When four members of the Penn State Bass Fishing Club flew to Texas for a national tournament recently, they hoped they would catch a win -- but those hopes sank when their boat struck a pole in the water.

Two of the members, founder and president David Steinour (junior-marketing) and tournament director Jason Haney (junior-environmental engineering), were traveling on the lake during the second day of competition in the National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship Sept. 28 when it happened.

"I saw something directly ahead of the boat, and I didn't have time to swerve and miss it. We hit it, and there was just a big bang," Haney said. "We looked at the motor and [the pole] busted the [propeller], and we had trouble getting in the marina. We had to go pretty slow."

Haney estimated the boat's speed was 40 mph, a speed he said wasn't too fast for their placement on the lake, but rough waters obscured the partially exposed pipe.

"We were 100 yards off the bank, in 13 feet of water, there was nothing near us," he said. "There was no reason for the pipe to be there. There was a heavy chop on the water, and we had a lot of bad luck."

The club sent the four anglers to Lake Lewisville, Texas, for the tournament, where they split into two teams and placed 46th out of 83 teams.

In addition to Steinour and Haney, Dave Grube (sophomore-fishery science) and Derrick Hughes (junior-wildlife and fisheries science) participated in the event.

The students traveled 1,400 miles to reach the six-day long tournament. There were three practice days prior to the competition.

The format of the event allowed every team to fish the first two days; the last day was reserved for the top five qualifying teams, Hughes said.

Texas A&M University finished first overall, winning a $14,000 scholarship. Of the participating Big Ten schools, the University of Wisconsin finished highest with a fourth place, Hughes added.

"Everybody caught a lot of fish, but it was hard finding the bigger quality fish that we needed to take to get in the top five," he said. "They had to be 14 inches and everybody caught a ton under 14."

Haney said the club has about 40 members this year, including many new recruits. He said his goal for the year is to win the Big Ten championship.

Hughes agreed.

"I would hope to finish high enough to maybe go to the Big Ten Classic over spring break that will be held in Illinois," he said.

The club's next event will be an in-house tournament -- a competition between members of the club -- to determine members' ranks within the club, planned to occur in two weeks.

Club members' rankings depends upon meeting attendance, conservation projects and the approaching tournament.

"This up-and-coming tourney is going to be one of the big ranking factors," Grube said.