$3,000 worth of gear stolen from fishing competition team at USCB
The words “national championship” usually refer to football or basketball in South Carolina. But it’s all about fishing for University of South Carolina Beaufort students Charley Kuhn and Reese Penfield.
The two won last year’s statewide qualifier that gave them an automatic berth to the 2019 Bassmaster College National Championship in upstate New York.
This year’s SC Bass Nation College Series State Qualifier Tournament is Saturday at Lake Murray in the Columbia area, but the theft of around $3,000 worth of their fishing equipment has made a repeat performance much more difficult.
Kuhn, 21, of York, and Penfield, 20, of Walterboro, are fishing partners in the two-person sport. Kuhn is a business administration major who also works at The Boathouse on Hilton Head, and Penfield is a business management major.
They travel all over the Southeast competing against other colleges, and between competitions, their boat is parked on the Bluffton campus in a lot near the dorms.
Everything was in order when Penfield checked the blocks on the boat Dec. 12, 2019, before leaving for Christmas break, he said. When Kuhn checked again on Dec. 23, someone had twisted the locks off the storage compartments and helped themselves to what was inside.
A report Kuhn filed with campus police detailed the stolen items, all total a dozen rod and reel combos and 10 filled tackle boxes.
The police report says there was no security camera coverage in the area where the boat had been parked and no suspects in the case. They’ve since been able to move the boat to a more secure location, but none of their gear ever turned up at local pawn shops.
Kuhn said replacing the stolen gear is going to cost around $3,000, and about half of that amount has been raised through donations from friends and family and a GoFundMe account. He said the club, which currently is made up of four fishermen, gets limited funding from USCB.
Penfield said competitive teams have multiple sets of rods and reels ready to go because water conditions, weather and fish vary, even within the same day.
“A lot of setups we have are very specific to one type of fishing,” Penfield said, explaining that the team travels from Florida to New York to fish. “We have to prepared for any situation.”
On Wednesday afternoon Kuhn and Penfield hadn’t heard whether or not coronavirus worries will have an impact on this weekend’s competition, but they were planning on being there.
Said Kuhn: “We’re practicing now.”
