Science & Outdoors
Joe Marty and Cody Salzmann at the Boat U.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship
The Big Dawgs on campus reel in some recognition
The Pointer
kbeck271@uwsp.edu
If your friends are more likely to find you out on the lake than hanging around campus, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s Big Dawgs Fishing Club is right up your alley. The organization is drawing in students from Stevens Point and beyond.
“Believe it or not there are actually students who are coming to Point just because we have a fishing team here,” said Big Dawgs president Logan Bliss. “We have grown to nearly thirty members since last fall when we only had seven.”
The organization, founded by a handful of avid fishermen in 2007, sends students to bass fishing tournaments around the country. These tournaments are packed full of big fish, big fun and big money.
In August, two members of the Big Dawgs, Joe Marty and Casey Kmiecik, won $5000 at the Forrest L. Wood National Guard College Regional Qualifier in Fort Madison, Iowa. The money will be split between UWSP and the fishing club. The pair will head to Kentucky Lake at the end of October for the FLW Regional Tournament with the chance to win an even bigger prize - $50,000 and a boat.
This weekend, members of the organization are headed to Madison for the Midwest College Shootout. In October, they’ll set out again, this time to Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. The club sends up to ten pairs of students to each tournament.
The Big Dawgs don’t just travel to fishing competitions; they host them as well. On October 18 the UWSP club will be inviting other college teams to the Point Invitational on Buffalo Lake. The Big Dawgs are also scheduled to host another tournament on a local lake yet to be determined.
Once the lakes freeze over you can find these fishing fanatics holding fundraisers.
Students interested in joining the Big Dawgs Fishing Club can attend meetings on Thursdays at 6 p.m. in Trainer Natural Resource building 320, visit the organization’s website at www.uwsp.edu/stuorg/bigdawgfishing or contact Logan Bliss at lblis366@uwsp.edu.
