IU bass fishing club wins regional title, $50,000 prize

Home-lake advantage means they know where the fish hide. It means they’ve scouted out spots and they call a few “lucky.” And it means grandma is watching.

With family and Hoosier fans cheering them on, the IU Bass Fishing Club’s Jesse Schultz and Dustin Vaal sealed their second straight victory in the FLW College Fishing Central Regional Championship this weekend on Lake Monroe. Twenty teams competed.

The two-man team traded in a three-day total of nine fish weighing a collective 31 pounds, 7 ounces for a $50,000 prize. Half the money goes to IU, and half goes to the team. The top five teams in each region will compete nationally in April.

Schultz and Vaal both said they try to fish as one fisherman. Side by side at the front of the boat, they cast out and reel in rhythmically. When one hooked a bass, the other netted it.

On Saturday, Schultz was the net man for Vaal, who caught all three of the final day’s fish.

But Vaal said he needed his teammate out there. After frigid daily launches at 8:30 a.m., the two stayed energized by moving around to their favorite sweet spots on the lake and finding a pattern of casting to lure the fish.

That pattern, which the two guarded until the end of the tournament, was deep-fishing over timber, Vaal said. They used a deep-diving crankbait.

The event itself was like a carnival for fish enthusiasts. The National Guard sponsored the event and provided a festival in the tailgating fields, high-quality highlight reels and camera crews following the fishermen.

Professional fisherman Justin Lucas was a host of the event. He weighed each team’s fish and said he had been watching the IU team’s excitement grow since the two fishermen qualified in May for this weekend’s championship on Kentucky Lake in
Gilbertsville, Ky.

“They’ve been chomping at the bit for this to happen for a long time,” he said.

Schultz said the excitement sprang from having the event at home — on their lake with their family and friends nearby. That allowed the club to help out and draw in bigger crowds. Free pizza after Saturday’s football game lured fans to the final weigh-in.

Clint Shireman, a junior in the fishing club, watched the crowd grow after the game. He helped set up tents and ran a casting competition booth at the festival.

He said the victory is huge for the team, and he hopes to use some of the winnings for future club travel events.

He and other members of the club made up part of the crowd that cheered on the fishermen at the final weigh-in. Schultz’s and Vaal’s family members held signs hand-drawn in marker, saying “Find Lunkers and Win” and “KY Lake or Bust!”

And, on a huge sheet of red poster board, “Memaw says: Go Jesse.” Grandma Darlene Schultz, who bought Jesse his first fishing pole, now watched him win his second consecutive college fishing tournament.

Home-lake advantage means the memories are close, and this weekend, knowledge of the lake paid off for family and team alike.