MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. — Jared Kutil hasn’t been coaching the Savannah College of Art and Design bass fishing team for a year yet, but he espouses the college experience, and competing in the sport can offer tons of them, good and bad. But it’s all memorable.
Kutil, three women’s teams, one men’s team and a gaggle of parents made their way from the coastal Georgia school to northern Arkansas for the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series at Bull Shoals Lake presented by Bass Pro Shops.
“It’s a 14-hour drive, but there’s always little things that happened,” Kutil said. “Atlanta traffic, Memphis traffic, it’s normal in college fishing that something’s going to break.”
The one road breakdown was minor — a cable to a boat trailer frayed. A stop at the Bass Pro Shops in Memphis ended up being more than a fun visit at what the women called “a giant toy store with a bowling alley. A fisher woman’s paradise.”
There was serious replacement gear to be purchased.
“We bought a $5 plug, had dinner, bought some tackle and had a great time,” Kutil said. “I wish we had some more time for bowling.”
Diminutive Ryleigh Tyson proved she was up to the task of connecting the ratty 10-wire cable to the new five-wire plug in what Kutil called impressive work that lasted past midnight.
Things got worse on the water. Abby Askew and Chastain Whitfield had trolling motor issues during Tuesday afternoon’s practice but got that fixed. However, on Wednesday, after running 30 minutes and fishing a bit, they hit a submerged tree and lost their lower unit.
Oh, the experiences.
When things go awry, there always seems something positive around the bend. Well, back at the Bull Shoals Boat Dock, they got a rental boat to fish. They looked a little out of place at Thursday’s launch in the 1992 Ranger Fisherman with a 90-horsepower motor, but they were good, Kutil said.
“The girls are even more excited now. When the girls saw it, there were like, ‘It’s perfect.’ It fits their week,” he said. “I think it’s an extra bit of motivation, too. Sometimes people achieve great things when they overcome obstacles.”
He did tell on the young women. Losing a lower unit, which they hope to go back and retrieve, was upsetting to say the least.
“They had a good three-minute cry, then they felt great afterwards once they realized everything was better,” he said.
The women of SCAD (sounds like some kind of spy organization) are definitely go-getters. They have to be. The school is a private, nonprofit accredited university with other locations in Atlanta, Hong Kong and Lacoste, France. Kutil said the school has a difficult curriculum. They attend for three 10-week sessions, and fail if they miss four classes. This week accounts for two, maybe three absences.
Kutil, who started the fishing team at Georgia College way back in 2007, said college fishing is such a great endeavor, and he sees more and more women getting involved.
“Women’s fishing is getting so much more popular. You can see it on the high school level. You see so many more than even five years ago,” he said.
The SCAD teams hope to do well at Bulls Shoals, and if not, hey, it was an experience. It’s on to the next.
“We’re really looking forward to the next Bassmaster College event on the St. Lawrence in Waddington. The second I told them, everyone wanted to go,” Kutil said. “Most of the women are from Florida. They’re really excited to go to New York in the summer — a trip of a lifetime, catch big smallmouth. Hopefully, everyone will catch lots and lot of big ones.”
Part of coaching, with having to overcome the trials and travails of travel, is keeping everyone at an even keel, no matter what happens. Because, as he said, stuff happens. It’s all part of the experience that makes life, and college fishing, enjoyable.
“The experience,” he said. “I talk to them quite a bit about just the experiences that you have.”
After all, it’s the experiences, good, bad and awful, that create the more memorable moments of each person’s life.