FLW College Fishing is headed to Lake Champlain July 20 for the third of four stops in the Northern Conference. Fifty college teams will be competing for a top award of $2,000 and a berth in the Northern Conference Invitational tournament.
Champlain’s plentiful smallmouth and largemouth make it a favorite tournament stop for many anglers, but it presents a unique conundrum for the college anglers.
“Usually in June and July largemouth win, and in August and September smallmouth win. This tournament is right at the end of July, so it’s kind of in that transition period,” said Straight Talk pro J.T. Kenney of Palm Bay, Fla., who won the Lake Champlain EverStart series tournament in 2012.
“In the area of the lake that is open to the college anglers, I would target smallmouth,” said Kenney. “They’re just going to be getting done spawning, so I’d be targeting the rocky flats in 8 to 10 feet of water. They’ve had so much rain lately, and it needs to get really hot up there before the smallmouth will go really deep.”
Kenney said that topwater frogs, jigs, vibrating jigs and Senkos would be key baits for largemouth, while smallmouth would be caught on tubes, spinnerbaits and jerkbaits. He estimates that the tournament will be won with 17 to 18 pounds.
Anglers will take off from the Dock Street Landing located at 5 Dock Street in Plattsburgh, N.Y., at 6:30 a.m. Saturday. Weigh-in will be held at the landing beginning at 12:30 p.m. Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public.
Schools competing in the Lake Champlain tournament, which is hosted by the City of Plattsburgh and the Adirondack Coast Visitors Bureau, include:
| Bowling Green State University | Kane Godfrey, Marysville, Ohio, and Jason Scott, Perrysburg, Ohio |
| Bryant University | Ian Woodsinger, Smithfield, R.I., and Chris Cammarata, Canton, Mass. |
| Castleton State College | Dan Infurna, Fair Haven, Vt., and Patrick Infurna, Fair Haven, Vt. |
| Centenary College | Evan Miles, West Orange, N.J., and Scott Catton, Blairstown, N.J. |
| Central Michigan | Hayden Gosen, Mount Pleasant, Mich., and Will Sprague, Hastings, Mich. |
| Christopher Newport University | Cody Griffey, Carrollton, Va. and Charlie Hill, Ashburn, Va. |
| Fairmont State University | Ryan Houser, Morgantown, W.V., and Andrew Walker, Fairmont, W.V. |
| Glenville State College | Brandon Abbott, Glandeeville, W.V., and Nick Lambert, Oceana, W.V. |
| Grand Valley State | Scott Taege, Algonquin, Ill., and Matt Smartt, St. Clair Shores, Mich. |
| Hamden-Sidney College | Braxton Elliott, Appomatox, Va., and Tyler Wolfe, Powatan, Va. |
| Harvard University | Manuel Cominsky, Utica, N.Y., and Brian Dominianni, Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. |
| Kent State University | Justin May, Kent, Ohio, and Nicholas Belluardo, Kent, Ohio |
| Kent State University | Matthew Fernandez, Dallas, Pa., and Jennifer Newman, South Amherst, Ohio |
| La Roche College | Jonathan Coholich, Allison Park, Pa., and Richard Smith, Cheswick, Pa. |
| Lake Erie College | Miles Iverson, Madison, Ohio, and Tyler Law, Madison, Ohio |
| Lake Superior State University | Brian Perkins, Glennie, Mich., and Jake Crawford, Kalkaska, Mich. |
| Lake Superior State University | Nate Sleight, Beaverton, Mich., and Nick Dion, Essexville, Mich. |
| Liberty University | George Amedore, Schenectady, N.Y., and Anthony Amedore, Schenectady, N.Y. |
| Longwood University | Christopher Hubert, Virginia Beach, Va., and Greg Ewing, Bristow, Va. |
| Mansfield University | Bryan Rupp, Mansfield, Pa., and Matt Novitski, Mansfield, Pa. |
| Northwood University | Zach Lowe, Huntington Woods, Mich., and Travis Riedel, Falmouth, Mich. |
| Ohio State | Brett Warrick, Westerville, Ohio, and Tom Csepe, Norton, Ohio |
| Ohio State University | Dan Burtenshaw, Athens, Ohio, and Matt Tarr, Athens Ohio |
| Penn State | Seth Baker, State College, Pa., and Nikko Tzitzifas, Wenonah, N.J. |
| Penn State | Stephen Tull, Media, Pa., and Joshua Shaffer, Bloomsburg, Pa. |
| Radford University | George Fleming, Lorton, Va., and Tanner Blanks, Radford, Va. |
| Ramapo College | Joseph Zapf, Whippany, N.J., and Andrew Zapf, Whippany, N.J. |
| Ramapo College | Jeff Voss, Secaucus, N.J., and Michael Concato, Wayne, N.J. |
| RIT | Jason Karol, Rochester, N.Y., and Thomas Leonard, Rochester, N.Y. |
| Rutgers University-New Brunswick/Piscataway | Brent Newton, Denville, N.J., and Miles Kong, Rockaway, N.J. |
| Shippensburg University | Kevin Hollasch, Marriottsville, Md., and Hunter Chamberlin, Shippensburg, Pa. |
| Slippery Rock University | Tyler Lonchar, Clinton, Pa., and Corey Randour, Washington, Pa. |
| Springfield College | Daniel Patane, Canastota, N.Y., and Tyler Reid, Dighton, Mass. |
| SUNY-Canton | Anthony Carden, Franklin, Mass., and Steve Novak, Seymour, Conn. |
| SUNY-Plattsburgh | Brendan Bolis, Canton, N.Y., and Richard Lee, Port Kent, N.Y. |
| SUNY-Plattbsurgh | Nicole Eddy, Manlius, N.Y., and Mark Rexford, Waterbury, Vt. |
| SUNY-Buffalo | Simon Turkin, North Woodmere, N.Y., and Daniel Vyverberg, Rochester, N.Y. |
| University of Akron | Christian Combs, Clinton, Ohio, and Brenton Casto, Massillon, Ohio |
| University of Connecticut | Grant Cunningham, Unionville, Conn., and Ryan Styrczula, Unionville, Conn. |
| Vermont Technical College | Ben Cayer, Bethel, Vt., and William Waite, Hartland, Vt. |
| Virginia Commonwealth | Alex Wilkins, Richmond, Va., and Cody Johnson, Chesterfield, Va. |
| Virginia Tech | Gregory Callas, Centreville, Va., and John Woodward, Blacksburg, Va. |
| Wayne State University | Zac Zernec, Ortonville, Mich., and Jonathan Stroud, Saline, Mich. |
| West Point | Matt Savage, West Point, N.Y., and James Tyler, Madison, Ala. |
| West Point | Nick Koop, West Point, N.Y., and David Collins, West Point, N.Y. |
| West Virginia University | Corey Straight, Barrackville, W.V., and Benjamin Ray, Morgantown, W.V. |
| Western Michigan | Tyler Havenaar, Kalamazoo, Mich., and Derek Miller, Coldwater, Mich. |
| Xavier University | Austin Glascoe, Nashville, Tenn., and Andrew Decilles, Batesville, Ind. |
| Youngstown State University | Zachary Alcorn, New Philadelphia, Ohio, and Charles Cremeans, Youngstown, Ohio |
Three regular-season qualifying events are held in each conference Central, Northern, Southeastern, Texas and Western. The top 15 teams from each qualifying tournament will advance to one of five two-day FLW College Fishing Conference Invitational tournaments, where the first-place team wins $4,000 for their club. The top 10 teams from each Conference Invitational advance to the 2014 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time undergraduate students at a four-year college or university and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university.For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow College Fishing on Facebook at Facebook/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter/FLWFishing. Visit the CollegeFishing website to sign up or to start a club at your school.
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 2013 over the course of 220 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. FLW is committed to providing a lifestyle experience that is the “Best in Fishing, On and Off the Water.” For more information about FLW visit the FLWOutdoors website and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube.By: Jody White, Communications Specialist / FLW Outdoors
