By Greg Halbleib
Top college teams are headed to Central Illinois to compete, not on the diamond or field but on the water.
The Carhartt Bassmaster College Series conducts its fifth of five regional tournaments tomorrow through Saturday on Clinton Lake. The top 14 of about 90 two-person teams will earn berths in the national tournament later this summer. Tournament manager Hank Weldon tells WJBC’s Scott Laughlin that a high school tournament will run on Saturday in conjunction with the college tournament, and the winner will be offered a chance to continue to fish competitively in college:
“I never thought, even I would say this and I’ve been around fishing all my life,” said Weldon, “but they’re going to offer two scholarships to attend McKendree University to the winning high school team on Sunday to be a member of their fishing team.”
Weldon says the top college teams this week at Clinton Lake will have a chance at the circuit’s top prize.
“We will end up awarding a brand new truck and boat to the winning team at the end of the year,” said Weldon. “It’s about a $130,000 package.”
It’s more athletic than you might think. Weldon says bass fishing requires some athletic ability.
“We did a study one day with some of our professional anglers, and they average about 4,500 calories burned on a day of fishing,” said Weldon. “It’s an eight-hour day. We’ll send them out at 5:30 in the morning and they’ll come back at 1:30.”
Tournament updates will be found at bassmasters.com. A video recap is planned for ESPNU in August.
Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].
