Bass fishing team takes Havasu
Russell Behlings and Aaron Warner hold up the fish that helped win their team $5,000. Photo courtesy of Clint Marinez.
In only their second tournament as an official team, the UVU Bass Fishing Team won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Western Conference event on Lake Havasu.
Catching five bass that weighed a total of 13 pounds, 11 ounces, Russell Behlings and Aaron Warner secured the win for the UVU Bass Fishing Team on Saturday, Feb. 25. The National Guard FLW College Fishing Western Conference event that took place on Lake Havasu, Ariz. was the second bass fishing tournament the team competed in, and the first win for the UVU team.
The Bass Fishing Team, which became an official club on campus at the beginning of 2012, took six competitor totals in three teams of two anglers each. As winners, Behlings and Warner will be advancing as one of 25 teams that go to the regional championship in September. The top five winners of the regional event will then go on to the national championship in April 2013.
The win was huge for the fledgling team. “We won $5,000, which allows us to fish all of the events next year,” said Clint Martinez, the club’s advisor. “It also means the whole bass fishing world nationwide know about us [at] UVU and we do bass fishing.” The win has also garnered local attention from administration on campus. “The president sent us [congratulations] and other colleagues around campus [have] as well,” Martinez said.
The largest fish caught between Behlings and Warner was about four pounds. “For that body of water, [it] was a trophy,” Martinez said. Second place went to Northern Arizona University’s Nicole Albright and Brent Perkins, who caught five bass weighing 11 pounds, 10 ounces. The NAU team took home a prize of $1,500. Third place went to California State University-Monterey Bay’s Matthew Diaz and David Hamblin with five bass weighing 11 pounds, 2 ounces. CSUMB took home a prize of $1,000.
The next competition for the Bass Fishing Team is on March 31 on the California Delta in Oakley, Calif. Since Behlings and Warner already qualified for regionals, two teams will be competing with the chance of taking both alternates.