North Carolina State’s National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship team, from left, Josh Quesinberry, Alex Freeman, Chad Craven and Jason Livingston, pose with TV fishing personality Bill Dance, center.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / TOM MEADE TOM MEADE

Bass fishing is now a competitive collegiate sport with its own tournament trail, national sponsors and television coverage. The reigning champions, from North Carolina State, were greeted like rock stars at the American Sportfishing Association’s international show in Las Vegas last week.

The event was a showcase for the world’s largest fishing-tackle manufacturers.

“We’re here courting some larger sponsors on behalf of FOX College Sports,” said Chad Craven, a team member who recently graduated. “The sport is growing exponentially. It seems as though people carry over the enthusiasm from traditional college sports like football and basketball. Everybody has their own team, and it’s really taken off.”

The Wolfpack sent two squads to last year’s National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship on Lake Lewisville, near Dallas. Craven and Alex Freeman, then a sophomore, took the final day of fishing with a five-fish limit of 13.57 pounds, easily beating out Eastern Kentucky and Oklahoma State.

This year’s national championship is scheduled to return to Lake Lewisville Sept. 27-29, and 41 schools have already entered between 70 and 80 teams, said Josh Quesinberry. After the first two days of qualifying, the fleet will be pared to the top 10, each starting with zero weight.

Forty teams competed in last year’s national championship in October. “Conditions were quite different than practice,” said Freeman. “In practice, conditions were mild with bluebird skies. I was actually swimming in the lake, the water was so warm. When the tournament started, everything changed. It got down in the 40s and 50s, the wind started blowing, and we picked up some rain the first day. It was pretty blustery and with three-foot swells on the main lake, [and] it stayed pretty blustery for the whole time.”

From the first day, Craven and Freeman found the fish holding tightly against rocks, and the bass were eager to attack crankbaits and soft-plastic lures.

This year, Freeman expects the competition to be keener.

In collegiate bass fishing’s version of March Madness this spring, Texas’s Stephen F. Austin State University rose to the top of the national rankings with three top-five finishes at the Arkansas Invitational. Fishing on their home waters during the North Carolina State Invitational, also in March, the Wolfpack finished in sixth place and dropped to fourth in the national rankings, beneath Alabama and Eastern Kentucky.

The sport-fishing industry welcomed the NC State team to last week’s Las Vegas show enthusiastically. “To maintain a healthy industry, we must involve today’s young participants as they go through their college years,” said Randy Hopper, president for Ranger Boats, a second-year sponsor of the national championship. “We see college bass fishing as a way to sustain their interest and attract others.”

“We’re really looking forward to growth,” said Jason Livingston, a junior. “Other schools are contacting us for advice, and they’re starting more teams.”

tmeade@projo.com