(Editor’s note: Leading up to the 2012 National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship – slated for April 13-15 on Lake Murray in Columbia, S.C. – CollegeFishing.com will publish weekly, in-depth features stories of each of the 25 national championship team qualifiers. At stake in the tournament is a first-place prize package worth $100,000 as well as a chance for the winning team to compete in the 2012 Forrest Wood Cup.)
Class: Senior
Major: Media Studies
Hometown: The Woodlands, Texas
Other interests: Playing the guitar, spending time with my roommates, traveling, jet skiing, boating and spending time at the beach.
Class: Junior
Major: Economics
Hometown: The Woodlands, Texas
Other interests: Surfing, hanging with roommates and saltwater fishing.
Q&A
CollegeFishing.com: How were you introduced to fishing?
Heath: My mom always took our family up to Minnesota to spend the summer at our grandparent’s cabin on Cross Lake with our family. It started with my grandma giving me a stick and some line tied to it with nothing but a hook and worm for bluegills on the dock. I soon became crazy about fishing and got into catching bass. I spent my days up there learning how to fish. My uncle let me take his fishing boat out and I would bust the lips on some northern-strain bass all day there. I remember catching a 6-pounder off the dock there when I was real young and have been hooked ever since. I got a replica of that fish on my wall when I was about 10 and it is a great reminder of how I got hooked in this sport.
Schwartzburg: My partner Jake introduced me to bass fishing when I moved to Texas from Nevada when I was a senior in high school.
CollegeFishing.com: What style/method of fishing are you most comfortable with?
Heath: I love throwing crankbaits. My favorite is a Strike King Series 5 Sexy Shad crankbait. It’s the style of fishing that got us to the national championship and it is a go-to bait I always have tied on in the boat.
Schwartzburg: Any time I can fish a crankbait.
CollegeFishing.com: What did it feel like to qualify for the 2011 FLW College Fishing National Championship? How do you plan to prepare for the big event?
Heath: It was truly an amazing feeling. Just thinking that my best friend and I will be competing together for a chance to become national champions in just a few months is a dream come true. My teammate Kennedy and I had qualified for the regionals three straight years, but we fell short of qualifying for the championship during our first two tries. We told each other that we were not going to strike out this time, and sure enough the third time was the charm. We have been focused on the FLW College Fishing National Championship ever since we qualified back in October, and we have been studying up and gathering as much information about the lake as we can find through research and map study. I think we have a real good shot and should be very competitive come April.
Schwartzburg: It felt awesome. We had a chance to qualify for the championship the previous two years but weren’t able to advance. So it felt great to finally do it. As far as preparation goes, we’re just going to study maps and fish hard on the practice day before the event.
CollegeFishing.com: Tell us something interesting about yourself that most people wouldn’t know.
Heath: Something most people do not know is that I have a fish bones tattoo on my left side ribs. My younger brother and I have matching ones and they are completely identical and original mirror images of each other. It represents one of my biggest passions in life – and that is fishing.
Schwartzburg: I have an identical twin brother named Marcus.
