Robert Matsuura and Peter Lee of the Sacramento State Bass Club won the Forrest L. Wood College Fishing Western Regional Championship, an event held Thursday through Sunday at Folsom Lake.

Matsuura and Lee were declared the winner by 2 ounces at the weighing ceremony that was held outside of Hornet Stadium just after the Hornets’ homecoming game.

The crown came with a berth into the 2011 FLW College Fishing National Championship in Kentucky, a $50,000 scholarship and a new Ranger boat for the Sacramento Bass Club.

The only team representing Sac State was not declared the winner until the final weigh-in. Matsuura and Lee finished the tournament with a final weight of 29 pounds, 2 ounces; Chico State’s weigh-in was 2 ounces less.

“I wanted to bring it home for Sac State,” Matsuura said. “My family was going to be here, I knew it was going to be a big crowd and I didn’t want to disappoint.”

Another duo from Chico State rounded out the top three, followed by San Jose State and Cal Poly.

“We thought that we needed at least 10 pounds to feel safe and have some confidence coming into check in,” Lee said. “When we saw Chico State come up here and they had 29, we didn’t feel that we were going to take first place at all.”

The addition of a boat to the Bass Club is something that can only be a help to a club looking to spread its sport.

“The Bass Club right now doesn’t have any boats,” said Sport Clubs Coordinator Robert Clakley. “So they’re fishing from the shore or they’re fishing from their personal boat. So they’re having to depend on other people. Now they’ve got their own boat.”

Without the team of Matsuura and Lee, that boat would never have seen the waters of Sacramento.

Although the competition was held in Matsuura and Lee’s home lake, the two claim they had absolutely no “home lake’ advantage.

“I don’t fish Folsom at all. This past week was the first time I fished there in years, so I had no advantage whatsoever coming into it,” Lee said.

Matsuura and Lee had to deal with another bump in the road in the early morning of the third day.

Before the two had time to search for a single bass, Matsuura suffered a serious injury to the back of his head. Lee caught him on the backswing of one of his casts and the jerk bait was lodged in the back of Matsuura’s head for the rest of day.

“First thing in the morning, we pull up to our first spot, we’re excited to be fishing during the championship day,” Matsuura said. “We’re all hyped throwing our baits and I tell (Lee) to throw on a jerk bait and he starts whipping that thing out there and I heard it go by my ear one time. So I stepped a little bit to the left closer to him and, what do you know, the next cast I dropped. I just dropped to the floor. I was devastated.”

The team now has automatic entry to the 2011 FLW College Fishing National Championship held in Kentucky.

“I’m still hyped on this so I haven’t even really thought about it” Lee said. “Hopefully what I’ve learned will come through in Kentucky and it will help.”

AJ Taylor can be reached at [email protected]