Bass Fishing Travel Team at WSU

Nate Baespflug, and myself, Madden Tobeck, have co-founded a bass fishing team here at WSU during our freshman year at the University. One of our goals with this club is to represent Washington State University at collegiate bass fishing tournaments along the west coast. Our first tournament is right around the corner, May 18th. Our second tournament is in the latter part of September. The tournaments are run by an organization called FLW which hosts collegiate bass fishing tournaments across the nation, as well as professional bass fishing tournaments. In our tournaments, we will compete against a number of schools including, EWU, OSU, Oregon, Cal Poly, USC, etc. FLW has a tremendous following of fisherman across the nation, and we think representing WSU throughout the organization will be an awesome experience and opportunity. 

Another goal of ours is to build this club on campus. These tournaments are a great platform for us to gain notoriety, and potentially draw more students into the club. We realize not all club members will attempt to raise money and fish the collegiate tournaments like Nathan and I, but we want to present other unique opportunities to the members. Opportunities the club will present to students will include: learning more about the sport of bass fishing, meeting students on campus that share the same passion as we do, and also work with businesses who are potential sponsors of the club. Ultimately, our goal is to create a sustainable club on this campus, that establishes this aspect of outdoor culture here in Pullman. Nathan and I are very driven and excited to establish this goal. We want to establish this culture because we know the impact fishing can have on individuals. Fishing has brought us personally some of the best memories of our lives, introduced us to some of our best friends as well as mentors, and has given us a greater appreciation for the outdoors. We hope to share these awesome experiences with others and help grow the awesome sport of fishing.

The University can allow up to $5000 in funding for clubs, but there is a catch. Since this money is generated from students paying tuition, it has to be used for educational purposes. For example, we could have a local professional bass fisherman come speak to the club, and the University would pay for their needs (hotel, food, transportation, etc.), because the event can be considered educational. Though these allotted funds have strict limitations, we plan to use those funds in the most productive way possible in order to help grow and educate the members of our club.  Unfortunately, Washington State University cannot pay for the travel expenses, lodging expenses, or equipment costs for any of the members who wish to travel to the collegiate bass tournaments, because the tournaments are not considered educational. Each donation will be used exclusively for the traveling, lodging and equipment costs of our tournaments. We are hoping to raise the following amounts:
 
•  Gasoline expense - $1,000.00 (1500-mile round trip to clear lake California, and a 1700-mile round trip to the California Delta)
•  Lodging expense (hotels) - $1,500.00
•  Equipment - $500.0

Thank you for supporting the team!! Nate and I are very excited about bringing this culture to WSU, as well as the opportunity to compete in these tournaments.