2009 College Bass Super Regional

Team Wojtowicz/Tolbert Finish 16th

The Under Armour College Bass East Super Regional was the epitome of a rollercoaster ride. Friday practice started out wonderfully. The first spot we pulled up on offered two keepers in 10 minutes, we decided to leave it be and move on. Our next spot gave up the biggest bass of the trip, a 3.5 lbs. toad caught by Mitch. An hour and fifteen minutes in and we thought this was the best lake in the country.

Then the bad things started to happen. Here is a list of all of the things that went against us: the transducer on the depth finder never worked all weekend so all depth checks had to be done with trolling motor in the water, the running light on the boat quit working after Saturday so we had to blast off last the 2^nd day when were scheduled to blast off 6^th, on Saturday our limit spot had three boats sitting on it, we lost too many fish from break offs or coming unhooked, Mitch’s new rod got snapped before the first day, were one of only four schools to send one team so we had less knowledge coming from numerous teams, and we were freshman fishing in our first national tournament. All of this shadows though compared to the giant goose egg we put up Saturday. We were one of 13 teams to zero and that did not sit well with us.

However, we were able to turn things around and bag a 9.89 lbs. limit on day two. The reason for our second day success: going back to fishing what we had confidence in. I never tied on my confidence bait (Timber Tiger crankbait) the first two days but decided to give it a fair amount of work on Sunday. Boy, did it pay off. Within the first 20 minutes we hooked a fish that came off, but that got the wheels spinning. Throughout the day we milked two single brush piles on a rocky point to 10 keeper bites and 6 keepers landed. Day two also gave us the best story of the trip. After breaking off a nice fish, we saw a fish jump about two minutes later. I cast my newly tied on crankbait past the splash and miraculously snagged my snapped line. Mitch was able to grab the string and pull the fish into the boat, our second biggest fish of the day. Had we caught 10 lbs both days we would have finished in the top three, but who knows if we could have gone out and caught 10 lbs again.

Overall the trip was a great experience and we were glad to have represented IU. We were proud of our top 20 finish, especially after our Saturday debacle. Our day 2 weight was one of the bigger stringers of the tournament and made us the big movers of the tourney from day 1 to 2.

Written by: Zack Wojtowicz

1. Jesse Schultz Says:
   March 10th, 2009 at 3:50 pm

   Great finish guys. Congrats.

2. Tyler Says:
   March 25th, 2009 at 3:37 pm

   Way to git r dun!