Bassmaster College National Championship heads to Anderson for the first time

ANDERSON COUNTY., S.C. (WSPA) – For the first time in it’s history, the Bassmaster College National Championship is making its way to Lake Hartwell.

Ahead of the big day, college anglers lined up to register in Anderson.

Anglers Ben Cully and Hayden Gaddis said this is their last year competing at a collegiate level.

“Really really emotional but we’re looking forward to what’s next,” said Cully, an angler with Carson-Newman University.

What’s next is day one of the 2024 Bassmaster College National Championship.

County leaders said 168 teams from 52 colleges from around the world are in town to compete. That’s 326 anglers.

“Not only are they here for the tournament, a lot of the teams have been here earlier to pre-fish the lake. We’re not just talking about the half million dollars that they will spend this week, we’ve been getting money for a year from these anglers who do pre-fishing of the lake,” said Glenn Brill, Anderson County Parks, Recreation and Tourism division director.

Coaches said it took hard work and dedication to get to this point.

“They have to finish in the top 25% at one of the three regular season stops. We usually travel 11 boats to a tournament. For 11 out of 14 boats to qualify the top 25% of one of the tournaments, that’s a huge accomplishment,” said Hunter Sales, Carson-Newman University bass fishing coach.

Sponsors had tables set up full of gear to make sure anglers are ready to hit the water.

“We’ll go over a briefing, cover some dos and don’ts and if anybody has any questions before the competition, day one starts tomorrow. It gives them a day to just kind of relax, work on a couple boat issues if they’ve had some boat issues and just kind of take a day of break from the last three days of grueling practicing,” said Glenn Cale, B.A.S.S. Nation Tournament Director.

Cale said college fishing is growing in popularity.

“I think there’s like 40 to 50 different schools out there that are offering some type of scholarship to even come to school there,” said Cale.

Not only is the tournament a big deal for those competing, but also the county.

“This is about a half-million-dollar tournament.  Green Pond Landing will celebrate its tenth birthday this December 19 and at that point we will have hosted $118 million worth of fishing tournaments which is pretty impressive to go from zero to 118 million in ten years,” said Brill.

The tournament is Thursday through Saturday. Take off will start at 6:30 a.m. and weigh-in at 2 p.m. The top twelve teams will go out on Saturday to determine the Bassmaster Collegiate National Champion.

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