Although some people find the early mornings, late nights, and extreme patience required for bass fishing daunting, the Bass Fishing Club members said they find it “enjoyable.” 

“It’s a lot of fun, it’s definitely not for everyone,” senior vice president Jake Holmquest said. “It’s a lot of long hours for tournaments, but it’s a passion that you have for it.”

Holmquest, senior Luke Bradley and junior Tyler Queen are all members of the Bass Fishing Club. Despite being a new program, the group has shown success in the last two years. 

“The very first tournament this year we got first place,” Bradley said. “Me and my buddy Jake got first too, but the team as a whole brought home a trophy.”

Typical tournament days consist of early mornings and late nights. With up to eight hours of fishing, the boys put in a lot of hours for the sport. 

“We’re lucky to get about four hours of sleep,” Holmquest said. “It’s up at 3 a.m., load the trailer up at 3:45 and get to the lake and on the water by 5 a.m. And then, it’s just eight hours of grinding it out and just fishing.”

Unlike most sports, the bass fishing team is split up into multiple groups of two. This gives each member a unique opportunity to bond with one person on the team.

“Bass fishing’s a secretive sport,” Queen said. “You don’t really want to go tell everybody because every day is different on the water. We mainly try to have a partner that we can trust to keep our secrets.”

Because Bass Fishing is a unique sport, in the sense that the team doesn’t get to spend much time together, the club finds its own ways to bond.

“We have friendly competitions on facebook, and we try to catch the biggest bass of the month and stuff like that,” Holmquest said. “We have little mini competitions throughout our team throughout the year.”

Team members said tournament days can be long and tiring, but they always end with a meal shared together. Along with satisfying their hunger, this gives them an opportunity to find out how everyone’s day went. From the amount of fish they caught to a funny story, it all comes out.

“I get to talk to everyone, figure out how everyone did and just talk about all your hard work paying off hopefully for that tournament,” Holmquest said. “And eating some good food.”

The Bass Fishing club gives members a rare chance to meet others who share the same interest in the sport as them. According to Holmquest, his favorite benefit is simple.

“Being able to be around other people who share the same passion as me,” he said. “As I said, fishing is not for everyone, and everyone that does it has a little fire going for them.”

According to Holmquest, the club members have formed a bond like no other. 

“We’ve become much better friends,” Queen said. “And, going through stuff that most people wouldn’t – like sitting on the lake for eight hours in 20-degree weather.”