MANHATTAN, Kan. — Stints in the Junior Bassmaster program and an adult B.A.S.S. Nation club have helped Garrett Cates become one of the stars of the Kansas State University bass fishing team.
Cates was introduced to competitive bass fishing at age 15 when he joined the Blue Valley Bass Busters junior club, which was started by one of his buddies with assistance from the Leavenworth Bass Club. When Cates noticed how helpful the Leavenworth Bass Club members were in providing boat captains and advising the junior club, he decided to join the adult B.A.S.S. Nation club with his dad, Ray Cates.
Ray and Garrett both joined the club as co-anglers ,and success in the club came early for the 16-year-old Garrett.
“I actually got first in my second tournament in that club at Lake of the Ozarks in the spring,” he recalled. “I had Rookie of the Year, Co-Angler of the Year and third big bass for the whole club in my first year.
“Fishing in that club for a few years got me really excited about tournament fishing. It was also a good time for me to spend some time with my dad.”
While in high school, Cates already planned to attend college at Kansas State. However, when he heard Kansas State’s Ryan Patterson won the 2012 FLW College Fishing National Championship while fishing solo, Cates envisioned doing more than just studying at college.
“That got me really fired up to be on the fishing team at K-State,” he said.
After spending one year at a community college, Cates enrolled as a sophomore at K-State, where Patterson chose him to be his partner for the club’s fall tournaments. They finished second in the four club tournaments. Patterson graduated after the fall semester, so Cates fished the following spring with Kyle Swanson, and they placed 32nd in the 2013 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Midwest Regional at Lake Sugema.
Paired with Graham Howard in the 2014 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Midwest Regional, Cates and his new partner finished 13th at Lake of the Ozarks to qualify for the 2014 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship. Howard caught a 6-pound, 7-ounce largemouth and Cates weighed in two 5-pounders during the tournament, but they failed to advance to the Bassmaster Classic bracket of the championship.
“I’d really like to do well in one of these college championships and get a berth in the Bassmaster Classic or the Forrest Wood Cup and see where that takes me,” Cates said.
In the meantime, Cates is majoring in environmental engineering with plans on helping clean and protect the environment for future generations.
“The environmental engineering field is growing like crazy now,” he said. “There is really an endless number of employment possibilities with water quality and air quality, designing more fuel-efficient engines, alternative energy sources and sustainable energies.
“Because I like to fish and hunt so much, I am interested in trying to help preserve our land and maintain the water quality we need to sustain our fisheries.”
