The California State University-Chico team of Travis Bounds of Roseville, California, and Andrew Loberg of Rocklin, California, won the FLW College Fishing Western Conference Championship on Clear Lake Sunday with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 38 pounds, 5 ounces. The victory earned the club $4,000 and advanced the team to the 2016 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
“Travis and I have known each other and been fishing together since we were 12 or 13 years old,” said Loberg, a senior majoring in Agriculture and Crop Science. “This season was our first as a team for Chico State and to win the Conference Championship and qualify for the National Championship is pretty cool.”
The duo mixed it up on the two days of competition, opting to fish deep on day one and shallow on day two.
“Saturday was very cloudy and rainy,” said Bounds, a senior majoring in Construction Management. “We had to fish very slowly. We mainly fished deep rocks and ledges with a jig – ¾-ounce, black and blue with a twin-tailed grub as a trailer. We caught seven keepers.
“Today we figured out that there was a good reaction bite going,” Bounds continued. “We fished shallow grasslines with ChatterBaits and swimjigs with green-pumpkin Keitech swimbaits and had a really good day. We probably caught 16 or 17 keepers.”
“I think the key for us was just staying persistent,” Loberg went on to say. “When the cold front came in, it forced us to slow down and really pick everything apart.”
The top 10 teams that advanced to the 2016 FLW College Fishing National Championship are:
1st: California State University-Chico – Travis Bounds, Roseville, Calif., and Andrew Loberg, Rocklin, Calif., 10 bass, 38-5, $4,000
2nd: California Polytechnic State University – Johan Eide, Sebastopol, Calif., and Colton Farquer, Oakdale, Calif., 10 bass, 30-12, $2,000
3rd: Oregon State University – Zach MacDonald, Willits, Calif., and Zach Martinez, Linden, Calif., 10 bass, 30-1, $1,000
4th: California State University-Chico – Chas Brannon, Santa Maria, Calif., and Michael Woods, Olivehurst, Calif., 10 bass, 28-13, $1,000
5th: Eastern Washington University – Cy Floyd, Wenatchee, Wash., and Travis Opel, Spokane, Wash., 10 bass, 28-13, $1,000
6th: University of Oregon – Jacob Wall, Jacksonville, Ore., and Dalton Taylor, Eugene, Ore. , 10 bass, 26-9
7th: San Jose State University – Joey Fortina, Ben Lomond, Calif., and Adam McAndrews, Santa Clara, Calif., 10 bass, 24-13
8th: Sonoma State University – Jake Banuelos, Pinole, Calif., and Brent Nelson, Santa Rosa, Calif., 10 bass, 22-13
9th: Sacramento State University – Tanner Austin, El Dorado Hills, Calif., and Ethan Clark, Elk Grove, Calif., 10 bass, 22-4
10th: Humboldt State University – Tristan Merlaud, Sebastopol, Calif., and Rudy Directo, Alpine, Calif., seven bass, 20-11
The FLW College Fishing Southern Conference Championship was hosted by the Konocti Vista Casino Resort & Marina.
FLW College Fishing teams compete in qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top fifteen teams from each regular-season tournament will qualify for one of five Conference Championship tournaments. The top ten teams from each of the five Conference Championship tournaments will advance to the 2016 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university.
ABOUT FLW
FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2015 over the course of 240 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.
By: Joe Opager, Director of Public Relations
