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by Lynn Burkhead
ESPNOutdoors.com
What do college students in the football-crazy Southland Conference, the Big 12, the Big 10 and the SEC all have in common?
Well, if last weekend's inaugural College Smash-Mouth Bass Championship on Arkansas' Lake Monticello is any indicator, they certainly love autumn's classic collegiate battles.
They also love the largemouth bass and the aquatic haunts that such piscatorial predators call home.
Take Texas A&M graduate student Clinton Robertson, for example.
Growing up in Del Rio, a south Texas city not far from sprawling Lake Amistad, Robertson loves both his Aggie football and bass fishing É as long as the two don't conflict with each other, that is.
"The weigh-in was at 11:15 a.m. last Saturday and, fortunately, the game didn't start until 2:30 p.m.," Robertson laughed.
Hey, in pigskin-crazed Texas, a man has got to have his priorities.
Of course, football isn't the only priority to college students in fall.
Take Jonathon Garrie of the winning Stephen F. Austin University squad, for instance.
Growing up in the Texas Gulf Coast community of Baytown, where he regularly prowled the marshes for redfish, speckled trout, ducks and geese, Garrie admits he chose Stephen F. Austin for reasons that differed greatly from those of most inbound freshmen.
After all, how many college students do you know who actually chose their school on the basis of its waterfowl program?
"I looked at both Stephen F. Austin and Texas A&M and the duck hunting around each and pretty much decided where I was going to go," Garrie laughed.
"My freshman and sophomore year, I tried to make sure that my classes started at noon on most days because of the duck hunting in the area."
These days, with the local mallard shooting declining somewhat, Garrie finds himself more than occupied with fishing such Pineywoods bass waters as Sam Rayburn Reservoir and Lake Nacogdoches deep in east Texas.
In fact, the talented young fisherman admits he is seriously considering whether a pro-angling career might be in his future.
"If I thought I could really, really do it, then, yeah, I'd love to be a pro," Garrie said.
Garrie, an animal-science major who also is considering a career as a veterinarian, indicates that while he continues to gain a grasp on many of bass fishing's best techniques, he learned much about the business side of pro angling during last weekend's event on Lake Monticello.
Specifically, he learned how to line up sponsors like Stanley Jigs, Legend Boats, Mustad Hooks, All-Star Rods, and Frogg Toggs to help defray expenses, provide equipment and stretch a dollar on the tournament trail.
"Being in college, it's tough, especially with $3-a-gallon gasoline," Garrie said. "I filled the boat and the truck up in Louisiana on the way to the tournament and I didn't know the pump would shut off at $100.
"There's no way I could have afforded that (without sponsor's help)," he added.
Especially when there are football games to attend, ducks to hunt and bass to catch back home in Nacogdoches as the autumn college semester continues.
Not to mention a test or two to study for before life's real exams begin.
