Josh Bensema, Seven Coves Bass Club member & representing A&M, is in the shootout for top national honors in the Carhartt College Championship.
2015 College Classic Bracket


He and his partner, Matt McArdle, used two fish for 3 pounds, 10 ounces to claim the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship as a team.


Texas A&M teams pushes through to title


Congrats to the A&M team and to Josh for powering through til this point. I hope to hear he takes the individual title and grabs a birth in the coming 2016 Bassmaster Classic

Proud to say I was an Aggie Angler during my days at A&M. I wish our University would step up and provide some financial support for the guys on the fishing team. A lot of these guys spend their own money to have a chance to compete and represent the University. A few schools offer scholarships to the kids on their fishing teams. I'll be watching as much and as often as possible tomorrow to see if he earns the berth. All of the kids that have won the bracket have ended up going Pro and most have been successful (Jordan Lee, Andrew Upshaw, Matt Lee??, Pruett seems to be doing well in the Opens), so maybe we'll see Bensema do the same...

Anybody see what they won? Money? A boat? I can't find that anywhere. I get bragging rights and maybe a shot at the classic but these guys need to at least be thrown some lunch money lol

When I fished it the winners didn't get much. Maybe $1500 or something. It was bragging rights and a chance at a classic berth that everyone was shooting for.

wow, that sucks... Nationals at FLW was 50k, a boat and a shot at the Forrest wood cup...

the fact we have 3 different national champ trails is weird too... but oh well

Plenty of good Ags around to put something together for these boys. Count me in if someone wants to spearhead this and gets some cash together to help these guys out. We could also begin to petition the school to sponsor them. At this day and age you can't deny the growing young sport of competitive bass fishing. The high schools are embracing it and so should the universities.

Jackson

I think it would be a great thing to get together an expense fund for these anglers. Let's see what would be involved & move ahead on it
I'll talk with Josh & see what he might know about any restrictions regarding funding...

I'm betting there is some NCAA Collegiate rule that will screw up trying to help these guys out! May have to do it discretely through a family member!

College fishing isn't an NCAA sport. But the problem is working around/with A&M. I was the president of the Aggie Anglers for a year while I was still in school, and doing anything financially with the university is a pain in the azz. Especially when it came to winnings. The college tournaments made the checks out to the university, so we had to turn the check into A&M, then apply for the money we won. And after a few months, sometimes longer, we would get a portion of the money back. A&M took a chunk out as royalties even though they didn't provide boats, insurance, tackle, scholarships or anything. It was so we could wear A&M on our jerseys. Which is an entire different story. A&M had to be the only logo on that side of the jersey. So our sponsors were never displayed at the same time as ATM...

The A&M Fishing team is a student run club. There are no rules governing gifts/assistance/donations from outside the University, so donations can certainly help. Texas A&M provides exactly $0 to the club. All boats, tackle, expenses are paid for by the members. They do have a treasurer and a club account that use to be funded by member dues, fundraisers, and any tournament winnings. That is what we used for stuff like weigh in equipment, helping send competitors to championships, and club events like a fish fry before a tournament or something.

I would really like to see an Aggie tournament and have Aggies all over the state get together for a weekend of fishing and networking. I think it would have a great turnout and be pretty awesome.

I'm going to be on board for this. I wonder if The Association could manage a restricted fund (meaning donations are directed to the club only) and then release the funds on specified dates?

All of that is absolutely true. We hosted a charity tournament 3 years ago Conroe and had about 25 boats show up. We had a great time hosting it and raised a good amount of money for a charity. This year the Aggie Anglers hosted another charity, again on Conroe and had about the same turnout. I am sure they will host another one in the spring.

I'm a Baylor grad so I don't really worry about how or where the Aggie club gets their money. My question is who decided to have a championship where 2 fish for 3 pounds 10 ounces wins the whole thing. What a snoozer...

The winner gets to fish the 2016 Classic, plus paid entry to all opens next year. They receive 7500 for expenses and use of a wrapped Toyota Tundra and boat. Bensema finished 2nd, Trevor Ho won he had a limit for 6 something. Thought the bracket was a cool deal, but not the 3 fish limit or where they fished.

Can you let me know what he says? We are getting some troops rallied over here to try and get some support for these guys.

Jackson Bean
903-456-5554