It didn’t take long for Abilene Christian University’s new Fishing Club to make news on the BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship Series tour.
Competing with other teammates in his club’s first official tournament, Nelson Goldsmith, a sophomore finance major from Abilene, caught a 6.76-pound largemouth bass to finish second in the Cabela’s Collegiate Big Bass Bash at Lake Lavon in Allen, Texas. Other ACU anglers competing included Riley Nipper, Grant Brown, Kirk Mann and Glen Halbert. The club’s performance has ACU ranked 14th nationally in the early season.

The only woman in the field – Reagan Moore of Arkansas Tech University – took first and third place honors with bass weighing 7.84 and 6.38 pounds in the March 23-24 tournament, and she also caught a 4.48-pounder.
Other top-scoring teams in the Lake Lavon tournament included TCU, University of Arkansas, University of North Texas, Texas A&M University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Louisiana-Montoe, The University of Texas-Tyler, Dallas Baptist University, The University of Texas-Austin, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Henderson State University and Harvard University. Ninety-four anglers were registered, and they weighed in 119 fish.
The BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship Series – the largest of its kind in the nation – is run by the Association of Collegiate Anglers, which is a division of Careco TV and The Bass Federation. It nationally televises three of its tournaments, and partners with NBC Sports Outdoors.
The ACU Fishing Club will next compete March 31 – April 1 in the Texas Collegiate Tournament Series at Lake Lewisville in Denton.