Two freshmen from one of the smallest colleges in the field, not only won the 2017 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship, they dominated it.
Jacob Foutz and Jake Lee, from faith-based Bryan College near Lake Chickamauga in East Tennessee, led all three days, before winning by 5 pounds.
“There was a peace about us all week. We knew it was all in God’s hands,” Lee said.
The young team idled out of the south end of Lake Bemidji each day, through a narrow portion of the Mississippi River into Lake Irving, to catch their fish.
“We made so many laps around Lake Irving, we feared we might run out of bass to catch, but thankfully we never did,” Lee said.
The two freshmen averaged 16 pounds per day, with a winning weight of 49 pounds, 15 ounces, and caught most of their fish by pitching black/blue and green pumpkin Strike King tubes on 20-pound line around shallow shaded docks.
“We caught a few fish on frogs really early in the morning, but as soon as the sun got up, that bite died fast,” Lee said.
This is only the third year that Bryan College has been involved in competitive fishing, and Coach Mike Keen says the small school’s President is their biggest fan. “We get tremendous moral and financial support from the college, and our President even had garages constructed for the kids on our team to keep their boats in,” Coach Keen said.
The youngsters will now compete in a bracket format against anglers from the top three finishing teams, including John Garrett. He won the bracket format last year, and subsequently gained a berth to the 2017 Bassmaster Classic last March on Lake Conroe.
This year’s bracket tournament takes place 90 miles down the road from Bemidji on Serpent Lake, Minn. At its conclusion, on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017, one angler will qualify for the 2018 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Hartwell, SC.
Don’t be surprised if it’s a young Lion from tiny Bryan College, they roared loudly and left Bemidji as kings of the jungle among college bass fishing’s very best.
Amid a fishing trip on the bass-starved Ohio River in the summer of 1987, Alan McGuckin’s Dad told a then 16-year-old “Guck” — “I don’t care what you do for a living, just promise me you’ll do something you love.”
Originally from Pittsburgh, McGuckin considers himself a blue-collar kid, who has been richly blessed to live-out the best piece of advice his dad ever gave him for many years now in the Tulsa area.
After earning a degree in ecology at Juniata College in Pennsylvania, where he placed radio transmitters in largemouth bass to track their habitat preferences, he moved his life to Oklahoma in 1992, where he earned a Masters in Zoology and Fisheries under the direction of Gene Gilliland at the University of Oklahoma, before then embarking on what’s now a nearly three decade long career as a marketing and media veteran in the fishing industry.
His career spans 28 years of wisdom-rich marketing experience working to strengthen brands and increase sales for Lowrance, Terminator Lures, Toyota, Yamaha Outboards, Boat U.S., Carhartt, Costa, Quantum, Vexus Boats, and Zebco.
- Member of the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame voting committee, as well as a Board of Directors member for Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful
- Co-piloted the Terminator brand of premium lures from its birth to more than 10 Million pieces sold between 1997-2006.
- Has authored and published more than 800 stories on Bassmaster.com, along with several other popular bass fishing websites.
- He has generated $3 Million dollars’ worth of branded digital media since 2020, as a content creator.
- Serves as emcee for hundreds of guests at the annual Toyota Bonus Bucks Owners event.
- Avid angler, who fishes nearly every weekend when not on the road working.
- 13,000 followers on Instagram @GuckFishing.
“Guck” lives just north of Tulsa, OK at Lake Skiatook with wife Sherrie, an elementary school principal who also loves her job, and has a genuine passion for slinging a Rapala Brat crankbait on shallow points and habitat-laden flats.
