The East Central University team of Wyatt Smith of Depew, Oklahoma, and Trevor Yates of Norman, Oklahoma, won the FLW College Fishing Southern Conference event on the Red River Saturday with five bass weighing 16 pounds even. The victory earned the club $2,000 and advanced the team to the FLW College Fishing Southern Conference Championship tournament.
“This win is a major step forward for our club,” said Smith, a junior majoring in Environmental Health and Safety. “It’s going to give us more notoriety and hopefully help attract more anglers to the program.”
“We had a pretty tough practice,” said Yates, a freshman majoring in Business Marketing. “But, we were able to find an area in Pool No. 4 that we were confident in so we decided to hit it during the tournament.”
“For a while we were the only ones dissecting the area,” said Smith. “I caught a decent keeper on a green-pumpkin Gene Larew Biffle Bug around 9:30 a.m. We couldn’t figure out any patterns, so we junk-fished around wood just trying to find more bites.”
Smith said the duo’s primary baits were a black Spro Frog and a black and blue V&M Jig with a craw trailer.
“I think we won because we fished slower,” said Yates. “We knew the fish were going to be finicky because of the cold front that came in last weekend. We also chose to throw a frog in the muddy water, which is unconventional.”
The top 15 teams that advanced to the Southern Conference Championship tournament on Grand Lake are:
1st: East Central University – Wyatt Smith, Depew, Okla., and Trevor Yates, Norman, Okla., five bass, 16-0, $2,000 Club Scholarship
2nd: Dallas Baptist University – Jacob Sepeda, Roby, Texas, and Chase Winston, Dallas, Texas, five bass, 14-13, $1,000 Club Scholarship
3rd: Nicholls State University – Jess Robertson, Houma, La., and Tyler Rivet, Raceland, La., five bass, 13-1, $500 Club Scholarship
4th: Texas Christian University – Brogan Cooper, Sacramento, Calif., and Joseph Sanderson, Fort Worth, Texas, five bass,12-13, $500 Club Scholarship
5th: Tarleton State University – Dakota Ebare and Jacob Beyer, both of Stephenville, Texas, five bass, 12-11, $500 College Club Scholarship
6th: University of Arkansas – Chaz Miller, Fayetteville, Ark., and Travis Harriman, Huntsville, Ark., five bass, 12-5
7th: Dallas Baptist University – Trent Newman, Midlothian, Texas, and Nathan Wood, Meadows of Dan, Va., five bass, 12-3
8th: Nicholls State University – John Authement, Lockport, La., and Wesley Landry, Thibodaux, La., five bass, 12-3
9th: Stephen F. Austin University – Robert Tweed, Round Rock, Texas, and Tyler Woods, Mansfield, Texas, five bass, 11-12
10th: Texas A&M University – Evan Cook, La Porte, Texas, and Brennan Fertig, Medina, Texas, five bass, 11-6
11th: Northwestern State University – Justin Cooper, Pelican, La., and John Ledet, Robeline, La., five bass, 11-6
12th: Northwestern State University – Robert LaFitte and Bailey Walker, both of Many, La., five bass, 11-3
13th: Stephen F. Austin University – John-Michael Brattlof, Nacogdoches, Texas, and Zachary Thames, Mont Belvieu, Texas, five bass, 11-1
14th: University of Oklahoma – Charles Vang, Norman, Okla., and Landon Dixon, Hinton, Okla., five bass, 10-15
15th: University of Louisiana-Monroe – Brian Eaton, Monroe, La., and Tyler Craig, Frierson, La., five bass, 10-12
This FLW College Fishing Southern Conference event was the third and final regular-season qualifying tournament. The next event for Southern Conference anglers is the Southern Conference Championship, scheduled for Oct. 17-18 on Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma.
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: Brian Johnson, FLW
