Developing a Successful College Fishing Team

Behind the scenes with the University of Akron Bass Fishing Club

Over the years, college fishing’s popularity has exploded in both participation and following. At this point, most people know about the tournaments, but not everyone understands what it takes to start and sustain a college club or team. I’ve been through it as part of the University of Akron Bass Fishing Club, and I hope that by sharing my experiences, other college anglers can have an easier time of creating a successful club.

The most difficult aspect of getting into college fishing is starting a club if your school doesn’t already have one. The school must approve the club through proper documentation and has criteria that must be met. In the case of the University of Akron, the club needed to register with the official club sports management team, have a minimum of six members on the roster, and draft a detailed constitution laying out rules and functions of the club.

Once approved, the University of Akron Bass Fishing Club became official, but we still need to keep up on yearly requirements, including community service hours, maintaining an updated roster and reviews of our financial account, which is managed through club sports. Though the aforementioned process and upkeep seem a bit tedious, it really is important and helpful for club structure.

Despite the popular appearance of college fishing, it can be tough to grow a fishing club. About 25,000 students attend the University of Akron, but it can be hard to find interested anglers. Our club started in 2011 with six anglers, and after six years has grown to its current size of 25 anglers. Every year we recruit through social media, university email and a university-sponsored fall festival designed to showcase clubs and organizations to new students.

Our biggest challenge in the club is our ratio of anglers to co-anglers. While a select few of us own a boat or have the privilege to use a parent’s boat, most college anglers do not have that luxury. This limits our club tournament sizes and the number of teams we can send to FLW tournaments. Recruiting boaters has become our biggest priority.

The club typically meets before each semester and intermittently as needed. The intent of these meetings is to welcome new members, organize tournaments and fundraising events, and to vote on club officers once a year. Offices include president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, social media manager and sponsorship chair. Leadership positions are very important for structure and organization.

We have four tournaments during the fall semester and another four during the spring. The schedule is voted upon by the club. Tournaments are conducted in a team format to help simulate the FLW tournaments, but pairings are random. Club tournaments are meant to provide friendly competition among the club and for practice, but we also maintain point-based standings for the year. Standings are used to determine which anglers have priority entry for the FLW tournaments. The top three boaters receive a small stipend for one FLW tournament to help with costs, and the top three co-anglers are paired with these boaters. Beyond that, seniority determines which co-anglers get to pair with the limited number of boaters we have.

Once pairings have been determined, preparation for the FLW tournament season starts early. Teams begin planning the trips and researching the lakes. Though our teams compete against one another, we try our best to help each other out when we can. We always want to finish as well as we can, but more importantly, to have fun.

The university requires the team to get permission for each trip. It wants to make sure we are staying safe and will occasionally help us with gas or lodging costs. Administrators write official notes that don’t necessarily excuse us from class but help to communicate with professors and try to work around any potential missed class time or work. There are times when flexibility isn’t an option, such as during an important test, and academics are always the priority.

Community service and fundraising are essential activities that help grow our club. Our most successful community service acts have been local lake cleanups and assisting with children’s fishing derbies. Any way we can help improve the community and the sport is fun and rewarding. It is important to represent the sport and the school in a professional, upstanding manner.

Rod raffles, club dues and alumni-promoted dinners have proven to be our most successful fundraising activities. The funds are used directly to help our club purchase tournament permits and equipment, fund trips, and to cover any other operating expenses.

Sponsorships are quite different at the collegiate and high school level than for traditional amateurs and professionals. The sponsoring entities understand that students often have immense financial responsibilities relating to tuition, housing and general living expenses while attending school. The discounts and donations help to offset the relatively high expenses encountered in the sport of bass fishing. This way sponsors give a necessary helping hand to students all while investing into the up-and-coming youth of the sport. I know I can speak for nearly all student anglers nationwide when I say that we are deeply appreciative of everyone involved in our support.

Most college-level teams and clubs eventually invest in team jerseys. They are not required to compete, but jerseys allow anglers to prominently display affiliations to their sponsors and schools, and they’re pretty cool. Our club usually places multiple orders per year to make sure new members can get a jersey as soon as possible. We also make sure to update jerseys as sponsors change. Every couple of years a change in design or color scheme might be required to improve the look or to stay modern.

Growing for the future is a vital challenge facing all clubs. It might seem grueling at times, but it will always be worth it. I challenge all college anglers to make it their goal to have improved themselves, their clubs and their communities in some way by the time they graduate. I want to be able to look back in a few years and see how our generation of college anglers impacted the sport for the better.

I personally will be taking on the position of coach for the foreseeable future after my last tournament (the upcoming FLW College Fishing National Championship) as a college angler. I will attend meetings, provide my boat for club tournaments and use my experience in FLW College Fishing to try and help other anglers be successful at that level and, in general, help them in any way I can just as many alumni before me have done and continue to do.