FLW College Fishing is headed to Lake Shasta Feb. 20 for the first of three regular-season stops in the Western Conference. A full field of college teams will be competing for a top award of $2,000 and a berth in the FLW College Fishing National Championship.
“Lake Shasta is a world class spotted bass fishery and I think the college anglers are going to be hitting it at just the right time,” said Walmart FLW Tour pro Charlie Weyer of West Hills, California, who has eight career top-10 finishes in FLW competition. “The spotted bass are coming up and starting to stage and I would be surprised to see a few 20- to 25-pound limits of spots weighed in this event.”
Weyer said that he believes the winning team will most likely be fishing in the Sacramento River arm, or the main lake. He said that limits of bass would be plentiful on a variety of baits, but the big fish would most likely come via swimbaits and umbrellas rigs.
“Shaky-head and drop-shot rigs, darters, football jigs and jerkbaits are all going to catch a lot of fish, but I think the winning team will be throwing an umbrella rig or swimbaits.”
Weyer predicted that the winner would likely weigh in between 18 to 20 pounds.
Anglers will take off from Bridge Bay Resort located at 10300 Bridge Bay Road in Redding, California, at 7:15 a.m. PST Saturday. Weigh-in will be held at the marina beginning at 1:30 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 Shasta Lake tournament, which is hosted by the Redding Convention & Visitors Bureau, include:
California Polytechnic State University – Johan Eide, Sebastopol, Calif., and Colton Farquer, Oakdale, Calif.
California State University – Cole Thomas, Lakewood, Calif., and Via Thao, Long Beach, Calif.
California State University-Chico – Andrew Loberg, Rocklin, Calif., and Travis Bounds, Roseville, Calif.
California State University-Chico – Carson Leber, Dixon, Calif., and Lucas Boxwell, Auburn, Calif.
California State University-Chico – David Griswold, Oroville, Calif., and Jeremy Andreasen, Chico, Calif.
California State University-Chico – Jakob Conlan and Frank Tomasello, both of Morgan Hill, Calif.
California State University-Chico – Travis Strain and Sean Huber, both of Chico, Calif.
Humboldt State University – Joseph Schiavoni, Fairfield, Calif., and Alex Robbins, Novato, Calif.
Humboldt State University – Drew White, Auburn, Calif., and Graeme Lock, La Crescenta, Calif.
Humboldt State University – Tristan Merlaud, Sebastopol, Calif., and Rudy Directo, Alpine, Calif.
California State University-Sacramento – Jeff Taluban, Salinas, Calif., and Daniel Rodriguez, Selma, Calif.
California State University-Sacramento – Gerardo Reyna, Colusa, Calif., and Edward Worden, Shasta Lake, Calif.
California State University-Sacramento – O’Shea Bennett and Christian Bennett, both of Rocklin, Calif.
California State University-Sacramento – Tanner Austin, El Dorado Hills, Calif., and Ethan Clark, Elk Grove, Calif.
FLW College Fishing teams compete in regular-season qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top 10 teams from each regular-season tournament 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.
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About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2016 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 235 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico and South Korea. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros.
By: Joe Opager, Director of Public Relations
