Last weekend, 2021 Sand Rock graduate and current University of Montevallo student Brody Robison, along with his fishing partner Peyton Sorrow, won the 2026 Strike King Bassmaster College Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops. The duo caught a three-day total of 61 pounds, 3 ounces fighting the rough waves of Leech Lake in north central Minnesota.

In addition to earning a $5,000 first-place check, Robison and Sorrow both earned spots in the 2026 College Classic Bracket, a head-to-head format that will send one College Series angler to the 2027 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour, as well as the 2027 Turtlebox Bassmaster Opens presented by Battery Tender.

WEIS Sports Director Shannon Fagan caught up with Robison to talk about winning his latest fishing title, as well as his future plans.

Q: I know this championship has been something you’ve been working toward for a little while now. How proud are you that all your hard work has paid off?

A: “I’m super stoked to pull it off. That was definitely a tournament I’ve had highlighted on the calendar all year. I’ve been close a couple of times in that tournament. I’ve been in the top 10 twice. To be able to win it and cap off my college career, it was my last tournament fishing with eligibility in college, it was a very sweet moment. It’s really cool to see things come full circle.”

Q: It didn’t sound like it was easy. I read where the wind at Leech Lake was gusty and the water was tough to manage. How were you able to earn this championship?

A: “It was definitely some of the roughest conditions I’ve been a part of. At times we were dealing with 3 ½ foot, 4-foot-tall waves. The Midwest wind is a little bit different than what you’d see on the Great Lakes or something like that. It’s an odd, choppy wind. A 20-foot boat doesn’t fit in them well. We were constantly taking waves from over the front and over the back of the boat. It made it very difficult. It was a very trying tournament just to catch five fish and bring some back to weigh in.

“It’s a position I’ve been in many times. I felt like I was well-trained for it. I seem to perform better in those rough conditions like that. It was cool. It all worked out. It was definitely a crazy experience dealing with the weather. The lake isn’t that big. To be able to pull it off, even dealing with small mouth (bass), being from the South, it’s not something we get to do much. To be able to win a small-mouth tournament is really cool.”

Q: Was that one of the toughest lakes you’ve ever fished?

A: “As far as how many variables go into it, it is definitely up there with some of the tougher lakes I’ve been a part of. It’s a really cool fishery. There’s not a big population of fish in the lake but there’s a lot of big fish there. It was cool. I feel like it set up to my skill set.”

Q: What are some of the other lakes you’ve been to around the country? Can you liken Leech Lake to any of the others you’ve fished before?

A: “I don’t have a number on how many lakes I’ve fished at this point. I’ve fished five years of college, and I’ve also fished in bass opens. I get to travel a lot and see a lot of things. I guide up on Lake Champlain through the months of July and August.

“We don’t have anything the South that’s comparable to Leach Lake. It’s a very flat, shallow reservoir, but it’s got a lot of rock. Really, we don’t have a lot of fishing that compares to that, but I’ve fished several lakes – some in Minnesota, some in New York – that are kind of comparable.

“Here in the South, anywhere you’re at in Alabama, we have such a good training platform for whatever type of fishing you like to do. You can at least dabble in each technique, each style of fishing. We have so many different types of lakes that can set you up for success no matter where you go in the country. You’ll at least have a base knowledge of what you’re getting into. I definitely live in the epicenter of bass fishing and one of the greatest training grounds in the country.”

Q: Obviously, you and your partner Peyton Sorrow have to work together and were doing something right during this tournament catching fish. Would you talk a little about him?

A: “He’s a year behind me in college. I’m finishing up my master’s right now. He’s starting his MBA (Master of Business Administration) program currently. It’s been a real pleasure fishing with Peyton. He’s an exceptional angler from South Carolina. It’s really cool to match our talents together – my Alabama and further South knowledge mixing with his East Coast knowledge. We make a really good team.

“We’ve fished together long enough to where there’s not much argument or discussion of what we’re going to do. We both just kind of have the same mindset. We’ve trained and learned together. We kind of subconsciously make the same decisions together. We have a great flow on the water as far as mindset and decision making. It’s been really cool.

“We’ve had a stellar run the last year in college fishing. I think we finished up with nine top 10s in the last year. We’ve had three different wins in the last year-and-a-half, that one being our second national championship win. It’s been a real pleasure fishing with him. It’s bittersweet to see it come to an end, but it’s been an awesome time.”

Q: How did you two get paired together? How did that process work?

A: “I’ve had a couple of different partners in college. Sometimes it’s just somebody you’re friends with and it works out. Sometimes the coach puts a little assistance into it, just kind of throws the idea out there. Some people hop on it. Some people don’t. Peyton and I fished a lot when he moved to Montevallo. We became good friends over the common interest of fishing. We’ve fished a lot of local tournaments together. As we were kind of nearing the end of our college career, we realized how well we fished together and we probably should do it on a little bit bigger stage. We pitched the idea to Coach and it was apparently a pretty good idea. It’s worked out well.”

Q: How many tournaments have you and Peyton fished together?

A: “It’s around 12-14 (in college). We’ve fished in a couple of smaller tournaments. We’ve fished around 28-30 tournaments together.

“It’s been cool just being able to learn together and train together and build as we go. When we first started fishing together, we had a couple of rough finishes, but I think we’ve both built a pretty bulletproof mindset during those harder times. We were able to learn together and figure out what went wrong and stayed super-fluent with how we worked together.”

Q: When do you expect to get your master’s degree?

A: “I’ve got two classes left. One is only offered in the fall and one is only offered in the spring. I just started classes back on Friday. I will finish this class come the first week of December and then have one more in my capstone class which will finalize my degree in the spring.”

Q: You mentioned this tournament was the cap of your college fishing career. So, what’s next for you?

A: “The Bassmaster Open is this year. That was just kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. I’m very fortunate to have some support from local people here and some people in the fishing industry. I was able to afford to hop into opens. I had a stellar year. I finished up winning the Angler of the Year for my division. That qualifies me for the elite qualifiers in the fall. That will be three events fished on a blank slate. At the end of the three events, the top 10 in the Angler of the Year race will qualify for the Bassmaster Elite Series.

“The elite qualifiers are going to end up on Guntersville for the last event. That will be right here close to home. That would be cool.”

Q: What are your plans after college? Maybe something in the fishing industry?

A: “I’m just going to keep pursuing this dream of professional fishing. I feel like I’m knocking on the door of it. I just need the good Lord to put a couple of things in line for me. I need to keep my equipment together. There’s definitely a lot more fish to catch, a lot more steps ahead of me, but I think I’m headed in the right direction.

“Also, I guide on Lake Guntersville and do some guiding on Weiss Lake in the winter, then I go up to New York and guide during the late summer. I’m staying busy with that in-between tournaments. I’m just kind of learning as I go along in the fishing industry. I’m almost done with my master’s in marketing. That’s definitely been beneficial as far as helping advertise for companies I work with and things like that. It’s all coming together slowly but surely.”