ATLANTA — When Christi Rolin started watching bass tournaments on TV, she was intrigued. But she noticed something: All the competitors she saw were men.
“It was intimidating because I didn’t see any girls,” said Rolin, 22.
The intimidation factor weighed on her mind before fishing in her first tournament as a member of the Georgia State University (GSU) Panthers bass club. “I didn’t want to be the only girl,” said Rolin.
But indeed, she was the only woman in the event.
“It turns out, though, that it was just fine.”
Rolin and her partner, Adam Acker, did well in the 2015 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Southern Regional in January on Florida’s St. Johns River. They caught 10 keepers weighing 17 pounds, 6 ounces and finished 30th in the 124-boat field.
“It was really exciting,” Rolin said of her first tournament. “I wasn’t expecting it to be as intense as it was because I thought of fishing as more of a leisurely sport. But the second we took off, it was like a panic zone to find where the fish were. It was really intense. I liked it a lot.”
She held her own during the tournament by catching two keepers the first day and their two biggest keepers on the final day. The Douglasville, Ga., angler caught all of her fish on Senkos with spinning tackle and learned a new tactic.
“I really perfected dock skipping during the tournament, so I guess that is my new favorite way to fish,” she said. “We really narrowed it down and got pretty good at it over the tournament.”
Rolin was 5 years old when her grandparents took her fishing for catfish. She was introduced to bass fishing when she met Acker in high school and they started catching bass from a community lake. She got hooked on bass fishing when Acker invited her to Lake Fork in Texas where she caught an 8-pounder on a buzzbait.
The couple moved on to GSU where Acker has been on the bass fishing team for three years. Rolin said they plan on signing up for some tournaments this spring, too.
“I want to make the Top 20 and even Top 10,” Rolin said of her college fishing goals. “That would be pretty cool.”
The college senior plans on attending graduate school, which will allow her to fish on the Panthers team a couple more years. She invites more women to join her on the college trail.
“Just to go out there and try it,” Rolin said. “It is not as intimidating as I thought it would be, and everyone was really supportive.”
