Junior angler Colton Breeding practicing for the team's next tournament.
Photo by Jacob Bray.
The Tech Bass Fishing Team is ranked among the top 25 schools in the southeast as they near the halfway point of the 2019 tournament season.
The team competes in three different series and compete in 11 major tournaments per season ranging from Lake Seminole in Florida to the St. Lawrence River on the New York/Canada border.
Tech is currently No. 25 in the YETI Fishing League Worldwide College Series. Junior angler Colton Breeding said he hopes the team can break the top 10.
“We have many tournaments left in this series on lakes with vast differences. With our combined experience, I hope for high finishes through the rest of the year,” Breeding said.
Breeding’s tournament partner, freshman Lee Hale shares the same outlook for the remainder of the season.
“Being ranked No. 25 at this point in the season is motivational,” Hale said. “I think we have the talent to continue moving up the leaderboard.”
Tournaments are three days long and consist of up to 500 anglers using 250 boats per tournament. The top 13 teams advance to the third day.
Teams are allowed two to three official practice sessions on the scheduled lake before the tournament but are not allowed to obtain any other information about the lake before the event.
A tournament is won by having the highest weight of five combined largemouth, spotted, redeye or smallmouth bass over 12 inches lomg. Fish must be kept alive or the team faces a penalty of 4 ounces deducted from the total weight for each dead bass.
The team’s next tournament is the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series at Smith Lake in Cullman, Alabama, on March 21-23.
