Meet the Knights

Miles Burghoff and Len Gordon of the University of Central Florida share their thoughts about qualifying for the 2011 National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship

(Editor’s note: During the 2011 National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship, slated to be held April 7-9 on Kentucky Lake at Murray State University, Burghoff will be required to fish as a one-man team due to a scheduling conflict that will cause his partner to miss the event. Per tournament rules, no teammate substitutions are permitted.)

Club Web site: Reelknights.com

Q&A

CollegeFishing.com: How were you introduced to fishing?

Burghoff: I was born around water and my father and mother encouraged me to fish. I first grew up saltwater fishing in the Florida Keys. We also had a house in Connecticut during the summers where I actually found my passion for bass fishing. Fishing has just always been a part of my life and has been the only thing that ever made sense to me as far as what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Gordon: I don’t remember when I started fishing, but I know my dad got me started fishing. He took me hunting and fishing at our camp before I could walk. I was never really taught just one type of fishing; I kind of learned a lot of different types growing up. Over the years, my father has had me bream fishing, catfishing with bush hooks, sucker gigging and bass fishing. Some of my first memories are from being at our camp with my dad and grandpa checking bush hook lines for catfish.

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

Burghoff: I like to think of myself as a very well-rounded fisherman, growing up in California, Florida and Connecticut and all. But by far my favorite cash-cow technique is flipping and pitching jigs like the Secret Lures MVP Flippin’ jig and soft plastics. That technique just seems to command a huge amount of concentrated focus and I seem to thrive on that focus. It is even more exciting than fishing topwater baits in my book.

Gordon: Living in Florida there really is a lot of shallow water fishing and that’s what I’m most comfortable fishing. If I’m fishing for fun, I will cover a lot of water just to see what the fish are doing. But when it comes down to having to catch fish, I like to slow down and just work an area really hard and try to get the fish that are there – whether its working a grass flat or grass line to flipping isolated cover. Overall, flipping isolated cover has become my favorite part of shallow water fishing in the last year.

CollegeFishing.com: What did it feel like to qualify for the 2011 FLW College Fishing National Championship? How do you plan to prepare for the big event?

Burghoff: Since I will be fishing the event alone (my partner Len Gordon cannot make the event due to school related obligations) I obviously have to adjust my practice gameplan a bit to facilitate concentrating on larger fish to make my goal of making a top-five. I will be spending spring break up there and will basically run the lake for a couple days and then fish the other half of the week, trying to find the concentration of larger fish so I can gauge where they will be going once the event begins. I need to concentrate on 5-plus-pound fish to have any shot at making the top five so it is going to be a great challenge.

Gordon: It was amazing to qualify. We didn’t think we had a shot because we had a rough day two of the tournament. We thought for sure when we struggled on the final day that some teams around us would whack them and keep us out of the top five. But as it turned out, all teams struggled to bring in limits. It is an honor to be a part of first few teams to be qualifying for the championship. It’s like when we look back at the guys that first started fishing bass tournaments, we are the guys who are among the first to fish big-time college events. We’re basically making history. As far as planning goes, I would be making at least one trip up there, but unfortunately I can’t fish the event because I have a Fundamentals of Engineering exam the final day of the tournament. This exam is not optional for engineering majors to graduate and it’s really important for my future employment. As much as I would like a shot at the Forest Wood Cup, school is my first priority.

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

Burghoff: Well, most people know that I got my nickname “Sonar” because of my dad, Gary Burghoff, who played “Radar” on the TV series MASH. I guess the other thing that some people don’t know is that I actually live in a travel trailer and have been for the last four years. When I moved from northern California to Florida I didn’t have enough money, and still don’t, to follow my dream of becomming a professional angler and renting a house at the same time. It is just a sacrifice I had to make, but it really isn’t that bad. It is a certifiable man-cave.

Gordon: I grew up fishing and hunting all my life, but I also grew up with just as much interest in waterskiing, wakeboarding, skim boarding and skateboarding.