In recent years, as the sport of college fishing has exploded in popularity, a lesser-known fact in the college fishing world has bubbled to the surface – Indiana University started it all. That’s right, basketball isn’t the only sport steeped in tradition in Bloomington. It all started on a blistery November day in 1968. Well, sort of.

The IU club founder, Stephen Lutz, was fresh out of college when he sent a trophy bass to a taxidermist in Alabama. He then received an invitation from Ray Scott, the founder of B.A.S.S., to fish the Dixie Invitational at Smith Lake in Alabama from November 14-16, 1968. The idea of a fishing tournament fascinated Mr. Lutz, so he decided to go. It was at Smith Lake where Lutz witnessed and rode in his first bass boat and was able to fish alongside legends such as Ray Scott, Tom Mann of Mann’s Bait Company, and a young furniture salesman from Tennessee who won the event, Bill Dance. On the drive back home Mr. Lutz thought of what a great idea it would be to add collegiate fishing to the list of sports that are offered at that level of competition. Lutz left for the Air Force two months after the Dixie Invitational, but the idea of college fishing never left his mind.

Some time went by before Stephen found a niche and was able to make the first step of his dream a reality. Mr. Lutz landed a job as a professor at Indiana University, where he continued to toy with the idea of a fishing team until the first meeting of the first college bass club was held on February 10, 1987 with eight members. And just like that, collegiate fishing was born. A year later, the IU Fishing team boasted 50 members and was active in the community, raising funds for public access improvements on Lake Lemon and holding fishing seminars for the Bloomington Boy’s Club.

The first club tournament was held on April 17, 1988. “It was a humble beginning,” Lutz said of the event, “I would take one student at a time in my boat while the other students stood and fished on the bank at Lake Monroe, and every 30 minutes, I would go back to the ramp and trade students.”

It wasn’t long before word got out about the club. Mr. Lutz began receiving congratulations in the form of handwritten letters from legends like Bill Dance and Jimmy Houston, who wrote “Maybe someday it will be more common to have a fishing team as well as football, basketball, soccer, etc.” However, this was only the beginning for Mr. Lutz. In 1968, he dreamed of schools being pitted against each other on the water, just the same way they were on football fields or basketball courts. Lutz and the IU club president, Lance Pyle, reached out to other Big Ten schools and struck gold with Shad Schenk, a student at Purdue University, and the first president of their fishing club.

On April 18, 1992 IU and Purdue made history on Lake Monroe by competing in the first ever intercollegiate bass fishing tournament, “The Old Minnow Bucket”. The name of the event is a take on “The Old Oaken Bucket”, the title given to the football game the two schools play against each other.

The Indiana Bass Federation provided boat drivers, since none of the students had their own fishing boat. One of the Federation drivers, Jeff Schroer, said of the event “It was a cold, overcast, blustery spring day. Spinnerbaits seemed to be the only thing we could get any action on. Color didn’t matter, as long as it kept the fisherman moving if for no other reason to ward off the chill.” Schroer mentioned that he was glad his son had the opportunity to fish in college, and continued on to say “I would have loved to have had an opportunity like this when I was in school, but Ray Scott probably wasn’t even thinking about organized bass fishing then.” Needless to say, Schroer and the other Federation drivers were honored to participate in the tournament, as well as the banquet the night before and the awards ceremony. Unfortunately for the Hoosiers, Purdue anglers managed to put three more pounds in their live wells and the first ever Minnow Bucket was awarded to the Boilermakers to keep for the next year. Chancellor Herman Wells awarded the Minnow Bucket with a short speech, saying “Sixty-seven years ago, I was present when the first Old Oaken Bucket was presented… I’m happy to be here to inaugurate a healthy new tradition between the two universities. I congratulate the Purdue Fishing Team for their victory and Mr. Stephan Lutz of IU for his vision, perseverance, and dedication in establishing fishing competition at the University level.”

Soon after the first Minnow Bucket, the two college clubs started getting local and national recognition from BASS Times, amongst other publications. It wasn’t long before other schools started to take note, and form fishing clubs of their own. Unfortunately, Mr. Lutz’s dream of an NCAA sport has not yet been realized, but other organizations like FLW and College BASS have stepped in to help propel the sport of college fishing into a nationally known sport, and provide schools the chance to fish against each other in large scale tournaments.

To all those anglers who participate in and enjoy the sport of college bass fishing, it is safe to say that we all owe Mr. Lutz, who is now retired and living in Illinois, a debt of gratitude for never losing site of his dream from 1968.

It was the kind of day where 30-mile-an-hour winds were making an already choppy body of water covered with whitecaps even rougher. The sort of day where if you were lucky enough to find fish, you had to do battle with the wind.  To make it more intense, the tournament that the IU fishing team found themselves in was pitted against their bitter rival, Purdue.

“The Old Minnow Bucket” is the oldest intercollegiate fishing tournament in the nation, dating back to time itself…or at least back to the mid-nineties. Although both teams are very civil towards one another, and many anglers have more than one friend on the other team, during the tournament we could cut the tension with a knife.

Many of the IU team members had gone up the day before the tournament to pre-fish, and had found that Lake Waveland seemed to be a difficult lake to fish in the fall, despite its small size. There was not  a lot of typical cover to fish, no long points, no stumps to pitch to, and only a few lay downs. Only a few people caught fish in practice, but by the time tournament day rolled around, the wind had moved the bait, and in turn moved the bass from the spots where IU had found them. The majority of the fish caught during competition came on white jigs and plastics that were fished on the bottom, around channel swings, and the few brush piles in the lake.

Club President, Zack Wojcowicz had mastered the bottom bouncing technique by the end of the day, catching his five fish limit on a white Zoom Speed Craw, off of a brush pile near the channel.

At the end of the day, IU reigned supreme by almost doubling the weight of fish that Purdue brought in. At the end of the weigh-in, IU had managed to bring in just over 25 pounds, while Purdue weight just over 13 pounds of fish.

The Old Minnow Bucket will be home in Bloomington for at least a year, right where it belongs.

The sun rose on October 22nd to reveal a thick blanket of fog over the water of Lake Lemon, forcing the IU Bass Club into a 45 minute delay to the start of their second and final club tournament of the fall semester. The boys (and girls) had all launched their boats by the original take off time, and became antsy as they waited for the fog to lift. Finally, when the club members could see outside of the bay they were sitting in, club President Zack Wojitowicz announced that the tournament could begin, but with one rule – anyone caught going faster than an idle until the fog was gone would be disqualified.

A small cold front had come through the area the week before, but what really changed the condition of the lake was two days of cold rain. The water temperature had dropped over ten degrees in some areas of the lake within a matter of days, giving the fish lock-jaw. Sean Gillenwater, who considers Lemon to be his home lake, said that the week of frontal conditions coupled with the blue bird skies made the fishing especially difficult, adding “A reaction bite was the only way to get bit.”

“I had been out twice the week before with Steve Bressler” said Clint Shireman, who won the tournament with two fish that weighed in at 4-02 pounds. “We found a couple places in practice where the shade had moved up, but the bass hadn’t followed them yet” added Bressler. Steve won big bass bragging rights with a 2-72 pound fish that came on a Team Supreme 50/50 spinnerbait. Shireman won the tournament by using fundamental advice that his uncle had taught him eons ago. “I was fishing docks when I noticed the wind had picked up on the main lake, so I ran over to a big point and started throwing a spinnerbait and a square-billed Rapala” Shireman said of his winning method.

Despite the tough conditions, many club members managed to catch fish, including IU’s own “Mr. Consistency” Chris Weiss, finishing in second place. All-American Dustin Vaal and first year club member Corey Underwood thought the lake was great, even though the bite was tough. Underwood said of the day “It was nice to get out and fish with the club. Lemon is a great lake, just getting keepers to bite on tournament day was difficult.”

IU’s next tournament, and final one for the fall, will be “The Minnow Bucket” on Lake Waveland November 6th. The tournament is a fishing version of “The Oaken Bucket,” the annual football game against Purdue University.

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 Practice hadn’t been too bad on the IU team, who quickly found fish in shallow Milfoil, then moved out deep in search of bigger bites, only to find that the deep bite was not on. Dedicating themselves to shallow matted grass, the team consistently caught short fish throughout the tournament and only yielded one keeper that weighed 3-14 for their efforts. Bressler and Vaal had a miscommunication with the tournament directors and received a two-pound penalty for coming in late for the weigh-in, putting them in tenth place at the end of day one with 1-14 pounds.

 The late penalty weighed heavily on their minds during the second day of competition, not knowing if those two pounds would cost them the third day and qualifying for the national championship for the third year in a row. The team kept fishing what they knew had been working, pitching an El Grande Hatch Match in Junebug around matted grass. Vaal caught the only keeper of the day, another fish that weighed 3-14. Steve summed up the angst and anticipation they were feeling during the weigh-in “When we were waiting at the tanks, we were trying to size up EKU’s bag, because we could almost guarantee fifth place would come down to us or them. We honestly couldn’t tell who had the better shot until we saw their weight.”

Moving into day three, the team caught only one keeper for the third day in a row, a fish that weighed 2-11 and came on a Zoom Lures “Horney Toad.” Tough conditions made fishing slow, Vaal said in a club meeting “It was painful at times. We’d pitch our bait into a hole in the grass and fish it in the same hole for two or three minutes at a time.”

Bressler and Vaal finished fifth in the regional and by doing so qualified IU for their third consecutive FLW College Fishing National Championship appearance. The Hoosiers said they will be firing on all cylinders in the next round of competition and are prepared to put in all the time they have to so they can bring home the national title. “Not winning the Regional put some weight on our shoulders. We’ll be bringing the heat for nationals.”

A notorious picture surfaced on several Facebook pages the morning of October second. It was black with soft blue numbers-the reading on a digital thermometer that read 40 degrees. The Big Ten Classic started off a little cooler than most people would have expected. A large cold front blew through the night before the tournament and dropped the water temperature by up to ten degrees from the days leading up to the event, making Coldwater Lake earn its namesake.

“We were catching fish in shallow grass with lipless crankbaits, and out on humps with creature baits and shaky heads. Saturday we were still catching fish, but had more quality fish on top-water lures and bladed jigs around grass” said IU’s ‘Mr. Consistency’ Chris Weiss. During the two practice days, everyone was on fish; the IU boys were confident. Barrett Crone, a first year club member, couldn’t make it to practice days, but was ready for tournament day after he heard the success the other members were having. Unfortunately he could not get any of the staple lures from the last few days to produce quality fish.

The day of the tournament didn’t start like most of the members had planned, not only because of the cold, but also because one of Nebraska’s boats was hit by an alleged drunk driver while waiting to launch near the ramp. Levi Carlock and Jon Bash were injured in the accident but were luckily able to return home safe after medical treatment.

Once the tournament was underway club members struggled connecting with fish due to the cold front and falling water temperatures. Also, bright bluebird skies and no wind made it difficult for the anglers to get their bait where they wanted without spooking fish in this clear water impoundment. Despite the tough conditions, Senior Michael Hackman noted that, “The team bonded well over the weekend, and it was exciting to learn the fishing styles of our four new members.”

IU ultimately finished sixth for the classic, with Michigan State, Wisconsin and Purdue taking the top three spots.

It’s that time of year again. With one club tournament in the books, the college fishing season is officially back in full swing. The club is looking forward to the upcoming Big Ten Classic this weekend on Coldwater Lake. IU Bass Club President, Zack Wojtowicz, said “We have a very experienced team and have the confidence to pull off a win.” With all the experience that Zack mentioned comes a lot of fresh faces for the club. First year members Corey Underwood, Barrett Crone, Ben Crabtree, and Joseph Goetz had a strong showing in their first club tournament this fall that took place on Lake Monroe to qualify them to fish the Big Ten Classic. While these four rookies are no strangers to fishing, they are looking forward to fishing against other schools in our sport, and learning from the experience. All-American Dustin Vaal is ready to share this experience with the new members, as well as the rest of the team, saying, “I’m really looking forward to fishing as a team, and not just as an individual.”

Steven Bressler, the club’s resident clear water expert, is no stranger to Coldwater Lake. “It’s located near where I grew up my whole life. There is a lot of Coon Tail grass which is fun to fish.” In the last club meeting, Bressler pulled up a map of the lake and showed the members some of his favorite spots and filled them in on the lay of the lake. Junior, Sean Gillenwater didn’t have much to say during the meeting, but when asked what he’s looking forward to about the tournament he replied “Fishing lilly pads and matted grass.”

No doubt the Hoosiers are excited about fishing against their rival schools, and are hungry for a ‘W’. Senior Chris Weiss summed up the IU team’s intensity best by saying, “We want a win. No exceptions.”

Bressler and Vaal on the Detroit River

This past Saturday, FLW Outdoors hosted at collegiate bass fishing tournament at the Detroit River in Detroit, Michigan. 40 collegiate bass fishing teams in the Central Region competed against eachother for a prize value of $10,000. Steven Bressler, Fremont, IN, and fishing partner, Dustin Vaal, Saint Meinrad, IN, finished in 3rd place to bring home a check of $2,000. The top 5 teams advanced to the Regional Championship with a chance to win $50,000. At the Regional there will then be the top 20 teams that have qualified in each of the FLW Qualifing Events. This fall the Regional Championship will take place at Lake Kinkaid in Southern Illinois October 6-8. The event will be televised on the Versus network and will be aired sometime in November.

“Well, going into the tournament we felt pretty confident that the pattern we developed was going to hold. There was an island that had two deep channels swing around it with a large amount of cover in between the island and the channel. We knew if the fish did receive a high amount of pressure they would move back into the thick grass mats and not fully leave the shallows. When tournament day came around, we went to our first spot, hoping to get things started with topwater. Unfortunately, we did not. About 45 minutes went by and we hadn’t had a bite. Once the sun came up, we were able to start sight fishing. We noticed that the fish were still there, they were just not as aggressive yet. Usually up in the Detroit River, the sunshine really helps the bite. After an hour not catching a fish I tied on a Steuben County secret local lure called the “Plow Jockey.” After a few casts, I had a 5 pound smallie grab it and came flying out of the water. Unfortunately, as he did, the worm went flying in the other direction, but it was that fish that seemed to fire of the school. Not long after, Dustin caught a 2 pound smallie on a jerkbait. Then I caught a 2 pound smallie on a squarebill crankbait. So, after about an hour and a half we had our two fish from our first spot. We decided to move to our island where we were confident we could finish up our limit at. After being there for only 15 minutes I had my first bite, and “boom!” 3 pound largemouth on a spinnerbait. Not a couple casts later, “boom!” 2 pound largemouth. Once we got to the other side of the island I threw in my spinnerbait at a laydown and caught a 5 pound northern pike. As I was getting the hook out, I hear my partner yell net. I look back and see a 3 pound smallie come soaring out of the water. I throw the pike to the bottom of the boat and grab the net, hearing my partner’s drag squeel in the background. I net the fish and we each let out a yell that for sure probably scared anyone around us. We had our limit. At this point we had around 12 pounds. We knew we were sitting on the bubble right now. We needed one more fish to cull out our smallest to give us a chance. With an hour and a half left in the tournament we decided to head back to our first spot, knowing the smallies should be more active by now. Once there we still saw them cruising but were unable to catch them. With 45 min left in the tournament I threw a tube in on the shallow rock where there seemed to be a smallie sitting. I felt the thump and set the hook. The 4 pound smallie came flying out of the water. “Big Fish” I remember telling Dustin as he was grabbing the net. After circling the boat fighting the fish, Dustin scooped her up in the net. There it was. That gave us 14.1 pounds. We headed back to the ramp to head to the scales.

After the weigh in and seeing the results that we came in 3rd, it felt good to know we will be heading back to the Regional to have a chance to win it again. Mine and Dustin’s favorite time of the year  to fish is fall,l and from what we have heard, Lake Kinkaid fishes a lot like our home lake, Monroe Reservior near Bloomington, IN so this Regional should be exciting.” As told by IU club member Steven Bressler

Currently the Indiana University Bass Fishing Team is ranked 5th in the nation and hopes to improve their rank with another victory(Source: http://www.earthsports.com/collegerankings.php).

When Dustin Vaal was given Lake Lemon as the last club tournament of the season last Saturday, he made lemonade.  Only days after his 21^st birthday, Dustin Vaal took the win to clinch the title of angler of the year.  After finding spawning bass on the beds in practice, Vaal came to the weigh in with a bag just under 10 lbs.  Officially weighing in with 9.77 lbs, Vaal had the weight

to win his 3^rd club tournament of the season.  With water temperatures in the low 60’s, spawning bass were the ticket to solid bags.  Finishing second right behind Vaal was Chris Weiss with 7.93 lbs.   Weiss also found bedding fish, picking up the big bass of the tournament weighing 6.01 lbs off a bed near the dam.  Although facing a trolling motor malfunction early in the morning, Steven Bressler managed to catch 4 keepers for 6.88 lbs and squeak into a 3^rd place finish.  Rounding out the top 5 were Zack Wojtowicz and Ray Raff.  After all was said and done, 9 anglers weighed in fish for a total of 41.07 lbs of the 20 angler field.

Results Club Tournament- April 3, 2011

1st- Dustin Vaal: 4.07 lbs

2nd- Chris Weiss: 3.06 lbs

3rd- Clint Shireman: 1.90 lbs

In the toughest club tournament in the IU Bass Club sinse 2007 Dustin Vaal captured the win with 1 fish that went a little over 4 pounds.  Dustin becomes the first angler to win 2 club tournaments in the same school year and ties Zack Wojtowicz for most club tournament wins all time with 3.  The wind gusts near 50 MPH wrecked havoc on the field.  Fish producing baits include an RC-1.5, red rattle trap and jerk bait.  No competitor really developed a solid pattern but 3 guys kept their heads down and caught keepers.  Chris Weiss has been consistent all year and has brought atleast 1 keeper to weigh-in every tournament.  This consistency has him in the lead of AOY points with just 1 more tournament to go, April 30 on Lake Lemon.  Hot on his heels are Zack Wojtowicz and Dustin Vaal who have combined to win every club tournament this school year.