Entry 243-4

Looking at the Classic through College Eyes with Rusty Jones

Editor’s Note: At the 2008 Bassmaster Classic, members of the University of Alabama’s bass-fishing team paid to attend the Classic and work for and with their sponsors. They were in the Strike King booth all three days of the Classic, showing new products and talking fishing with all who would listen. These young men are setting a new standard as college fishing pros, and they’re becoming tournament pros the right way through working with sponsors and honing their fishing skills, at a very young age. This week, you’ll meet Rusty Jones of Helena, Alabama, who has his education and fishing act together and uses his college courses to help further his fishing career.

Part 4: Zero the Hero

Question: Rusty, yesterday you told us that one of the lures you like to fish is the Strike King Zero. Where are you fishing it, and how are you fishing it?

Jones: I like the Zero because it’s a versatile bait, and I can fish it different ways. I can Carolina rig it, Texas rig it, fish it on a shaky-head jig or wacky rig it. The Zero is one of the most-versatile fishing lures on the market. There are very few places where I fish that I can’t fish the Zero in some way to catch bass.

Question: What is the biggest bass you’ve ever caught with that bait?

Jones: I caught a 5-1/2 pounder on Lake Guntersville with the Zero last year. I was swimming the bait through the grass. That’s another technique I didn’t even mention. I had the Zero rigged on a Gamakatsu No. 5/0 hook on 10-pound-test line.

Question: How did you get that 5-1/2-pound fish out of the grass on 10-pound-test line?

Jones: Very carefully and with a really-loose drag.

Question: What color Zero do you like?

Jones: I prefer the watermelon-red color the best. The red gives the bait a little bit of flash and looks somewhat like a crawfish. I’ve been highly successful with that color. We tend to fish the colors of lures we’re most successful with, and watermelon red has definitely been my most-successful color.

Question: Rusty, how many colleges are involved in collegiate bass fishing now?

Jones: Right now, there are more than 100 colleges and universities fishing the collegiate circuit, with new schools being added every week. Every tournament usually has about 80 boats in it, and the tournaments are first come, first serve. We’ve seen teams from Oregon to Alabama competing in college-bass fishing tournaments.

Question: Are other people in the University of Alabama bass-fishing club considering trying to build a future in the bass-fishing industry?

Jones: Yes, they are. We have several fellows in our club who want to get into either tournament-bass fishing or work for companies in this industry. There are several of us trying to prepare ourselves with our education and our tournament skills to become bass-fishing tournament pros. By getting a marketing degree, fishing the collegiate bass circuit and working events like the Bassmaster Classic for Strike King and our other sponsors, I’m preparing myself the best way I know how to either be a tournament pro fisherman or to get a job in the fishing industry after school.

Question: How many young people do you think there are in the collegiate bass-fishing organizations trying to prepare themselves like you have for a future in fishing?

Jones: There are quite a few. Collegiate bass fishing solves a major problem for many young people who want to drop out of school and become a tournament pro. Using the collegiate bass-fishing program, you can stay in school, earn a college degree, start a competitive career and begin to work with manufacturers. Then when you graduate, you have resume credentials as both a tournament pro and as someone who has already worked with manufacturers, participated in promotions and actually helped sell product.

Question: How will having a business-marketing degree help you as a pro angler?

Jones: Professional fishermen can’t survive on tournament winnings alone. They have to have sponsors. By learning in college what those sponsors want a pro fisherman to do, determining what those pros do for their sponsors and learning how to market products for those sponsors will be a tremendous leg-up for me, if and when I try to approach a sponsor as a tournament pro.

Tournament pros need to know how to help a company sell product, and that’s what business marketing is all about-learning how to sell products. I’m getting the right education, college degree and amount of fishing experience to offer companies in the fishing-tackle business what they’re looking for in a young person coming out of college.

Looking at the Classic through College Eyes with Rusty Jones

Part 4: Zero the Hero

Next: A Well Thought-Out Plan

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