How two Kansas City kids won big at the Collegiate Bass Fishing Championships

Local anglers Noah Skolnick and Garrett Torres didn’t go into the Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship expecting to pull off an underdog win against the best competition in the country.

A victory that big would be like a 16 seed winning in the first round of March Madness. But that’s exactly what they did on May 27 at Lake Murray in South Carolina.

The competition to beat was university teams that treat their bass fishing like Division I athletics. The big bass fishing schools provide everything from wrapped boats and trucks, to coaches, to entry fees and travel budgets.

Skolnick, a Shawnee Mission East grad who’s now attending Texas Christian University, was able to get registered and affiliated with TCU, but that was where it ended for him.

The hometown team for the event, Newberry College, was located just 35 miles from the shores of Lake Murray in South Carolina. The Kansas natives drove 14 hours to compete and didn’t even have jerseys on the podium. But against the odds, Skolnick and Torres beat the Newberry team by 0.72 pounds.

In the crowd of entourages, coaches and parents, Skolnick’s mother — who drove four hours from the site of their family’s vacation to attend — was the only fan in the crowd cheering them on when their names were called out with the winning weight of 32.51 pounds.

Every kid in sports dreams of that moment; a walk off home run, a Hail Mary touchdown pass on the last play of the game, or the final penalty kick that wins the championship in soccer.

This was that moment for Skolnick.

“Hearing him call out that we had the winning weight and we were the national champions, it’s a high I’ve never felt before,” Skolnick said. “It was so surreal to be able to hoist that trophy, and know that this is a title that we will have forever, and that no one can take away from us.”

“I’ve been to so many tournament weigh-ins and so many far-flung places, but there was just no way I was going miss this, because they had already done such a great job,” Lisa Skolnick, Noah’s mother, said. “The fact that they ended up winning this collegiate championship, I mean if I hadn’t been there, they wouldn’t have had any one there for them. So I was very excited to be there and I think he was really surprised, so it was very worth it.”

It was gratifying feeling for them — the time and effort put in, the 14 hours driving there and back, and the money out of their own pockets paid off on the biggest stage.

“Winning it definitely makes it worthwhile, because you kind of just show yourself that you can compete with like the best anglers in the nation,” Torres said. “And then you also show yourself that everything you’ve been doing and all the long hours and frustration hasn’t been for nothing. I think that’s the biggest thing: subconsciously it makes it feel like I’ve been doing it for a reason.”

After day one of fishing, Skolnick and Torres were in 15th place, weighing in at 13.53 pounds. They had gone with a strategy of spending 45 minutes to an hour at each spot, but they weren’t hitting the right feeding windows. Then they had somewhat of an epiphany, realizing that if the big fish were going to bite, it was going to happen within 15 minutes of fishing each particular spot.

So they decided to swing for the fences and skip around their designated spots, spending just 15 minutes at each to give themselves a better chance at finding the right feeding windows.

Day two only saw eight bites. But they only needed five good ones, and even though their first keeper fish of the day wasn’t caught until 10 a.m., it was a five-pounder. They knew they needed 18 to 20 pounds to win the competition, and their second-day bag came in at 18.98 pounds.

“When you are fishing for five bites in a day, essentially, your margin for error is zero,” Skolnick said. “It was really a perfect storm. The was stars aligned and we were able to pull it off.”

The grand prize was $5,000 — not a small amount by any means, but after splitting their earnings and taking out the expenses they’d incurred to compete in the tournament, Skolnick said they barely broke even.

Skolnick and Torres make up a two-man bass fishing club at TCU. The club was inactive when Skolnick arrived in Fort Worth in 2019.

But Skolnick had been tournament bass fishing throughout high school and wasn’t ready to give up his competitive outlet. He was eventually allowed to restart the club affiliate with TCU.

In the fall of 2020, Torres arrived on campus after graduating from Blue Valley Northwest. He said it was really a coincidence that he ended up at the same university as Skolnick. They had known each other in high school but had never actually fished together for tournaments.

The club has one boat, which belongs to Skolnick’s family, and tournament fees, equipment and travel all comes out of the two college students’ pockets. It’s difficult to get to tournaments for official practice the week before — they have classes and typically cannot get their competition absences excused absences.

Because it’s summertime for students now, the national championship presented a rare opportunity for them to get to the lake early and “pre-fish.” With such a contrast in environments between Lake Murray and the Midwest or Southern lakes they were used to, being able to pre-fish was essential.

“It allowed us to have time to go pre-fish and put our best foot forward,” Skolnick said. “And we proved that when doing so, we can yield success. I mean, we won the biggest tournament of the year.”

It’s not as though TCU had outright refused financial support for the club, Torres said. It was more that the school didn’t have a reason to financially support a club of their size.

Now, as champions, Skolnick and Torres might have given the school a reason to extend more help. Torres said the duo would welcome any form of support, from allowance for some expenses to jerseys or boat wraps, like other college programs enjoy.

“That would be really cool for us because I think Noah and I have the talent to compete at the next level and do really well,” Torres said. “Obviously, winning a national championship, that doesn’t happen very often. But I think we have the ability to do really well. We just need some more support from TCU.”

Both Torres and Skolnick are interested in mentoring other young anglers, and letting them know they shouldn’t hesitate to dream big.

“I would not even be anywhere near the place that I am right now if it wouldn’t have been for multiple mentors along the way,” Torres said. “It’s just about giving on-the-water experience to people who need the experience and need to be taught how to do it. It’s just super gratifying to me, giving back.”

This story was originally published June 11, 2021 at 3:28 PM.