A shiny, golden, lucky lipless crankbait caught the eye and then hooked the mouth of what turned out to be the bass of a lifetime for Adrian College’s tandem fishing sophomore team of Braylon Eggerding and Lucas Washburn, who had never landed a lunker that size. of this monster, officially weighing 11 pounds, 7 ounces, at the Major League Fishing (MLF) Abu Garcia College Fishing National Championship on January 11, in Kissimmee, Florida.
If that sow had weighed just one ounce less, it would have cost the Adrian Bulldogs a national title. But the giant ultimately helped seal the deal and earned the young team one of the most coveted collegiate bass fishing championships in the country, and a $43,500 prize package that included a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard, and $10,000.
Although the big bass helps raise their five-fish limit for the day’s total weight to 23 pounds, 9 ounces, the two aren’t confident they have enough weight to win it all, after entering the final day of the 10th place event.
“I felt that we had a shot at the title, but in our minds, we thought that we had to catch somewhere around 30 pounds to win it, because we had eight pounds to make up,” said Washburn.
Eggerding and Washburn’s bag of baiting tricks worked like magic in the tropical waters, and they capped it off with an abbreviated, two-day total catch weight of 42 pounds and 4 ounces, holding them to the national title. .
The team’s huge, 11-pound, 7-ounce largemouth bass easily won the event’s Berkley Big Bass honors, weighing 2.5 pounds more than the event’s second-largest fish. (The current record for the largest largemouth bass caught in Michigan is 11.94 pounds).
Eggerding said it was a little scary when he hooked the big fish. After taking the ‘Dawg’s bait, the hawk sped up and went on a long run.
“It started running and we weren’t doing any groundwork on it,” Eggerding said. “It went into some lily pads, and I immediately thought it was going to go off the hook. But it did its course and came out. Then it came up and it looked like it tried to jump but it couldn’t — Lucas immediately netted it .”
“It was crazy,” Washburn said of netting the whopper. “We got that thing on the boat and started hugging each other, screaming, yelling and jumping. It was a special moment.
“It was like nothing else, I’ve never felt anything like it,” Eggerding said of the big bass’ strike, noting it was the longest fight with a fish he’s ever had. “It was stronger and bigger than any bass I’ve ever caught, and to do that in that tournament was amazing.”
The two fishermen know each other well. They were friends from the same high school district in Grand Rapids.
“We fished in middle school together and then started a team our freshman year in high school,” Eggerding said.
With the win, the champions also earn automatic entry into the 2024 Toyota Series Championship to compete as pros for a shot at winning up to $235,000 and the opportunity to compete in Redcrest 2025 — Major League Fishing’s most prestigious championship.
Adrian College had two teams finish in the top 10 of the Abu Garcia National Championship with sophomores Gerry Brumbaugh Jr. and Mitch Staffon placed ninth with 35 pounds of fish.
With the first place win, the Bulldogs captured two of the biggest collegiate bass fishing titles in the country, also winning the Bassmaster (BASS) College Series National Championship (Hayden Scott, Griffin Fernandes) in 2021.
Adrian College bass fishing team head coach Seth Borton said it takes a combination of factors to build a national powerhouse program.
“First of all, my recruits need to have a lot of high school tournament fishing experience,” Borton said.
Before selecting an angler for his select team, Borton asked a number of questions to see how much time they spend on the water and what type of angler they are.
“I have one group of guys who are powerful fishermen and another group who are great fishermen,” Borton said. “Having a mix of both usually creates a scenario where at least one team is in the right pattern. We get kids from a lot of different states with a lot of different experiences in a lot of different different lakes around the country. There really aren’t too many scenarios that they’ve been in that they just don’t know what to do.”
Borton said Adrian College is only the second school in college bass fishing history to win both the BASS National Championship and the MLF National Championship.
“For the average person, fishing is just like fishing,” Borton said. “But the truth is, there are many differences that exist from one fishery to the next, from a northern fishery to a southern one. The type of forage that exists in those different areas changes significantly. The availability of son fishing all over the country definitely helps.”
Self-confidence is another big factor, Borton says.
Subscribe Now: For all the latest local developments, breaking news, and high school and college sports content.
“Both of these teams pretty much told me, ‘We’re not going there to finish well, we’re going there to win.’ And that’s the mentality you have to have. It’s funny, when you have that kind of belief and confidence in yourself, a lot of times you can sort of make something come into existence.”
After all was said and done and the MLF national championship trophies were put away for the long drive home, the Bulldogs released the big, monster largemouth bass and his friends back into the range of lakes.
As for the lucky, shiny golden charm?
“I’ll never use it again,” Eggerding said of his prized trophy.
