Ramapo College anglers make waves at national bass tournament

Like most bass anglers, Alex Johnson and Ryan Worth were good for a few good fishing tales. Since the two Ramapo College students qualified for the YETI FLW College Fishing National Championship earlier this month, their stories have just gotten longer.

Worth and Johnson, representing the only New Jersey college to have an active fishing club, were among 155 two-person teams competing over three days in the tidal Potomac in Maryland for best total live weight catch of bass. It was only bass: largemouth, smallmouth and spotted.

"Bass fishing is more challenging," Johnson said. "You're constantly moving around. I fish bass because it's a sport. You're not sitting down, cracking a few beers and waiting for something to happen."

The tournament entrants fished for their five heaviest bass caught each day on lures, no live bait, and brought them in for weighing before release. The pair placed 17th the first day with five bass at a total weight of 14 pounds, 10 ounces. They ran into 6-foot swells the second day, never reached their preferred fishing spot and failed to qualify for the third-day championship round. They finished in 78th place.

This was the second national tournament for Johnson, who said he didn't do much fishing growing up in Milltown.

"My dad would go fishing now and then, but I didn't have a crazy fishing family," Johnson said. "I didn't fish until my junior year in high school, when a friend told me they were starting a fishing club." He said he had no clue what to do and didn't realize how seriously the sport was taken. After the first catch, he said: "This is awesome."

Johnson wasn't sure about attending college after high school graduation, but when he heard Ramapo College had a fishing club, he was in.

The rising college senior said he's majoring in film and has managed to combine it with his love of fishing. "If I can't make it as a fishing professional, I'll film people fishing professionally," he said.

The Maryland tournament was the first for Worth, who, in contrast, has been "holding a pole since I was 2 years old."

"We'd fish Shinnecock Bay on Long Island," said the Ronkonkoma native. "My dad had a boat. We were part of a club to see who could catch the biggest fish."

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Worth estimates he's fished four or five tournaments a year as a student at Ramapo, where he graduated with a degree in environmental studies.

"I had never fished a bass tournament my whole life," Worth said. "We caught tuna, marlin, shark. But bass fishing is different, more challenging."

Coach Phillip Bartolotto, assistant athletic director at Ramapo, started the club in 2009 with no boat and two members. The club is now up to 10 members and relies on sponsorships, which help with equipment and discounts. 

The Ramapo River runs through campus, but Bartolotto said the team isn't allowed to fish its campus pond.

"There's an animal ethics group on campus, and they don't want us fishing there, so we all have to get along on campus," Bartolotto said.

Johnson said the club's particular challenge is acquiring boats, as members who owned them are graduating.

"For a college kid to purchase a boat is not a reasonable thing," Johnson said.