A pair of Auburn bassmasters are reeling in the wins

ALEXANDER CITY, Ala. (WBRC) - Move over SEC football. Auburn students Hayden Marbut and Tucker Smith are catching titles on the water.

The pair of bassmasters recently won the Strike King Bassmaster College National Championship in August and are continuing to reel in the wins. These longtime friends went wire-to-wire on the final day of the tournament where the duo caught 18 pounds, capturing six pounds in the last hour and half to bring their three-day total to 53 pounds, 12 ounces.

It marks the duo’s second victory in the Bassmaster Championship event. Their first win was also in wire-to-wire fashion at the 2020 Bassmaster High School National Championship at Kentucky Lake. They both have won together at the high school level as well.

“It means a lot, especially because we go to school [at Auburn], so watching the football team, it’s been cool,” Smith said. “2010 was our last national championship in football. The fishing team has one, so we’ve been doing pretty good.”

Fishing upwards of about 250 days a year, Smith and Marbut are looking to grow their fishing careers and keep catching as many fish as they can.

“It’s crazy. I mean, the sport has really grown a lot in the last ten years,” Marbut said. “Fishing for Auburn, you see what our team has come to now, it’s pretty crazy.”

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