we are the true Cinderella story.

As far as planning for the National Championship, we plan on taking a few days to get out on the water and review lake maps. Putting patterns together is the key to bass fishing success. With such a busy college schedule, academics come first but we are definitely going to put in our time.

CollegeFishing.com: Tell us something interesting about yourself that most people wouldn’t know.

Parrish: I am an organic farmer during the summertime. I am also the current president of Hampden-Sydney’s Ducks Unlimited Chapter. The chapter does quite a bit of volunteer work by cleaning up the campus’ three stocked lakes. We also organize an annual club hunt; this year we went to the eastern shore of Maryland.

Luck: In fourth grade I was diagnosed with a blood disorder called Idiopathic Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP). What occurs is your immune system mistakes blood platelets, the main clotting component, for foreign bodies and destroys your blood platelets. A normal, healthy person has between 150,000 and 300,000 platelets and I had dropped to 13,000 where bleeding internally was a large possibility. After years of failed infusions, prednisone, not being able to do some of the things I loved such as soccer and football, and being told that I would probably have the blood disorder for the rest of my life, I accepted it and moved on living to the best of my ability. One day, after drawing blood to check my platelet count, we were informed that my platelets had reached the normal range. With little knowledge of why ITP occurs, the doctors and my family were surprised to say the least. After seven years, my immune system had sorted itself out! With this miracle in my life, I have learned to appreciate health like I had never before. Live today, for you never know what tomorrow might bring.