Collegiate anglers from 19 universities throughout the southeastern United States met at Lake Wilson in Florence, Alabama on April 17 & 18 to determine the 2009 Southern Collegiate Bass Fishing Series (SCBFS) Championship, which is sanctioned by the Association of Collegiate Anglers. These dedicated student athletes qualified for the event by participating in at least 2 of the 3 SCBFS qualifying events held earlier this year at lakes Neely-Henry, Guntersville and Wheeler.

 

 The SCBFS is hosted by Auburn University who claimed the 2009 match fishing title, which is determined by each team's head-to-head win/loss record. Clay Messer & Sam Rochell, also of Auburn University, won the 2009 individual points title.

  

Each school team is allowed to send up to 4 boats to the events. The winning team at each qualifying event is determined by the combined weight of all the boats. At the championship, the winning team is determined by the combined weight of the top 2 boats each day.

  

Jann Swaim, Auburn University Bass Sports Club Director, explained that "The SCBFS was created to provide a unique format that closely mirrors that of other collegiate team sports."

  

"The SCBFS series and championship is a great testament to what college bass fishing is truly about in regard to school and club pride, the collegiate anglers that compete in this series and ACA events represent the true core and passion of what college bass fishing is all about," said Wade Middleton, Tournament Director of the BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship.

  

Under sunny skies and windy conditions on Day 1 of the SCBFS Championship, Lake Wilson gave up 5 bass limits for the majority of the field, several of which included smallmouth bass. In fact, big bass on Day 1 was a smallmouth weighing 4.48 pounds that was boated by Rob Young and Andrew Bacon from the University of North Alabama (UNA). UNA also took the lead on Day 1 with a total weight of 32.79 pounds.

  

Although the skies turned cloudy on Day 2, UNA continued to put on a fish catching clinic as they once again had the heaviest 5 bass sack of the day as well as the heaviest team weight with 35.90. UNA's 2 day total of 68.69 pounds was more than enough to secure the victory as they outweighed the 2nd place team of Auburn University by almost 5 pounds. "We had one key area and otherwise just junk fished with a variety of shad imitating lures including medium diving crankbaits, swimbaits, Flukes, spinnerbaits and Texas rigged lizards in 7 - 10 feet of water," stated Robb Young of UNA.

  

Rounding out the top 5 teams was:

 2nd Auburn University 63.82

3rd Univ. of Alabama - Birmingham 59.75

4th Univ. of Tennessee - Chattanooga 58.51

5th Virginia Tech 58.50

   

In addition to winning free lodging for their club at the 2009 BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship, University of North Alabama also won the Cabela's Collegiate Cup award ($375 gift card), plus the Berkley Big Bag award ($500 merchandise).

  

Tyler Vaughn of Radford University caught the biggest bass of the tournament - a 7.87 pound largemouth that was tempted by a shad colored square bill crankbait fished around shallow rocks. Because they used All Star rods during the competition, Pure Fishing awarded the team 2 All Star ASR rods. Tyler is also eligible for the Grande Mexico Bass Trip to Lake Guerrero's Lago Vista Lodge where the collegiate anglers who catch the 5 biggest bass of the year during ACA sanctioned competition will join Jeff Kriet and Wade Middleton to shoot an episode of Americana Outdoors television show.

  

Every school club competing in the SCBFS Championship will receive guaranteed entry for two 2-person teams at the 2009 BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship (CBFC) that will be held at Lake Lewisville, Texas from May 25 - 29. The CBFC television series will air on the Versus network this fall. It will include coverage from five regional events in addition to the BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship. Tournament results and stories about collegiate bass fishing can be found at www.CollegiateBassChampionship.com.

  

National Sponsors of BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship and Association of Collegiate Anglers events include: BoatU.S, Cabela's, BoatU.S. Angler, Ranger Boats, TruckVault, Costa Del Mar, Berkley, Aviva Fishin' Buddy, Activision, Sperry Top-Sider, Sebile Lures, frogg togggs, Columbia Sportswear, Yamaha, Plano, Garmin, Power Pole, All Star Rod, Abu Garcia, Gemini Custom Apparel, Lago Vista Lodge, City of Lewisville, Sneaky Pete's, The Bass Federation, and Angler's Legacy.