College Bass Recruiting

[CDMeyer]

My dream is to compete for a college bass team, but does anybody know what are some of the recruiting insides and outs

For example

How do you go about getting a scholarship (it is unlike other sports where you can make a highlight video anybody can look good in a fishing highlight video right?)

 

[livetofish28]

A lot of the schools are walk on and pay your dues and your in. I don't know any that you have to try out for

Tight lines

Andrew

[etommy28]

only one of two offer scholarships other wise you pick the school for the school not fishing then join the club or start one.

[Deleted account]

A lot of the schools are walk on and pay your dues and your in. I don't know any that you have to try out for

Tight lines

Andrew

 

Yeah, team is really a misnomer, they are more like clubs. Either way, I wish they had them when I was in school.

[David D.]

From a current student at a school with a fishing "team", scholarships aren't really a thing for fishing. You pick a school for its academics, and then you pay your semester or yearly dues and fish with the club.

Those that go to tournaments will typically have qualifiers. Not everyone gets to fish the qualifier from the boat, so it helps to own a boat or be the lucky one to get drawn as co-angler.

[martintheduck]

Never heard of fishing scholarships. Our team does qualifiers in fall and as far as I know you gotta have your own boat? The only perks to college fishing are the opportunity to get your name out there for winning, the opportunity to fish some great lakes and have the expenses paid for.

[bassinKS]

Our "team" is techinacally a club you just sign up and pay your dues i think there are only one or two teams that offer scholorships for fishing. But dont quote me on that i am not 100% sure. As stated above a lot of clubs require you have your own boat. I see you are up in Wisconsin and I know there are some very good teams up there like the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point they took 1st and 2nd at the central qualifier for BASS collegiete series and then we (kansas state university, my partner and I) took 3rd if we wouldnt have took third they would have had all top 3 spots if i remeber correctly

[CDMeyer]

Our "team" is techinacally a club you just sign up and pay your dues i think there are only one or two teams that offer scholorships for fishing. But dont quote me on that i am not 100% sure. As stated above a lot of clubs require you have your own boat. I see you are up in Wisconsin and I know there are some very good teams up there like the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point they took 1st and 2nd at the central qualifier for BASS collegiete series and then we (kansas state university, my partner and I) took 3rd if we wouldnt have took third they would have had all top 3 spots if i remeber correctly

Congrats but yeah the UW-system had 4 teams in the top five 2 from UWSP and one from UWP..... Did you move on too then next round?

[Sam]

martintheduck, on 01 Jun 2014 - 01:45, said:

Never heard of fishing scholarships. Our team does qualifiers in fall and as far as I know you gotta have your own boat? The only perks to college fishing are the opportunity to get your name out there for winning, the opportunity to fish some great lakes and have the expenses paid for.

 

As MartintheDuck says, there are no scholarships for fishing.

 

You can get an academic scholarship for your grades.

 

You can get an athletic scholarship for wearing a jockstrap.

 

Otherwise, I know of no school offering any type of scholarship for fishing.

 

I recruit Virginia for LSU and even in the heartland of great bass fishing LSU does not have any fishing scholarships.

 

So hit the books hard and get an academic scholarship.

[Sam]

P.S. With the move in college sports to pay all college athletes, even the women, no college would offer any type of athletic scholarship for fishing as all guys and gals on the fishing team would qualify for the same remuneration of football, basketball and volleyball players.

 

So forget a fishing scholarship and go for the academic scholarship.

[isaak181]

Our local 4 year offers a bass fishing scholarship its like 6k off tuition is what I got offered

[Sam]

Isaak, what college is offering the bass fishing scholarship???

[etommy28]

As MartintheDuck says, there are no scholarships for fishing.

 

You can get an academic scholarship for your grades.

 

You can get an athletic scholarship for wearing a jockstrap.

 

Otherwise, I know of no school offering any type of scholarship for fishing.

 

I recruit Virginia for LSU and even in the heartland of great bass fishing LSU does not have any fishing scholarships.

 

So hit the books hard and get an academic scholarship.

There are Scholarships for fishing, but they are few and far between mostly from private schools, I know of about 4 or 5 schools who offer different types of scholarships. 

[Sam]

If that is the case than it is great news.

Thanks for letting us know.

[themacs40]

McKendree University In Lebanon offers partial scholarships.  It is a varsity sport, with a coach.  The coach decides who will fish.  Not upperclassmen like clubs typically do.  The school pays for gas for boats and vehicles to and from the tournaments, hotel and food, fishing licenses.  They also were given $600 worth of Under Armour.  If you have good grades you can also get academic scholarships.  I have heard Murray state gives nice scholarships too.

[corn-on-the-rob]

My university has a club with about 20 members or so. We are affiliated with the FLW who hold regional qualifier tournaments for each division. So we fish our club tournaments with standings to see who gets to fish the FLW tournaments. I think you can have the club affiliated with b.a.s.s. but not both. It has been a lot of fun so far.

 

Like others have mentioned, pick a school based on academic, financial, and location reasons then see if they have a club. You can ask the university, they will be able to tell you. If they don't have one maybe there were a couple schools you liked for academics that also might have one. If they don't you can always start one up, it isn't too hard you'll just have to deal with small group numbers until it gets going and gains popularity.

[tnbassfisher]

 

Isaak, what college is offering the bass fishing scholarship???

 

If I remember correctly, Bethel University in TN offers some sort of scholarship for fishing.

[CollegiateAngler]

I know Bethel University is offering scholarships but there are not many. Here at Tennessee Tech, we pay $100 each year and were are in the club. We have our main trail we fish and you can also fish all of the big ones. Cabelas Collegiate, BoatUS, BFL college tournaments. There are always big ones going on down here. That is how you get discovered. No one looks at your basic 4 school trails. You got to fish the big ones. 

[Jace Lovelady]

Hello my name is Jace Lovelady, and I would be more that honored to go to a college and fish for there team. I want to represent and suport a college! I have been fishing my whole life and I have a lake record on Lake Tyler 

[Sam]

Subscribe to Bass Times as this publication covers high school tournament fishing.

 

Jace, I don't believe any university actually recruits guys and gals to fish on their college team.

 

You first get accepted to the college of your choice and then approach the team or faculty representative to join their fishing club.

 

But do your homework now. Go on-line and look up universities that have bass fishing teams.

 

Look up the final standings of the BASS College tournament to get an idea of which schools have teams. Bethel College in Indiana won the event this year. Check out articles on the Bethel College team and the entire tournament on the Internet. Try to find the Bass Times article on the event, too.

 

I know LSU Baton Rouge does not have a team but in the past LSU Shreveport won the BASS national championship by defeating Bamasux. So some of the larger universities may not have teams on their main campus but satellite campuses will have the team.

 

Check out "Sea Grant Universities" in your area or nationally to note their names and if they have bass teams. Not all do. Here is the link:  https://www.collegeraptor.com/find-colleges/articles/questions-answers/sea-grant-college/

 

This is not like football or basketball recruiting. No one will come after you unless you are a very successful bass tournament guy and are known in your state as one of the top guys, including us old guys who fish tournaments.

 

And please add your location to yoru avatar so we can give you better help with your queries based on your geographical location plus your favorite places to fish.

 

Welcome to the Forum.

[Run2jeepn]

Drury in Springfield, Mo does Scholarships. 

[AstroFishingTV]

On 5/29/2014 at 3:43 PM, CDMeyer said:

My dream is to compete for a college bass team, but does anybody know what are some of the recruiting insides and outs

For example

How do you go about getting a scholarship (it is unlike other sports where you can make a highlight video anybody can look good in a fishing highlight video right?)

 

It might be a good idea to send in your stats and rankings from your previous tournaments to certain teams. It takes a lot of sending and hoping. I plan on doing that. I'm a junior in high school and hoping for the same thing. I fish four different trails and have been able to accommodate quite a few sponsors by showing my stats. Maybe that will work for you. 

[blongfishing]

Just realized mid-writing this is very old but brought back up. Lol. I'm gonna share my knowledge in case anyone is curious for future reference!

 

I'm a member of a college fishing team (Lander University). I received a scholarship to fish at this school. I'm a former high school angler that was recruited by colleges that gave scholarships. I didn't have the best stats as far as finishes and what not but I'll give you some advice for things that colleges look for (from the POV of now seeing how recruiting works on a team and being recruited myself). 

 

Advice: Social Media presence (really big so colleges can see you are active and can keep up with finishes and whatnot.), networking (if you know any college fishing coaches *they do exist now* talk with them and see what they look for), and just fish (just go fishing and like sponsors, they will come to you if they exist in your area)

 

Another avenue that I'm not too familiar with but see a lot of success through is a website called TopTierFishing (also on instagram). It is a recruiting website for high school anglers that colleges will use to recruit students. Like I said, didn't use it personally but it looks like a flourishing way of colleges recruiting for bass fishing.

 

College fishing is a great thing for students and has truly been great to me personally. I'm a big advocate for college fishing and want to help anyone curious get into it. Feel free to message me on Instagram @blongfishing and I'd love to answer any questions and I only get on here periodically when the busyness of school and actual fishing time isn't overwhelming so that's the best way to reach me.