By ADAM REGAN

aregan@njherald.com

As Ryan Slate's baseball career progressed at High Point he realized a Division I scholarship was out of the question. The right-handed pitcher used to joke that if there were a Division I fishing scholarship, he'd get one.

A little more than a year later he is on his way.

Fishing for Virginia Tech in his first event, Slate, of Augusta, and his partner Caleb Brown, of Richmond, Va., beat out 39 other teams to win the National Guard FLW College Fishing Northern Division event in Clayton, N.Y.

As the fifth team to weigh in, the duo sat on the hot seat as 35 teams weighed their catch before Slate and Brown's catch of six bass coming in at 18 pounds, 15 ounces was declared the winner of a $10,000 scholarship to be split up between Virginia Tech, the Hokie bass fishing program, Brown and Slate.

"We knew we had good weight, but we were still a little nervous and apprehensive," said Slate, who hopes the $1,600 scholarship he receives will be the first of many.

The feeling lasted throughout the competition. There was a whole team in Blacksburg, Va. waiting to here the results.

Slate and Brown punched their ticket to the event by default. Although the two engineering majors had enough credits to be considered sophomores, they were still freshmen in the eyes of their teammates. Freshmen usually don't compete, but the rest of the team had prior commitments and jobs this summer.

Looking to make names for themselves, Slate and Brown offered to take the necessary time off.

Coming back empty-handed wasn't an option.

"We were nervous as hell," Slate said. "It was a five-hour drive up there and fishing was all we talked about -- like getting to know our fishing techniques and what we wanted to do. It was kind of a very academic approach to things rather just knowing each other and having a regular car ride up there."

The night before the competition they stopped at a Wal-Mart to pick up a map of the St. Lawrence River.

"We tried to find three or four feet of water and then tried to find deeper water with bass laying there," Slate said. "And, it was so windy in the middle of the water that we were like, 'Let's just fish docks because we're both good at that.' We did it at home. I'm used to going to Swartswood (Lake) and Clover (Lake) and just fishing docks.

"I think you have to have a plan and stick to it. Most of the other teams were skipping around and we stayed the course for the most part."

They fished weightless Texas-rigged and wacky-rigged five-inch green pumpkin watermelon flake Senko worms and caught four bass with them.

Before that, Slate described the pressure of catching his first bass as a "really big monkey on my back." The turning point, however, came when he and Brown both tossed bait against a boat house and hooked two of their largest catches at the same time.

"I was like, 'Caleb, I need the net,' and he said, 'No I need it,'" Slate recalled.

Still, Slate knew his competition included a ton of future professional bass fishers.

When he and Brown stood atop the podium, Slate began to re-examine his future. While he still has his sights set on an engineering degree, he realizes fishing may play an even bigger role in his life now.

"It was a hobby before," Slate said. "But I think, now, I'm ready to take it a little more seriously."