Meet the Knights

University of Central Florida headed to FLW College Fishing 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.)

Club Web site: http://reelknights.com

Q&A

CollegeFishing.com: How were you introduced to fishing?

Lauer: My dad has had me fishing since I could hold a rod and reel. My father, Dave Lauer, has actually been fishing FLW tournaments for 10 years. I’ve been very fortunate to learn most everything I know from him.

Norman: I was introduced to fishing by my dad, Mike Norman. Growing up hunting and fishing in the backcountry of Upper Michigan, my father passed his love of the sport onto me. I believe the first fish I ever caught was when I was probably 4 years old. I was fishing with my father at my grandparents’ house during summer on a lake in their little Jon boat. I caught a bluegill using a live night crawler and I was grinning ear to ear! Soon after, my dad started taking me fishing back home on the inshore flats, bays, and mangrove islands surrounding Fort Myers, Fla. After that, I was hooked. For me, there is nothing better than a day on the water.

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

Lauer: I feel the most comfortable sight-fishing. For me, fishing is the most fun when you can watch fish react to your presentation of the bait.

Norman: It’s a tie between sight-fishing for shallow water bedding largemouth and topwater fishing. There is nothing better than watching a fish nail your bait off a bed or smack it on top of the water. For both styles, I feel most comfortable using light tackle spinning rods. I guess you could say I’m an ultra finesse guy, and not just with my tackle or bait presentation but with my boat positioning too. I fish stealthy, using low speeds on the trolling motor or a push pole, and I like to make long casts so I do not spook the fish. I try to carry my saltwater heritage and tactics over to the freshwater side as much as possible.

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

Lauer: My partner and I are representing the third largest university in the nation (UCF) in the first-ever FLW College Fishing National Championship! The feeling is surreal. I am going to do everything I can to win this event. Come April 2010, I will be ready for Fort Loudoun and Tellico. I am not going to let the biggest opportunity I’ve been afforded to pass me by. Not practicing for this event is not an option. I hope it comes down to which team has prepared the most, because that is what UCF is going to do.

Norman: Unreal. I had fished dozens of inshore saltwater tournaments for redfish, snook, tarpon and trout, but had rarely ever fished for bass from a boat, let alone in a competitive atmosphere. Until Dustin and I qualified on the “Big O,” I had only fished a handful of bass baits and didn’t even know what a lot of the stuff was. In prepping for Lake Monroe, I had to take a crash course in bass fishing, as many of the techniques were all new to me. We pre-fished a lot for the regional on Lake Monroe but had only caught a few fish and hadn’t found any productive spot until the official practice day. The fact that our own school, UCF, was the host weigh-in site for the tournament put extra pressure on us to fish well. After the first day we were tied for seventh and knew we had to pull off a big sack to climb into the top five. Coming to the scales on cut day we brought in a limit, but knew it would be close. Seeing our qualifying weight on the screen ignited a rush of excitement, overwhelming relief, and accomplishment.

Prepping for a lake that we’re unfamiliar with that is a 12-hour drive away will be tough, but we’re doing as much research as we can. Needless-to-say it will be weird fishing with mountains in the backdrop instead of palm trees.

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

Lauer: I am writing a book that I really hope will help people. I like to spend time reading and writing at my leisure. The book is about finding and living in true happiness.

Norman: I fish barefoot almost religiously. Because I have grown up fishing with temps in the 90s and white gel coat decks without fishing rods lying on the deck, the shoes have largely stayed in the truck. I have carried this ritual over to the bass world, and it seems to be working out well so far. I’ve yet to fall out of the boat, get a treble hook stuck in my foot or catch frostbite. However I might need to make some adjustments when fishing the National Championship since it’s probably going to be a little chilly at Knoxville in April.