Bass Fishing Club formed

By Wesley Myers | December 19, 2019

Bass Fishing Club members in the Homecoming Parade in Oct. 2019. Photo by Richard Esposito

One of the newest clubs at Charleston Southern has aspirations for greatness, as the CSU Bass Fishing Club and Team looks forward to future challenges and competition.

Founded this fall, the club has already started to gather attention in the Charleston area, as they hosted their own fishing tournament in November. While the club may not be large in size, they are certainly large in skill and aspirations, as they already have several members who fished competitively in high school, and they are hoping to compete on a national level soon.

While there is certainly a competitive air about the team, they also value camaraderie and friendship, as well as coming together through nature. Grace Campbell, who fished for Stratford High and made state competition twice, describes the focus of the club as “fishing and fellowship.” Because fishing teams are generally smaller, the CSU club believes they’ll be able to go up against and compete with much larger schools such as USC and Clemson.

The team is tightly knit, with the members joking around and teasing each other about what they’ve managed to catch, or haven’t. Member Morgan Acord describes the experience as “all out just going out and having fun with good people who like to do the things that I do.”

The club would not be complete without the leadership of Stanley Bruce, the founder of the club and coach of the team, who has been working in the fishing industry for over 61 years. He sees the club as a valuable opportunity to pour into the lives of the students who are participating. “The club is all about teaching, and I’m all about fishing,” Bruce said.

The club is a great place for students to come together around a common interest, and if they are interested in pursuing it further there are plenty of opportunities available to them, as the club has already obtained sponsorship by Z-Man, a national lure and fishing product company. Bruce has expressed interest in eventually leading the team to a national championship.

Wesley Myers is a student contributor for Marketing & Communication and is a senior majoring in communication studies.