This summer has been the only summer that Dante Piraino has been unable to spend the majority of his time fishing for smallmouth on the St. Lawrence River. But this week Piraino is back on his home waters and will be competing in the biggest tournament of his life.
Piraino is a recent graduate of Clarkson University located just 25 minutes from Waddington, N.Y. He and his partner Hunter Stone, as well as their Clarkson teammates Craig Beucler and James Gillis, will look to defend home-field advantage this week at the 2021 Carhartt Bassmaster College National Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops on the famed fishery.
“It is hard to put it into words,” Piraino said. “It doesn’t feel real. Being out there for practice has been weird. Like this is it, the last college derby, and it’s the National Championship. It doesn’t feel real, and it can’t be more meant to be than that.”
Beucler said qualifying for this National Championship has been a dream come true.
“I’m thrilled. It is a dream come true to fish up here on home turf, somewhere we know very well. It is so exciting to be here,” he said. “We’ve learned a lot every day, so I couldn’t really ask for more. We found some good fish and we have all the pieces to the puzzle, we just have to put it together.”
As the hometown team, Piraino said there is some level of expectation to do well on their home body of water.
“There’s always pressure being the hometown team and spending all that time out on the water can sometimes get in your head,” he said. “There’s a lot of emotions going through your head beforehand. You hope they stay pinned, and you have to get the big bites and grind.”
After adhering to the off-limits period set in the Bassmaster rules, Piraino and the rest of the team were anxious to get back on the St. Lawrence River, but they had to approach practice with the mindset of saving fish for the tournament.
“I was itching to get out there and about a week before I couldn’t wait to catch them in practice,” Piraino said. “The first day of practice, I realized we don’t want to go stick 5-pounders. We want to find them and save them for the derby. We did a lot of graphing and a lot of looking. Hopefully they will bite, but we found a lot of good areas that are holding fish.”
Before coming to Clarkson, Stone grew up fishing in the Finger Lakes region of New York and loves what the St. Lawrence River has to offer.
“I like it here because it’s what I’m used to,” Stone said. “I’m comfortable in the clear water and comfortable in the current. I never fished it before I went to college. The fishing is so good here, it makes where I’m from look bad. As great as it is (around my home), this place makes it look bad. It is just different.”
Meanwhile, Gillis and Beucler both are from New Hampshire and qualified for the tournament through the New Hampshire B.A.S.S. Nation. As engineering majors, Gillis and Beucler were drawn to Clarkson. As the host school, Gillis said he is excited to get out on the water.
“It’s awesome. I’ve been thinking about this since I was 12 and a chance at clinching a spot in the Classic Bracket is unreal,” Gillis said. “The fact that it is up north, kind of in our wheelhouse, and the fact Clarkson University is the host college is frosting on the cake.”
Both teams are expecting weights in this tournament to be relatively high. Piraino and Gillis expect weights for the winning team to be well above 20 pounds per day.
Keep track of the Clarkson University team as well as the entire field on Bassmaster.com.