Bemidji State University students Luke Gillund and Robby Troje have qualified for Bassmaster’s national championship tournaments, which will be held Aug. 10-12 on the home waters of Lake Bemidji in Bemidji, Minn.<\/p>\n
Gillund, a junior majoring in marketing communications, and Troje, a junior majoring in business administration, qualified for the championship after a second-place finish in the Bassmaster Wild Card Event, June 8-10 on Alabama’s Lay Lake. The duo was in 58th place overall after the first day’s weigh-in, then rocketed to 10th place after the second day on their way to a runner-up finish.<\/p>\n
“We tried to make our shallow bite work on Thursday,” Gillund said. “But after we finished in 58th, we knew that bite was dying for us.”<\/p>\n
Gillund said the team switched tactics and fished trees and stumps on an offshore ledge to improve their standing on the second and third days. They mainly used a crankbait, one of the most commonly used bass lures, and a shaky head jig to catch their fish. On Friday, the crankbait netted Gillund a double catch, his first ever, and on Saturday the shaky head landed the event’s largest catch — a 6 pound, 13 oz. largemouth on Saturday that won the Bassmaster Big Bass Award for the tournament, more than a pound and a half heavier than the next-largest fish.<\/p>\n
“To qualify for the national championship and for it to be in our back yard is awesome,” Gillund and Troje said. “We can see the lakes from our school — that’ll be a neat experience.”<\/p>\n
Gillund and Troje will join fellow BSU fishing duo of Thor and Luke Swanson, who qualified earlier this spring at the Midwest Regional, at the national championships in August.<\/p>\n
During the Bassmaster tournaments, two-person teams try to catch the heaviest five-bass limits on each day of the competition. Top teams from five regional competitions advance to the national tournament.<\/p>\n