Will Bruin played baseball, swam and ran track at Columbus East, but once he got to Purdue, he found a different sport on which to focus — fishing.
Bruin has found success on the water since joining Purdue’s Bass Fishing Club. The junior and his partner Ross Carter of Noblesville will compete in the 12th Annual Abu Garcia College Fishing presented by YETI National Championship March 3-5 on Oklahoma’s Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees.
“I kind of grew up fishing as a little kid, and then (former East Bass Fishing Club sponsor and current head football coach) Eddie Vogel is my neighbor, and he got us into tournament fishing,” Bruin said. “Then I got to Purdue and found a group of guys that loved it as much as I did. I just thought it was kind of different, and I could definitely make some friends who shared a common interest with me and loved the outdoors.”
Bruin was in East’s bass fishing club all four years of high school and has been in the Purdue Bass Fishing Club all three years he has been there. He learned about the Purdue club after working the Boat, Sport and Travel Show in Indianapolis when he was in high school.
The Purdue club has about 50 students.
“It’s really taken off in the past five or six years,” Bruin said. “I only saw them at the boat, sport and travel show in Indy. It seemed like a fun club to join.”
Carter has been Bruin’s partner on the boat all three years after both rushed Sigma Nu Fraternity at same time.
“He’s a good partner,” Bruin said. “We mesh really well and have the same attitude when we fish tournaments.”
The top 10 two-man teams in regional tournaments across the country qualify for the college fishing championships. Bruin and Carter were in the top 25 in the first one they finished last year
The second time they tried to qualify, they finished 10th in a regional in July on thee Mississippi River in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. Their 11-pounds, 10-ounce haul for five bass was one ounce better than 11th place.
“It was nailbiting because you’re standing there by the stage, and they’re weighing fish and watching 80 more people go on stage, hoping they don’t beat you,” Bruin said.
Bruin said his success comes from spending a lot of time on the water and a lot of time studying maps.
“I treat it like it’s another class almost,” Bruin said.
The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t slow the sport of fishing as much as it did most other sports.
“At first, everybody was cautious, and ‘How are we going to handle this situation,’” Bruin said. “But being an outdoor sport, if you’re safe and conscious, it’s tough to catch it. It’s a safe sport.”
Next week’s national championship will feature a $33,500 prize package, including a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury outboard. The winners also will gain automatic entry into the 2021 Toyota Series Championship, which has a prize of up to $235,000 for the winners.
Bruin and Carter are hoping to remain in the three-day national tournament as long as they can.
“We want to stay in it so we can fish on the last day,” Bruin said. “We just have to fish hard enough so we can make it to Day 3 and then capitalize on that.”
A mechanical engineering technology major, Bruin is hoping he can turn his knowledge from engineering and fishing into a career in the fishing industry.
“I would love to fish every day like that, but it’s a very hard profession, and you have to be very proficient at your sport,” Bruin said. “If that doesn’t work out, I would like to apply my engineering to the marine industry and keep fishing in my career. There’s always design or new toys out on the water or electronics. There’s all sorts of gadgets now for fishing.”
