Bass Fishing News

This past weekend the UW-Whitewater fishing team sent 2 teams down to Arkansas to compete in the Bassmaster College Series event at Norfork lake. The first team consisting of Michael Zawicki and Carson Tucker finished up in 78th place out of 220 boats. During their practice, they struggled all week and couldn’t find a reliable pattern but with the weather conditions changing daily, they knew anything could happen. On the first day of the tournament, they struggled to find numbers of fish but they were able to get two key bites with one weighing over four pounds which was enough to keep them in the hunt for the next day. During the second day, they decided to switch up their game plan because they felt that the big fish from the day before clued them into a new bite. However, this was far from the case, and with almost three hours to go in the event, they decided to switch up tactics again and go searching for shallow fish. During those three hours, they were almost able to scratch up a limit and brought 4 fish to the scales. The fish were beginning to, move up due to the warmer weather and they were able to pick some of those fish off with wacky worms in the buck brush. The fishing definitely changed in a split second and they found the bite a little too late but fishing is always a learning experience.

The second team consisting of Nick Harenda and Nick Mallmann finished the event in 113th place. Throughout practice, they had a more consistent bite and were able to get some bites on a swimbait pretty consistently. Throughout the event, they fished the main areas they had confidence in but with lots of fishing pressure, they had to fish used water for most of the event. Even with those factors in mind, they were still able to catch some key fish each day which really bumped their weight up. They just couldn’t finish up a limit each day which was hard for many teams at the event. This tournament was definitely a learning experience for both teams and a great experience in general. Next up is Saginaw Bay in June, let’s hope the team of Michael and Carson can qualify for nationals at that event!