Michigan fishing club heads to state championship for first time in four years

The first fish Josh Tucker ever caught was 4 inches long.

It was the most exciting thing he’s ever done.

“The first time that bobber went down, it was like a feeling you’ve never felt before,” Tucker said. “It was just so exhilarating, like a feeling you’ve never felt before. I don’t even know how to describe it, but it was super-exciting.”

That 4-inch fish sparked a passion in Tucker.

Now a junior at Michigan, Tucker is the president of the Michigan Fishing club team, responsible for bringing the team back to competition for the first time in four years. After months of qualifying, Michigan will be sending two teams of two to the College Bass Tour Championship on the St. Mary’s River in Sault St. Marie on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 2-3.  

Michigan hadn’t competed against other anglers since James Ge and Paul Tabisz placed 117^th in the 2021 Bassmaster College Series in Saginaw Bay. Over the past few years, the club has been primarily a social group where anglers could discuss the intricacies of catch-and-release with fellow Wolverines.

That changed this year when Tucker was became club president. In his previous tenure as vice president, Tucker began to believe that the club could compete against other fishers.

“There’s one thing to have a fishing club,” Tucker said. “There’s another thing to have a fishing team. I always thought it was kind of weird that U of M had a fishing team — it is a club team, there is that distinction there — that doesn’t fish tournaments. It almost doesn’t make sense.”

After months of work, Tucker found his teammates for the tournament, and they will compete in two teams of two. Tucker’s partner is longtime friend Michael Tieves. Tucker and Tieves have known each other since they were growing up in South Lyon. The two parted ways entering college, as Tucker attended Michigan and Tieves went to Schoolcraft. But Tieves transferred to Michigan and will begin his junior year in the fall. As soon as he was accepted, Tucker called to recruit him.

“The second I got in, he called me,” Tieves said with a laugh. “He’s like, ‘It’s only $30 dues!’”

The other pair combines veteran experience with the club’s future. Spencer White, a Holland native, will be a sophomore; he typically fishes from his foldable kayak, and his only tournament experience has come this summer. Brady Bush, meanwhile, will be a senior; the Portland native has competed in state fishing championships and is the most experienced of the four.

Bush wasn’t initially among those competing; Holland native Paul Quinn was paired with White in qualifying. But White is unable to attend as his sister is visiting from Arizona, so Bush has taken his place.

And so Bush, Quinn, Tieves and Tucker will head to Sault St. Marie to compete.

In the College Bass Tour Championship, though, they’ll be underdogs. Many of the teams competing are from schools with varsity fishing teams, featuring sponsored boats tht go 80 mph with custom wraps on the hulls, elaborate fishing jerseys, sponsored gear and other advantages.

Michigan’s anglers have none of that.

The club is not fully funded by the university – they receive only nominal amounts (as most of Michigan’s clubs do). Nor do they have a boat for members, which has been the primary barrier to entry for tournaments. Bush is bringing his own boat and Tucker has borrowed a 25-horsepower 14-footer from a sponsor. But there are times those crafts are unaccessible. When that happens, the club has no way to compete.

“I think Lawrence Tech had a custom-wrapped bass boat,” White said. “So they were like very, very well-funded. And then there’s us over here in our little 14, 16-foot aluminum jon boats. It’s not exactly the same field of play.”

Tucker has spent the year trying to drum up donations, emailing businesses in South Lyon and Ann Arbor for any form of support – tournament dues, hotel rooms, gas money. He has consistently set part of the money received aside for their boat fund.

This trip up to Sault St. Marie could dip into that nest egg. If they win anything, though, the money is heading straight into the boat fund.

“We’re all paying for our boat gas and all our equipment,” Tucker said. “Basically the only thing that the club’s been able to take off us is the lodging, which is a huge portion of our expenses. Very, very thankful to all of the sponsors that help make that happen, but we are definitely running the accounts a little dry at this point, so we’re trying to fix that.”  

Tucker said he hopes that this heralds a new era of the Michigan fishing club – one closer to the old ways of the club. He wants the club to return to regularly competing and for more members to be able to compete. A deeply competitive person himself, he doesn’t want it to just be the fishing club. Tucker wants to be the Michigan fishing team.

“My ideal future for the club would be seeing us out there competing every year,” Tucker said. “At least one team but hopefully multiple. I’d like this year not to be a fluke. … If we could get a club boat that’s giving at least two people access to fish, if we could continue to fund the tournaments and the travel and the lodging, that makes that a reality for us. That gives students who thought they weren’t ever gonna fish tournaments, like myself, the opportunity to go out and compete and experience that.”

Contact Matthew Auchincloss at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan fishing club returns to state championship this weekend