After weighing in over 160 teams on Day 1 of the 10th Anniversary BoatUS Collegiate Bass Championship Presented by Cabela’s, it was Oklahoma State University that rose to the top of the leaderboard with over 24lbs. In the midst of the changing weather, Northern Kentucky University and University of North Alabama were also able to find quality fish to sit in second and third place finish on Day 1.
The weather this week certainly challenged the teams’ preparations on and off the water, as most anglers prepare for a late May tournament in Alabama they would not think to pack heavy sweatshirts and jackets; however, as most collegiate anglers found out today, they should always expect the unexpected when it comes to tournament fishing.
This week in practice the anglers have seen rain one day, clear skies the next, and now we’re greeted by a cold front to start the morning of Day 1 that left most anglers confused about why they didn’t bring more clothes. As far as what happened to their practice patterns, Oklahoma State University was able to read the conditions and plan for the best.
Oklahoma State University Runs to the Top
With over a 9 hour drive from Stillwater, Oklahoma, Dustin Pendergraft and Michael Hall were in a whole new world of fishing in Pickwick Lake, a notorious fishery producing largemouth and smallmouth on ledges. The two planned on fishing the famous ledges, but quickly found that the timing just wasn’t right for a winning sack of fish to be out deep.
"The fishing was tougher than in years past. The fish are not out deep on the ledges like they have been for this tournament in previous years," said Pendergraft.
"The conditions on this lake were really unexpected with the high winds and still cool water temps," said Hall. "The fish haven’t been out deep yet so we’ve had to adjust."
The Oklahoma State team fished predominantly in the middle lake section, or "the ledge."
"We don’t have an established pattern, only key areas that are holding fish," added Pendergraft. "We used soft plastics to catch all of our fish."
The team was happy with their Day 1 finish with over 24.33lbs in that they were able to fish clean throughout the day and not miss or break off any fish and look forward to keeping their lead on Day 2.
Northern Kentucky University Sticks Second
With 23.4lbs weighed in on Day 1, Northern Kentucky sits in second on the leaderboard for the 10th Anniversary BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship Presented by Cabela’s. The team of Brandon Houston and Brandon Knapmeyer expected the rough cold front conditions, and was able to capitalize on the giant Pickwick bass that others could not.
"We expected the weather, but knew we could still catch fish because in this lake, there are fish everywhere," said Houston.
The weather did impact their day, however, due to severe wind in the morning that kept the anglers from reaching certain spots.
"The wind kept us from fishing some of the ledges we found fish on in practice, but we were able to find them in other ledges," said Knapmeyer.
The team caught their fish throwing big crankbaits, fishing them on ledges over 35 miles north of takeoff and will be back on Day 2 to repeat their Day 2 success.
University of North Alabama Sits in Third
The University of North Alabama team of Cody Harrison and Clint Fredrick are no strangers to Pickwick Lake as this is their home body of water, and it showed in their finish today with 21.94lbs.
"The conditions were a lot worse today than in practice – it was harder to find the fish and harder to stay in one spot with all the wind," said Harrison. "I thought it was going to be crowded and being boat 144 we thought it would be a struggle to get on our schools."
"We ran all the way to the Pickwick dam," said Fredrick. "We had a couple spots throughout our run, but we went all the way up. The lack of sun made it hard for everybody and the wind made it hard to stay on one spot."
The duo adjusted to the weather change by trying a different technique on the water.
"We caught them on crankbaits, which we hadn’t done at all in practice. We’ve been catching them on jigs and getting bigger fish in practice, but the cold front lack of current hurt the bite a bit. Hopefully the sun will help the bite tomorrow," added Harrison.
"We’re fishing nothing but ledges all week long. We hope to be the first spot up there tomorrow and get them all day long!" stated Fredrick.
By: Wade Middleton
