Barring another disaster, Isaiah Atoe and Keidron Warner will be the first team from a Historically Black College and University to compete in a B.A.S.S. tournament.
Atoe, a 19-year-old sophomore, leads the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff into this week’s Strike King Bassmaster College Series at Sam Rayburn Reservoir presented by Bass Pro Shops.
“I just can’t wait to even make a cast under the Bassmaster umbrella,” said Atoe, who reconstituted the team last year. “It would be a true blessing from God.
“In our records, UAPB has never fished Bassmaster College. I can’t find a single HBCU that has ever fished a Bassmaster College event, and that just makes it special. If we were able to get some momentum, it would be a true blessing.”
Atoe is a respectful young man born in Longview, Texas, who grew up pond fishing near Fort Worth with his mother and father.
“I’ve been bass fishing since I was 3,” he said. “I just started tournaments the last 3.5 years. My mom took me fishing and my dad taught me how to fish topwater and how to use jigs. He loved fishing for crappie. He always just knew how to catch fish, and a lot of those times they’d be bass.
“I just love bass fishing. It’s fun. Bass are always different. It’s like you get out to the lake and you’re just trying to go figure out what they want.”
A history buff who learns from watching fishing videos, Atoe said he was inspired by Mike Iaconelli’s “Never give up!” cry in winning the 2003 Bassmaster Classic. Atoe also holds an affinity for the handful of black anglers whose success he hopes to emulate.
“Whenever kids, or just people in general, can look on TV and see someone who they’re like — he walks like me, he looks like me or maybe he just talks like me, just that little aspect of relatability — that person’s your Superman,” he said.
Atoe knew all about the successes of Ish Monroe and Mark Daniels Jr., who won back-to-back Elite titles in 2018, and that Daniels came close to winning the 2019 Classic. He was even privy to trailblazer Alfred Williams, who last year was inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame.
“I watched some interviews he did,” Atoe said, “and seeing that he was the first ever to qualify for a Bassmaster Classic, that truly inspires me to follow in his footsteps.
“One of my biggest fishing heroes has to be Brian Latimer. His videos are so cool. This guy’s teaching how to throw a shaky head … he has videos about driving boats. I was truly inspired. Just that level of connectivity was really inspirational.”
While he’d like to meet all his heroes, Atoe did have a chance run-in with Monroe during last year’s Classic Week. In Fort Worth cheering on hometown angler Lee Livesay, Atoe saw a man at a boat dealership who he thought looked like Monroe.
“So I said, ‘Hey, are you Ish Monroe?’ He said, ‘Maybe I am, yeah,’” Atoe said. “I’ll never forget it. I bust out laughing, and we got a picture right there.”
Atoe enrolled at UAPB’s School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Sciences with a vow to restart the Golden Lions fishing team as a community service-based club. The members held an event teaching area youth about fishing last summer, and they are planning more.
“We had a cast game, gave out awards, and we taught the youth what we do and the importance of fishing,” he said. “They loved it. We taught a lot of kids how to cast. Some of them had actually never been fishing before. For me, that’s one of my favorite things I get to do.”
The UAPB campus is close to some rich bass fishing history, namely the Pine Bluff Harbor. Rick Clunn famously won the 1984 Classic in the pool off the Arkansas River, and Denny Brauer plied the same area to win the 2011 Elite. That connection has helped Atoe’s efforts to gain local support.
“When people just hear the fact we have a fishing team, their eyes just light up,” he said. “They remember when Bassmaster held those tournaments and guys would lock down to the Pine Bluff pool and go fishing. It’s one of the most supportive campuses, like even past the sports aspect.”
Atoe and his team are grateful for their fishing brethren who came to their aid after disaster struck in their first attempt to compete. Their January trip to the season opener of Bassmaster’s Legends Trail on the Kissimmee Chain abruptly ended near a Welcome to Florida sign. The team was just back on the interstate after stopping to purchase fishing license at the Bass Pro Shop in Gainesville when a truck ran into them.
“We’re about 2.5 hours out from Kissimmee, and I was in the right lane,” Atoe said. “This truck was in the middle lane, and I presume he was trying to exit to the rest stop. He ended up hitting my boat, trailer and my truck, and he actually spun me around.
“I was so distraught. I didn’t know what to do.”
B.A.S.S. College tournament director Glenn Cale said he offered to help get the team a replacement boat, but Atoe decided to cut his losses. He helped load his boat on flatbed that took it to a shop in southern Arkansas, and his truck is still in Florida being repaired.
“We’ve been blessed by the fishing community,” he said. “Me being from the Longview area and having people in Texas, I was able to make some phone calls. Another angler is lending us his boat. As it stands now, we’re going to be able to fish at Sam Rayburn.”
There are between 75 and 80 schools participating in Bassmaster College events vying to advance from the three-event Legends and Lunkers trails to the National Championship. The top teams advance to College Classic Bracket where the winner earns a coveted berth to the Classic.
Cale said there are several black anglers fishing on college teams, and he will certainly acknowledge the Golden Lions as the first HBCU team to compete.
“I’ll make sure to show them some love on the stage for sure,” he said.
Keeping tabs on last weekend’s record-setting Bassmaster Open, Atoe knows big things await the Golden Lions whether they catch 5 or 35 pounds. He realizes the historical significance when his team launches from Umphrey Family Pavilion at 7 a.m. Wednesday.
“This university has such an illustrious history, and an HBCU fishing team competing on a national scale is truly a blessing,” he said. “We might not be the Superman, but we will be men of God and fishers of men, just out there casting, casting for a chance to make history.”
