This year only one out of a field of 56 in the Bassmaster Classic, a yearly fishing tournament, will be a collegiate angler.
Auburn University's Jordan Lee, senior in marketing, is that angler.
"It's a dream come true to fish the classic and represent the college anglers," Lee said.
He said the connection he's made with other collegiate anglers during his time at Auburn is motivation to perform well in the tournament.
Bassmaster's official website refers to the Bassmater Classic as the Super Bowl of bass fishing.
The Bassmaster Classic will be held Feb. 21-23, 2014, on Lake Guntersville.
Lee said he is excited about the tournament's location.
"It's about as good as it could be planned out for me," Lee said. "I fish more on Guntersville than any other lake I go to."
He said the lake is one of the places he first learned to fish, and that it will be nice to fish in a familiar body of water.
"It's great," Lee said. "But it is going to add a little bit more pressure."
Lee qualified for the tournament by winning the Carhartt Bassmaster College Classic in Michigan.
He said the Carhartt Bassmaster College Classic was an unusual tournament because it pitted anglers against each other in a bracket format.
"Most tournaments go by combined weight," Lee said. "This one had head-to-head match ups."
The last angler Lee was matched against and beat in the tournament was a fellow Auburn student.
The Carhartt Bassmaster College Classic came down to Lee and Shane Powell, senior in fisheries and allied agriculture.
"I finished second against him for a shot in the classic," Powell said. "I was right there with him."
Powell said the difference in weight between the fish caught by the two was 3 pounds.
Lee's win not only earned him a spot in the Bassmaster Classic.
He was also awarded $5,000 from Carhartt, a Toyota Tacoma and a Skeeter FX20 bass boat.
Lee said that the last place finisher in the Bassmaster Classic will still receive $10,000, which is $10,000 more than Powell received for finishing behind Lee in the Carhartt Bassmaster College Classic.
"I didn't get anything as a prize," Powell said.
Despite this, Powell said he was happy Lee qualified in the Bassmaster Classic.
"Honestly, when it got down to the final two it was win-win," Powell said. "If I couldn't win I wanted him to win."
Powell said he would have been happy to win, but it is great to see his teammate succeed.
"I can't really complain too much about that," Powell said.
Powell estimated that he spends approximately, eight hours per day fishing during the weekends.
Both anglers attribute their success to investing a lot of time in practice.
Lee said that time spent fishing is the reason he will be competing in the classic.
"Fishing is like anything," Lee said. "It's not luck, the more time you put into it the better you'll be."
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