Meet the Bulldogs

Fresno State heading 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.)

College Web site: csufresno.edu

Q&A

CollegeFishing.com: How were you introduced to fishing?

Davidian: I was involved in organized sports as a high school student, so my fishing was confined to a farm pond for the majority of my youth. My cousin Matt Davidian was an avid fisherman, and I always looked up to how he could be successful against men that were fishing for three times as long as him. He had taken me to the lake growing up and tried to teach me as much as he could. He was my neighbor out in rural Visalia, and he could have easily ignored his annoying little cousin (myself), who was six years younger, and invited any of his other buddies. He has been an amazing teacher, role model and friend, and there is no chance of me being in this tournament without his influence and support. Calling him my cousin truly doesn’t do him justice; he is a brother and best friend.

Moua: I was introduced to fishing by my dad. He would take the family and me out to wherever. We did a lot of ocean trips, because the ocean was close and there was always a bite going on. We followed the striper seasons closely too, so trips to Lake Havasu were common for summer vacation. As I grew older, my brother pushed more into bass fishing, and I decided to tag along, just like with everything else that he did. Most things that I know about bass and the art of bass fishing come from what he taught me and is still teaching me.

P.S. His name is Tas Moua – keep an eye out for him!!

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



Davidian: I prefer deep-water structure fishing because of the challenge of the bite, but who doesn’t love topwater?!

Moua: I’m most comfortable with finesse-fishing, particularly the Texas rig. That was one of my first-ever bass techniques that I learned how to tie and fish, so it’s been with me for a while now.

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

Davidian: Preparation will most likely be done the day of practice at the tournament. The bad thing about living on the West Coast is that we will be unable to make it to the fishery anytime sooner; the good thing is that living in California requires you to be a well-rounded fisherman, so hopefully we can adjust to the conditions and dial it in.

At the Regional Championship we found fish on our practice day. We were very pleased how practice went, considering my partner and I could not afford to prefish. Unfortunately, the next day the weather changed, and the fish moved. We were able to scrape together five fish, with my partner losing his limit fish at the boat with several minutes left to fish. We weighed in 8 1/2 pounds and found ourselves in 12th of 20 and far from the lead. The only thing I could stress to my partner was to stay positive, because at the California Delta, a giant fish can come at any minute from any location. That fish came to my lure the second day in the form of a 6-pound largemouth. Our bag was the second heaviest of the tournament and catapulted us from 12th to fourth with four teams left to weigh in. after two teams failed to surpass us, the next team took the stage. If we remained in fourth after this team weighed in, we were off to Tennessee. As the numbers flashed, we found out we were in. We had several club members there to cheer us on, and we lost control. We were yelling, jumping, screaming and hugging, and I fell to my knees. It was the most amazing experience of my life and was a true roller coaster ride that could not have ended much better. The third day we were one of only two teams that weighed in a limit and moved to third. We stayed confident in our abilities and plan to carry that confidence with us to the nationals.

Not only will be fishing for the grand prize of $100,000, we will be fishing for the students of Fresno State, the people of Fresno, our fans and for all of California, because we believe that the best is in the West. GO FRESNO! See you there.

Moua: What can I say, other than someone’s looking out for me? One of my favorite quotes is, `The choices you make, not the chances you take, determine your destiny.’ I apologize because I don’t know who wrote or said it, but man, it’s so crazy!!! I remember looking back to around this time last year, when we had our first-ever Fresno State fishing club meeting. Who would ever thought that we would be going to NATIONALS with a team from a club that has only been here one year in the making? I cannot imagine where I would be if I never went to those club meetings and never mentioned anything or spoke about the National Guard FLW College series. Thank you, National Guard, and thank you, FLW, for dreaming such a wonderful dream!!

Now as for April, we’re trying to tie some ends together with people out east and hopefully line up some boats so we can go prefish. Other than that, it’s the same old strategies: map studying and species studying.

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

Davidian: I grew up on a ranch in California’s Central Valley. As a result, entertainment came courtesy of whatever I could find outside – not just fishing, but flipping over rocks and catching things, swimming and whatnot. Unfortunately, being in college doesn’t offer me the salary I’m looking for, so I’ll be fishing the National Championship with some hand-me-down gear and some tackle on loan – but the fish don’t know that.

Moua: Most people wouldn’t think that a guy like me would love to cook. I like throwing the get-together and cooking for everyone.