(Editor’s note: Leading up to the 2012 National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship – slated for April 13-15 on Lake Murray in Columbia, S.C. – CollegeFishing.com will publish weekly, in-depth features stories of each of the 25 national championship team qualifiers. At stake in the tournament is a first-place prize package worth $100,000 as well as a chance for the winning team to compete in the 2012 Forrest Wood Cup.)
Class: Senior
Major: Environmental Studies
Hometown: West Milford, N.J.
Other interests: Fishing is my primary focus and, in general, all that I do. I also enjoy working, being outdoors in general, going to the gym and golfing. But again, if I’m not fishing, I’m probably thinking about fishing.
Class: Graduated
Major: Accounting
Hometown: Ringwood, N.J.
Other interests: My first love is tournament bass fishing and that will always be the case. But I also love to deer hunt (really anything to do with the outdoors is fine with me). Besides that, I’m very close to my family and just try to have a good time no matter what I’m doing.
Q&A
CollegeFishing.com: How were you introduced to fishing?
Rieder: Fishing has been in my blood since the day I was born. My father is an avid angler of bass and trout. And my two older sisters also fished. But in time, fishing became simply an opportunity for my father and me to fish together. There are pictures of me as a baby with my dad helping me hold a fishing rod in my hand and helping me sit up. So even at a young age I was an angler. Many of my fondest memories happened out on the water with my old man and I’m lucky to be able to fish as much as I do with him. With work, school, tournaments and other activities, it makes finding time harder to get out on the water but we still do it nearly every weekend once the ice thaws.
Even though I have been fishing my entire life, I didn’t start fishing tournaments until the late summer of 2009 when I was 20. While working as an intern in the West Milford Engineering Division, I would talk about my fishing passion and love of the sport. My boss Eric Miller left a clipping from a newspaper on my desk one morning of an open buddy tournament on a small lake in our town of West Milford. He told me to prove how good I was or maybe reconsider another path for life. My friend Tim Seiden and I fished the tournament and managed to win. I will never forget the rush of competing on a small tournament in my hometown and feeling the confidence I had on the water. I will never forget that day and the feelings that ran through me during the tournament. I can still remember every detail of that day, the first bass to the last.
Danza: I was introduced to fishing at a very young age, mostly saltwater fishing with my dad. I always had an immense connection to the water and it has always felt like my second home. I lived in Staten Island, N.Y. most of my childhood to the age of 17 so I couldn’t really freshwater fish. I had one polluted pond that my mom would drive me to nearly every day in the summer. I used bologna as my secret bait to catch local bullhead catfish. When I moved to north Jersey I got rid of my bologna bait and started to fish for bass with lures in the abundance of small lakes around my hometown. I instantly fell in love and couldn’t fish enough to satisfy my obsession. I joined a local bass club, used a rowboat that barely floated and was instantly addicted to competitive bass fishing. It’s the true American dream to go from being a kid using bologna as bait in a beat-up rowboat to a beautiful Ranger boat fishing in the FLW College National Championship!
CollegeFishing.com: What style/method of fishing are you most comfortable with?
Rieder: I have been fishing for a long time and over the years I’ve realized one important thing – versatility. Once I became more focused on fishing, I always tried to test myself by learning and becoming confident in at least two new fishing techniques a season. Because of it, I have become very well rounded. Now I have a level of comfort with everything from finesse fishing to power fishing and have no problem fishing from the surface to the bottom. In tournament fishing, you can’t really be comfortable with one style of fishing because if you do, you are more than likely at a disadvantage. Therefore I always like to remind myself of two things while fishing. First, there is always a better bait. If I catch a bass on one lure, I’m probably thinking about switching to something different to zone in on what the fish are doing in that moment. It’s a double-edged sword though. The second thing is to throw baits you have the least confidence in. This way if they aren’t working, you know your confidence baits can whip `em good. The best thing to remember is there is always more to learn or something new to be studied.
Danza: I most comfortable fishing deeper water with finesse baits to catch my bass. My favorite is targeting the aggressive smallmouth bass that tends to hold to structure in the middle of the lake. The main reason for my style is probably geography, fishing the highly pressured lakes of New Jersey where it seems like there are more people on the lake than fish. Usually if you catch a limit in a tournament you have a good chance to place, if not win.
Our small finesse jigs, along with our use of slow presentations, were the key to us receiving a birth in the championship. However, it was probably more luck than skill that we’re fishing in the championship, because when we qualified for the regionals on Smith Mountain Lake, we had never pre-fished or even seen the lake before. There was a major cold front that really shut down the fish and the small baits we were accustomed to fishing gave us barely enough weight to allow us to qualify (by a 1-ounce margin) in fifth place. Then, we headed to the regionals on Sayers Lake, which is a highly pressured lake and very similar to New Jersey fisheries. In the end, the N.J. style of fishing prevailed as we made the day-two cut in fifth place. The weather and type of lake really helped us out and I guess it’s true that it’s always better to be lucky then good. Hopefully we didn’t use all our magic up.
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?
Rieder: Charles Danza and I practiced for the 2011 Northern Regional for many days. During that time, we not only strengthened our friendship but learned a lot about the body of water and what to expect for the tournament. On day two of the regionals, Charlie and I faltered and only had ourselves to blame as we came to the stage with only two small largemouth bass. We had to sweat out the rest of the results. The other team representing Ramapo College luckily was leading the tournament and last to weigh in. We knew from that moment forward that we had qualified. At that point, a complete feeling of elation came over me. Charlie and I recited the fact that we were happy to make it to day three of the regionals and we made sure to enjoy the entire experience. And that is exactly what we did the rest of the tournament. To not only be on television but be able to qualify for the nationals is a feeling that is completely indescribable. To know all of the hard work and preparation you put into fishing and tournaments fishing in general has finally paid off is great to know. Personally it gave me a strong sense of confidence for the future.
I know with enough preparation and focus our team has a good chance to do very well on Lake Murray. Luckily Lake Murray is located in South Carolina so it is not one of the furthest drives to get too. Unfortunately, Lake Murray is in South Carolina so the 13-hour drive will give us a bit of a test regarding out ability to fully prepare and maximize our time on the water. Charlie actually received an internship/job that lasts until the week of the tournament, so getting on the water is impossible for him until right before the start of the tournament. However, with the tools available to anglers today, an immense amount of research can be done in order to understand the body of water without actually visiting it. But this can actually give an advantage to teams that aren’t able to practice on the water prior to the off-limits period. Instead of entering the tournament with a preconceived notion on where we should fish, our team essentially has a “blank slate” and will be forced to react to seasonal patterns and figure out exactly what the bass are doing at the start of the event. For new water, this can definitely help an angler instead of chasing hopes of what worked a few weeks ago. Ultimately the key to that preparation is having a strong foundation of all fish species and realizing that a bass is a bass. However, equally important is having an understanding that the environment is always changing and therefore affecting the fish in different ways on every body of water. Murray definitely will determine what teams can jump over the mental hurdles and make college fishing history.
Danza: Making the national championship is a dream come true that I still can’t believe is actually real (it’s better than going to Disney World for a 10 year old kid). It’s the greatest thing in my life period. I prayed for hours the night before the qualifying match that we’d somehow make the cut and earn a berth into the regional championship. Then I begged God again before the night of the regionals and promised I wouldn’t ask him for anything else ever again if we somehow placed in the regionals. I wish I never made that deal because I know we’ll be there April 12 once again requesting more good fortune in the national championship. I’m extremely blessed that I could be part of such an amazing circuit. FLW has definitely made my greatest dream come true!
CollegeFishing.com: Tell us something interesting about yourself that most people wouldn’t know.
Rieder: It’s tough to guess what people really don’t know about me. Obviously, I think, dream, sleep, talk, act and do everything fishing literally all the time. The winter months make it tough up here as in my section of North Jersey we have ice on the water from December through March. Therefore I ice fish quite a bit when I’m not preparing for the next season or cleaning my gear up. One of my favorite things to do is go ice fishing with a couple friends, getting barbeque baby back ribs and reheating them in an aluminum foil pack over on an open fire. If that isn’t one of the best meals I’ve ever had, I’m not sure what is. The smokiness from the fire makes the ribs even better and really brings out the flavor. That might be one of my interesting facts: my love of food – the making, cooking and especially eating. There is a lot of emphasis on the latter of those.
Danza: I feel like I’m a pretty average guy who just loves life. I get super-amped and excited fishing and tend to be all over the place wrecking everything in the boat. I guess you would say I’m the opposite of a cool and collected guy, more like a one-man tornado. My partner Bob is always telling me to calm down but I rarely ever do. Something interesting that did happen to me during one of my first tournaments is that my trolling motor died and I had to row a quarter mile back to the ramp with my rowboat through heavy winds. I wasn’t getting anywhere and couldn’t understand why. Three hours of rowing later, with sweat running down my face, I finally make it to the boat ramp only to discover the reason I wasn’t going anywhere was because the anchor was down and that I was dragging it across the entire lake. I have to say that it was one of the most embarrassing moments in my bass-fishing career, but it certainly won’t be my last knowing my track record.