BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Chatuge Reservoir and Young Harris College in Young Harris, Ga., will be the site of the 2013 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship, Aug. 1-3. Competitors will weigh in on campus each day. The tournament will award the national championship title to one school and determine which individual anglers will advance to the Bassmaster Classic bracket, Sept. 26-29, with a chance to represent collegiate anglers in the Super Bowl of bass fishing on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville, Feb. 21-23, 2014.
“We’re excited to announce the site and format for the 2013 National Championship,” said Hank Weldon, College Series manager. “It will be the first time the championship event has been held outside Arkansas, and it promises to be the biggest in the history of the series.”
Young Harris College President Cathy Cox said, “We are pleased to host this national collegiate tournament and to have bass fishing teams from all over the country visit our campus in the beautiful north Georgia mountains. YHC’s bass fishing program is a huge asset to our community, and I am so proud of our team that continues to grow and thrive as they compete locally, regionally and nationally.”
In 2012, the YHC team of Brad Rutherford and Chandler White led the school to a 10th-place finish in the national championship, which was won by Oklahoma State University.
Dozens of two-angler teams will qualify over the course of the season through five regional tournaments and a Wildcard event, June 14-15, on Pickwick Lake in Alabama. The season began in January with the Southern B.A.S.S. Conference Regional won by Bethel University on Florida’s Harris Chain of Lakes. Upcoming events will be held on Lake Amistad, Texas, March 8-9; Clear Lake, Calif., April 6-7; Lake Norman, N.C., April 12-13; and the Mississippi River, Iowa, May 29-30. Teams that tried but failed to qualify through regional events can compete in the Wildcard tournament in June.
Chatuge Reservoir is a 7,000-acre highland impoundment created by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1942. It’s best known as a spotted bass fishery, but has produced one largemouth weighing more than 16 pounds, as well as Georgia’s biggest smallmouth, which weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces. The lake is likely to produce a mixed bag for the college anglers.
Founded in 1886, Young Harris College is a liberal arts schoolfeaturing innovative academic programs, state-of-the-art facilities and competitive NCAA Division II athletics.
The Top 4 teams from the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship will then meet in the Bassmaster Classic bracket and weigh in on the same stage as the All-Stars. The collegiate anglers will be divided between boaters and co-anglers and seeded before competing for the top individual prize in all of the College Series, a berth in the 2014 Bassmaster Classic.
