By Cal State Long Beach students Justin Gangel and Alex Pisarski are looking to reel in a million-dollar prize, and a collegiate championship in Georgia next week is their first step.
The pair will compete against 67 other teams in the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship from Aug. 1 to 3 in Young Harris, Ga.
If the duo succeeds in the championship, they’ll come closer to competing in next year’s Bassmaster Classic, which offers a first-place prize of $1 million.
Gangel, a senior environmental science major, and Pisarski, a recent communications graduate, will compete together for the first time, but they say that team chemistry won’t be a problem.
“We’re in the same club,” Gangel said. “We know each other pretty well. It’s not like it’s a blind date or anything.”
Originally, two teams from CSULB qualified for the national championship, but Gangel’s qualifying partner, Alex Cox, and Pisarski’s partner, Alfredo Gutierrez, can no longer attend the tournament for personal reasons.
Without their partners to join them, Gangel and Pisarski have joined forces for the upcoming championshiop. The pair left for Georgia on Wednesday to practice.
“We have seven days to practice to get an idea of what we want to do,” Gangel said. “We will locate where the fish are and to see what they’re biting.”
Gangel and Pisarski will fish for spotted bass, which are found in freshwater lakes.
“We have competed in a tournament in Northern California earlier this year, fishing for spotted bass, and we both did pretty well,” Gangel said.
However, the pair said winning the tournament still won’t be easy.
“Spotted bass run fairly small,” Pisarski said. “It’s going to take a little luck because we’re going to need a couple big bites.”
While the team said winning the tournament would be a huge accomplishment, it isn’t their ultimate goal.
“We hope for the opportunity to compete in the Bassmaster Classic,” Gangel said. “It’s the world cup of fishing.”
The top four teams from the upcoming championship will move on to compete as individuals in a tournament at Lake Michigan later this year. The winner of that tournament will then move on to the Bassmaster Classic.
The Bassmaster Classic will take place Feb. 21 to 23 at Lake Guntersville in Alabama.
