Courtesy of Luke Stoner – Dynamic Sponsorships

As nervous energy built in anticipation for the start of day two of the Strike King Bassmaster College Series National Championship, I noticed a Marshall University team calmly preparing for their number to be called. One dude was tying on a Thunder Cricket vibrating swim jig, and the other was about to get down on a Bojangles Chicken Biscuit.

The duo received the lure during Thursday’s gifting suite and the breakfast sandwich was courtesy of the Georgetown hosts who handed out bags of ice and fistfuls of biscuits to anglers as they launched their boats in the pre-dawn darkness. As boat number 114, Chase Sansom and Tyler Drown were all smiles this morning and not in a big hurry.

“It’s the National Championship, how could we not be smiling,” Sansom grinned. “We weighed in 6-lbs 4-ounces yesterday and know we need a bigger bag today to have a shot at fishing tomorrow. We caught our fifth keeper yesterday on one of the Thunder Crickets Strike King handed out at the banquet on Thursday, so we’re hoping we can put this one in front of some bigs today.”

Both Drown and Sansom are seniors and are fishing their 3rdNational Championship as partners this week. Drown is finishing a Civil Engineering degree and Sansom is a Marketing major. The Marshall University Bisons have enough experience and smarts to know that even with a subpar day one, they are far from out of this tournament.

“We caught over 12-lbs two different days in practice, so we know we’re around the right caliber of fish to make a comeback,” Drown explained. “We caught about the same number of fish yesterday as we had been in practice. They were just little. Today we need two big bites to go with a limit. If we can do that, we can get back into this thing.”

It was obvious Sansom and Drown had the right mindset as they prepared to make a 30-mile boat ride in a 2004 Triton to their starting spot. Smiling faces, old and oftentimes beat up equipment, and good attitudes are familiar themes of college fishing tournaments. The competitive fire to win burns hot within every angler fishing this week, but veterans of the college series know it’s just as important to enjoy every step of the way.

Whether that step is a fat five fish limit that allows them to rally up the leaderboard, or a free swim jig and a breakfast biscuit. It’s the college fishing national championship and like Sansom wisely said, there is no reason not to smile.