The Oregon State University team of Zach MacDonald of Willits, Calif., and Zach Martinez of Linden, Calif., won the FLW College Fishing Western Conference tournament on the California Delta Saturday with a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 15 ounces. Their win qualified them for the 2014 Western Conference Invitational on Clear Lake.
“We started the day on a little tule point throwing vibrating jigs and spinnerbaits,” said MacDonald. “We caught a little one on the vibrating jig and then I caught our big one, a five-pounder, on the same bait within the first five minutes or so. Then the bite died down, so we moved and started throwing topwater frogs.”
The pair said that after their morning flurry they completed their limit and culled several times on topwater frogs along one stretch of water.
“The bite died for about two hours at the end of the day,” said Martinez. “The wind picked up a lot and the places we could fish got restricted. We caught about 10 bass all day, and we only lost a couple small ones that wouldn’t have helped our weight.”
“It felt good to win,” finished MacDonald. “We knew we had a good bag but we didn’t really expect to win when we pulled up to the marina. We’re definitely looking forward to the Invitational.”
MacDonald and Martinez said they caught most of their fish on a D&M Custom Baits Piranha Swim Jig and a Koppers Live Target Hollow Body Frog.
The top 15 teams that advanced to the 2014 FLW College Fishing Western Conference Invitational are:
1st: Oregon State University Zach MacDonald, Willits, Calif., and Zach Martinez, Linden, Calif. five bass 19-15 $2,000
2nd: Fresno State University Cory Kerber, Kerman, Calif., and Joseph Piedimonte, Salinas, Calif. five bass 18-0 $1,000
3rd: San Jose State University Patrick Friedman, San Jose, Calif., and Travis Bounds, Roseville, Calif. five bass 17-15 $500
4th: Oregon State University Chase Cochran, Corvallis, Ore., and Ryan Sparks, Gearhart, Ore. five bass 16-10 $500
5th: Eastern Washington University Cy Floyd, Wenatchee, Wash., and Tyler Wasilewski, Cheney, Wash. five bass 15-6 $500
6th: California State University-Chico Kevin Chen and Koulton Westbrook, both of Vacaville, Calif. five bass 15-1
7th: University of California-Santa Cruz Jason Coslovich, San Jose, Calif., and Tyler Brownell, Santa Cruz, Calif. five bass 15-0
8th: University of Nevada-Reno Brandon Cramer, Petaluma, Calif., and Anthony Milano, Reno, Nev. five bass 14-11
9th: Humboldt State University – Tristan Merlaud, Sedastopol, Calif., and Rudy Directo, Alpine, Calif. five bass 14-11
10th: Eastern Washington University Jarred Walker, Westerville, Ohio, and Nick Barr, Cheney, Wash. five bass 14-4
11th: California State University-Monterey Bay Andrew Sjostrom, Marina, Calif., and Matthew Diaz, Castroville, Calif. five bass 13-9
12th: California State University-Sacramento Greg and Jeff Taluban, both of Sacramento, Calif. five bass 12-10
13th: University of Nevada-Reno Jake Tessmann, Minden, Nev., and Bryce Yearman, Sparks, Nev. five bass 12-7
14th: California Polytechnic State University John Zeolla, Oak Park, Calif., and Kyle Greenlaw, San Luis Obispo, Calif. five bass 11-4
15th: Humboldt State University Christopher Childers, McKinleyville, Calif., and Erich Coulter, Arcata, Calif. five bass 11-1
FLW College Fishing teams compete in three qualifying events in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top 15 teams from each regular-season tournament will qualify for one of five conference invitational tournaments. The top 10 teams from each conference invitational tournament will advance to the 2015 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.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing. Visit the CollegeFishing website to sign up or to start a club at your school.
ABOUT FLW
FLW is the industrys premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2014 over the course of 229 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. For more information about FLW visit the FLWOutdoors website and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube.
By: Jody White, Communications Specialist, FLW Outdoors
