Early on Sunday morning when the sun was barely up, N.C. State halfback Toney Baker, linebacker Audie Cole and defensive end Jeff Rieskamp joined members of State’s BassPack for a day of tackles and trickery on Lake Wheeler in Raleigh.

Baker caught the biggest fish of the day, single-handedly winning the tournament for his team after snagging an eight-pound bass.

“It was huge,” Baker said. “That was the biggest fish I’ve ever caught.”

The team of Rieskamp and Josh Hooks came in second with six pounds of fish, but for one brief, shining moment, they thought they had won it all. Baker and his partner in the competition, Jason Livingston, led Hooks and Rieskamp to believe that they had pulled out an upset.

“They said, ‘Aww, Josh and Jeff won,’ and then they went to their boat and pulled out that huge fish,” Hooks, a sophomore in civil engineering, said. “They were sandbagging us.”

According to Chris Wood, a junior in textile engineering, most of Basspack’s members have their own boats. Of the seven BassPack members that came to the tournament, a handful of them took Pack players and the rest went out in pairs on their own.

Hooks and Rieskamp were friends before the tournament, but this was the first time they competed together.

“I’ve taken Jeff out a few times and taught him a little bit about fishing,” Hooks said. “I gave him one of my baits that I had been using on Lake Wheeler, and at the beginning of the day he was catching more than I was.”

Wood and Cole took to the lake and enjoyed the beautiful, 60 degree weather.

“Cole is from [Monroe,] Michigan, so he was used to a different kind of fishing,” Wood said. “Up there, there’s a lot of trolling, but down here it’s slower, it took a little bit for him to get used to it.”

Baker and Cole both have backgrounds in fishing, and use it as an escape from the rigors of the football season.

“As a kid, I got into fishing; it’s a place where I can get away,” Baker said. “I really love being on the lake.”

Baker said he and the BassPack are in talks to stage a rematch in April, where Baker will defend his title. A date hasn’t been set, but Baker said “the sooner the better for me.”

“It was great that I got to go out on the lake with those guys and just fish,” Baker said. “I don’t get to do that too often and that was the first time I got to go fishing this year.”

Wood said he and his team would like to see a few more athletes participate in their next challenge.

“We didn’t get the turnout we wanted to get this weekend because everyone was busy,” Wood said. “We’re going to do another one in April and get more people involved.”

Hooks sees this as an event that could have long-term potential.

“It was a great time and I look forward to doing it again, and hopefully we’ll make it a tradition for years to come,” Hooks said.