FLW College Fishing is headed to Smith Mountain Lake May 9 for the first of three regular-season stops in the Northern Conference. A full field of college teams will be competing for a top award of $2,000 and a berth in the Northern Conference Championship tournament.
“Smith Mountain Lake always fishes well this time of year,” said Walmart pro David Dudley, of Lynchburg, Virginia. “Fish are spawning and postspawn so there’s opportunities for anglers to utilize an array of techniques.”
Dudley said the winners will primarily focus on the upper end of the Blackwater and Roanoke River arms.
“In the morning competitors are going to find a strong shad bite. The shad are spawning, so anglers who can imitate them the best are going to find bass who are feeding. Sight-fishing will also come into play. The water is fairly clear and some fish will still be on the beds even though they are well into the spawning phase.
“Fishing under and between docks will be a huge factor as well. Docks produce all season long on Smith Mountain,” continued Dudley. “This is where the anglers who are willing to try different techniques in a one-day tournament will excel.”
Dudley said wacky-rigged worms and shad-colored Heddon Zara Spooks will be favored by anglers in the morning while green- pumpkin jigs and natural-colored shaky-head rigs will produce better in the afternoon.
“With the lake fishing as good as it is right now, I could see the winners bringing between 18 and 19 pounds to the scale,” Dudley said. “Whoever splits their time most efficiently between the shad bite and flipping docks is going to come out on top.”
Anglers will take off from the Parkway Marina ramp located at 16918 Smith Mountain Lake Parkway in Huddleston at 6:30 a.m. Saturday. Weigh-in will be held at the marina beginning at 2:30 p.m. Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public.
Schools are allowed to register up until the morning of the tournament. Entries may be made either by phone or at CollegeFishing.com. Schools currently registered to compete in the Smith Mountain Lake tournament, which is hosted by the Bedford Tourism & Welcome Center, include:
Carnegie Mellon University – Eric Bykowsky, Columbia, S.C., and Ro Reynolds, Lutherville, Md.
Central Michigan University – Brandon Carman, Remus, Mich., and Hayden Gosen, Sanford, Mich.
Christopher Newport – Tanner Knecht, Fredericksburg, Va., and Taylor Godsey, Chester, Va.
Fairmont State University – Landon Paul and Ryan Houser, both of Fairmont, W.Va.
Mansfield University – Alec Engleman, Milton, Pa., and Bryan Rupp, Archbald, Pa.
Ohio State University – Jeremy McLaughlin, Wheelersburg, Ohio and Kain Fadeley, New Philadelphia, Ohio
Ohio State University – Tom Csepe, Copley, Ohio, and Sidney Hoover, Findlay, Ohio
Penn State University – Anthony Kashiwsky, Aliquippa, Pa., and Ben Barcaskey, Moon Township, Pa.
Penn State University – Sean Cummins, Huntington, Pa., and Maurice Hudson, Broomall, Pa.
Ramapo College – Marc Concato, Wayne, N.J. and Andrew Zapf, Whippany, N.J.
Ramapo College – Mike Concato, Clifton, N.J., and Andrew Annuzzi, Oldbridge, N.J.
Rhode Island Institute of Technology – Jason Karol and John Henderson, both of Rochester, N.Y.
Roanoke College – Joe Maciejewski, Virginia Beach, and Cullen Cash, Salem, Va.
Shepherd University – Chance Younker, Hagerstown, Md., and Brock Dinch, Bowie, Md.
Slippery Rock University – Gage Schilling, Hermitage, Pa., and Billy Hines, Erie, Pa.
Slippery Rock University – Kyle Brown, Wexford, Pa. and Tyler Sheppard, Hermitage, Pa.
State University of New York – Caleb Konrad, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Lukas Matt, Syracuse, N.Y.
University of Southern Maine – Peter Kyros, Falmouth, Maine, and Nick Deering, Portland, Maine
Virginia Commonwealth University – Alexander Miller and Donnie Miller, both of Midlothian, Va.
Virginia Tech University – Dylan Cooper and Cory Fox, Both of Luray, Va.
West Liberty University – Karissa Duke and Alex Vannest, both of Wheeling, W.V.
Xavier University – Alex Vaisvil, Saint Charles, Ill., and Stephen Todd, Cary, Ill.
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
