Fresno State students Kong Moua and Christopher Delgado, both of Fresno, landed enough bass at the National Guard FLW College Fishing Western Regional Championship to net a prize package worth $50,000 to be split between the university and campus fishing club.
Their Fresno State Fishing Club gets $12,500 and a fishing boat decked out in Fresno State cardinal and blue for future competitions. And the university receives $12,500, said team adviser Bob Boyd, the associate vice president for facilities management.
Moua and Delgado also are now eligible to participate at the national championship in April.
“This is what dreams are made of; I’ve been so blessed,” said Delgado, a senior majoring in history. “Kong and I make a great team and to be able to win like this is unbelievable.
It wasn’t easy protecting their lead on Saturday, Nov. 19, at Saguaro Lake, northeast of Phoenix, Ariz. The weather didn’t cooperate, Delgado said. They caught two fish quickly and two others got away, but nothing afterward, even though they were in the same part of the lake where they’d found success the day before.
“We weren’t about to leave the dog pound,” Delgado said. “Unfortunately we sat there so long we drained our battery. One of the high school teams had to ‘escort’ us in.”
“This is unbelievable,” said teammate Moua, who is a junior recreational management major at Fresno State. “I know how tough it is to come in third, my mind is blown right now.”
The other teams qualifying for the National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship behind Fresno State in the West are from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Sacramento State and Chico State.
Coverage of the regional competition will be broadcast Dec. 25 on the VERSUS TV network.
