THE LATEST NEWS

Kent State’s Tanner Ward, Arkansas Tech’s Austin Phillips and Eastern Kentucky’s Josh Boone shared honest perspective about what it will take for their teams to do well this week on largemouth-rich Lake Chickamauga in East Tennessee.

Each of them is 21 years old. Ward is majoring in engineering at Kent State. Phillips is studying business at Arkansas Tech. And Boone is focusing on risk management and insurance at Eastern Kentucky.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series?

Ward-Kent State: The people I’ve met, and the experiences we’ve shared traveling around the country fishing tournaments.
Phillips-Ark Tech: All the cool opportunities we’re given, like the chance to fish the Bassmaster Classic.
Boone-Eastern KY: The fun team environment, and all the fellowship.

Q: What will be the biggest challenge of this event?
Ward: Making yourself commit to either fishing shallow or deep, but not trying to do both.
Phillips: Staying with the pattern you know you should be committed to.
Boone: Staying focused when it’s tough, and grinding for bites.

Q: Name two lures you won’t leave the dock without tomorrow.
Ward: Football jig and a wobble head
Phillips: Magnum spoon and a hair jig
Boone: “Chatterbug” and a “big lazard”

Q: What’s the biggest Chickamauga bass you’ve had your hands on in practice?
Ward: 3 pounds 6 ounces
Phillips: 5 pounds 5 ounces
Boone: 5 pounds 9 ounces

Q: Carhartt is a brand for hard working people. What was your job this summer?
Ward: Carpentry for a home building contractor.
Phillips: Working construction for my dad.
Boone: Waiting tables at Steak ‘n Shake

If you’ve followed college fishing the last couple years, you’ve probably heard the names Nolan Minor and Casey Lanier. The West Virginia University anglers consistently finish near the top of the leaderboard in Carhartt Bassmaster College Series events as well as other top-level college fishing tournaments.

The WVU Mountaineers have racked up an impressive pile of top 10 finishes in their short fishing careers but have yet to secure a big win. A 2nd place finish this year in the 2019 College Bassmaster Team of the Year race by the narrowest of margins is the latest runner up outcome they’ve added to their resume.

Backtrack to a 3rd place result in last year’s National Championship, followed by Minor’s heartbreaker of a finish to Nick Ratliff in the final round of the College Bassmaster Classic Bracket– the most life changing title in college fishing – and you have enough close seconds to leave even the most seasoned Elite Series pro disheartened.

But not Lanier and Minor. Instead, these two have handled falling just short of victory with grace, optimism, and humility. They take the good with the bad and keep a positive attitude, which shows maturity beyond their years.

“You’ve gotta look at the seconds or thirds as a positive,” Minor offered. “We just keep having fun, continue to work hard and try to give ourselves an opportunity to win the next tournament. If we keep putting ourselves in that position, it’s going to work out one of these times.”

Whether we are talking fishing, work, or life that is absolutely a winning mindset – no matter where they end up on the leaderboard.

Tomorrow morning they’ll start competition for their 3rd straight Carhartt College Series National Championship, this time on beautiful Lake Chickamauga. Of course, the ultimate goal is to hoist the trophies at Dayton Boat Dock on Saturday, but they aren’t getting too far ahead of themselves.

“We just like catching fish and being outside,” Lanier said. “Tournament bass fishing has become a big part of our lives in college, and competing has been a blast. But it doesn’t matter if we are ice fishing, fishing for trout in a little stream, hunting ducks and turkey, or fishing little hidey-holes in a kayak. We love it all.”

Lanier, a Fisheries major, and Minor who studies Marketing, pride themselves on being versatile anglers who can catch ‘em no matter where or how they are fishing. That will serve them well, as it seems bass are scattered from shallow grass to deep main river ledges on “The Chick” right now.

Whatever the prevailing fishing patterns end up being, don’t be surprised if Minor and Lanier are in the hunt come championship Saturday. Whether this happens to be the derby where their perseverance pays off with a top spot result or not, these young men have proven to be winners on and off the water.

Carhartt Bassmaster College Series anglers Zeke Gossett and Hayden Bartee, from Jacksonville State in Alabama, are only 22 years old, and yet they’ve been successful fishing partners longer than some couples stay married.

A fellow student knew they both liked to fish introduced them to one another in eighth grade, and the two have been fishing together ever since, for nearly a decade.

Organized high school fishing was in its infancy when they met, but the two found success quickly, winning the Alabama High School State Championship their junior year, as well as claiming victory in a high school regional.

This week, they’re competing in the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship on Lake Chickamauga, and they feel like patterns are shaping up to their liking.

“This is such a great fishery that you can catch a bass around a dock in 6” of water or out deep in 30 feet,” says Gossett. “We just have to keep an open mind and be willing to do a little junk fishing until maybe we’ll really dial-in a pattern.”

When asked about their long-standing successful team fishing friendship, as you might expect, their egos were never apparent, and instead a dip net full of mutual respect and compliments flowed easily.

“Hayden just has a knack for catching big bass,” says Gossett. To which Bartee fired back, “Zeke is a great on the water decision maker, and he can do it all when it comes to techniques and lures.”

Being versatile and making strong intuitive decisions will certainly serve Zeke Gossett well in his aspirations for possibly fishing professionally. “Hopefully I can make it to the Bassmaster Elite Series, but if not, maybe a career in the fishing industry,” says the Parks & Recreation major.

And as for Hayden Bartee, his head and heart display a mature perspective regarding the importance of stability not often found in a 22 year old. “I want a good job, with good income, and a stable life,” says Bartee.

Wherever life takes these two, count on them to be good men with successful lives, and don’t be shocked if they’re still winning tournaments together someday while managing successful marriages, and perhaps raising kids who love to fish as much as they do.

Lee Mattox of the University of Alabama cried tears of joy when he learned he had squeaked into his fifth straight Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship, and his young life to date is one that will fill your heart with hope for all that is good.

Not only is Mattox one of the absolute best young bass anglers in America, but he’s already earned his undergrad degree in Chemical Engineering, and is fast tracked to finish his MBA in a few months. But are you ready for this … he spent the summer squeezed into a one bedroom, one bathroom abode in Panama City, FL with four young men he was assigned to mentor as part of a Christian ministry outreach.

“I met a pastor in Tuscaloosa that mentored me for about six months, and he asked me to spend the summer near the beach serving as a mentor to some other young men,” says Mattox.

So while most beach goers put their toes in the sand, and focused on making sure the cooler was restocked with cold beer, Mattox was cramped into a tiny bunk bed laden space while holding down a summer job at Walmart, and showing four other guys his age the keys to a faith-based better life, all while the five of them shared the same bathroom.

So you probably won’t be surprised how Mattox answered when asked what his key to successfully reaching five straight Carhartt Bassmaster College Series national championships has been.

“I’m not trying to be cheesy, but really, I put God first, and let Him take control of everything I do in life, and that includes bass tournaments. Because to be really honest, most of the time I’m not really sure how I’m going to catch ‘em – so I just fish hard through adversity, and let Him guide me,” he says.

Mattox expects to grind his way through this week using a number of different techniques and patterns on Lake Chickamauga. “It could be everything from topwater frogging and flippin’ shallow, to deep cranking and drop shotting in 25’ of water,” he says.

“I guess the biggest thing I’ve learned in life is how to thrive in really uncomfortable situations,” concludes Mattox in humble fashion.

At age 23, his achievements to date more than prove that theory true, and as he idled away from the dock for his second day of practice in a very simple older model 18’ Stratos with minimal electronics, no Power Poles, and old carbureted outboard engine, there was no doubt who was guiding him.