BU student spotlight with Matt Shutta.

Hi, I’m Matt Shutta and I attended the Feb. 11-12, 2012 Bassmaster University in Worcester MA. I’d like to tell you about my experience, and why you should seize the opportunity to attend a class if they come anywhere near your location.

I was fortunate enough to win entry to this class through a contest held on The Bass University’s Facebook page. (Which involved a photo of myself, painted green and dressed like The Incredible Hulk for Halloween). Getting the opportunity to attend this class for free was amazing. I couldn’t wait to learn from Pete Gluszek, Mike Iaconelli, Mark Davis, John Crews, Gary Klein, and David Walker. Before I knew it, it was time to make the trek to Worcester and see just what The Bass University is all about. Upon arrival at the convention center (where an outdoor expo was also running downstairs) I met up with the rest of the class to register and have coffee and donuts, was given a bag of goodies and a t-shirt, and headed in to find a seat. After a quick welcome and intro we got right into it. All of the speakers went into a lot of detail on their subjects and answered any questions the class had. An added bonus to the classroom setting is that other people may ask a question you didn’t think of, and you wind up with even more information. Between classes we were able to chat with the pros about anything we wished, not just about what their “class” was about. This was great if you had an off-topic question for the pros. I missed out on the 2^nd day due to some family matters back home, but I didn’t depart for home until after I got treated to dinner and drinks with the pros and The Bass University guys. Yes, my luck struck again and my name was picked out of a hat to go out with the gang for dinner after class. While at dinner we all seemed to leave the student/teacher stuff back at the convention center and just had dinner as a giant group of bass fisherman joking, laughing, and having a good time. An awesome experience!   

After I found out I won my ticket to The Bass University, I attempted to try and get some of my friends to join me for the class, but could get no takers. The most common excuse I got was that they thought the class would be nothing more informative than magazine articles, or informative videos online. After going to the class, I can tell you for sure this is way more in-depth and informative than any magazine article or web-video will be. You can’t ask questions and get answers reading a magazine.. We’re talking 7 hrs each day of real bass fishing info from the top bass fisherman in the world. You can’t get that anywhere else. If you’re on a tight budget and it seems like more money than you’d like to shell out, it’s worth limiting what you spend next time you stock up on gear to find the cash for this class. If I hadn’t won my way in, I would have scraped the money together to get there. I’m a guy in my mid 20’s, do not own my own boat, and I fish anywhere from 2-5 days a week for the 10 months or so that there isn’t ice keeping me from the water. This class helped me in my fishing in many ways, and I truly believe it would help any angler from beginners to touring tournament anglers. I learned things ranging from locating fish, to selecting the right approach to catching those fish, all the way to tips and tricks for specific angling techniques. The class had a great variety of topics covered, and covered well. Do yourself a favor, “follow” @BassUniversity on Twitter, “like” The Bass University on Facebook, and find out when they’re coming to your neck of the woods and sign up! You might even get lucky like me and win a ticket or some free gear, find special discounts on tickets, or find deals on one day only passes to a class.

-Matt Shutta

www.Facebook.com/MassachusettsFishingAdvocacy