The Penn State team of Seth Baker and Jeremy Lake, won the final qualifying National Guard FLW College Fishing Northern Division event on Lake Erie Saturday with four bass weighing 8 pounds, 12 ounces. The victory earned the team $10,000 to be split evenly between the university and the university’s bass-fishing club. The win also helped them advance to the Northern Division Regional Championship where they could ultimately win a Ranger 177TR with a 90-horsepower engine wrapped in school colors for their school’s bass club and $25,000 for the school they represent.
“What a great experience,” said Seth Baker, a sophomore in Environmental Systems Engineering. “This was my first FLW Outdoors tournament and my first time fishing on Lake Erie, I can’t believe we won.
“We had prepared for fishing on the lake but when we got here learned that conditions wouldn’t permit us to go out on the lake so we had to make some adjustments. We went as close to the off limits mark as we could and targeted rock piles. I caught my largemouth using a Zoom 3 inch tube.”
Due to high winds teams were confined to Presque Isle Bay and Penn State was one of the teams that was able to adjust to the elements better than most. According to Baker the major adjustment they had to make was to the depths fished. They had planned to fish 25 to 30 feet of water, but instead fished 10 to 15 foot depths. They knew Erie was famous for its large smallmouth bass and came prepared to whack them using a drop-shot.
“I hadn’t really used the drop-shot before, but I knew I had to learn in a hurry once I got here,” said Jeremy Lake, a junior in Wildlife and Fisheries Science. “I just kept at it and was able to pull in two smallmouth and one largemouth. It was slow fishing but we were able to grind it out and hang on to the win.”
Rounding out the top five teams and also qualifying for the Northern Regional Championship are:
| 2nd: | Carnegie Mellon University | Ryan Buckheit and Paul Kimball, Jr. | three bass | 8-8 | $5,000 |
| 3rd: | Virginia Tech | Michael Freas and Wyatt Blevins | three bass | 6-11 | $4,000 |
| 4th: | Wayne State University | Peter Bommarita and Andrew Smith | two bass | 6-8 | $3,000 |
| 5th: | University of North Carolina, Charlotte | Joe Kinchen and Tyler Teer | two bass | 6-6 | $2,000 |
The National Guard FLW College Northern Regional Championship is scheduled for Nov. 11-13, at Jordan Lake in Raleigh, N.C. The three day tournament will be hosted by North Carolina State University and will be televised on VERSUS Dec. 19 from 12:30 to 1:30 EST.
Also qualifying for the Northern Regional were:
| Chestnut Hill College | John Reading and Adrian Avena |
| Christopher Newport | Ryan Ingalls and Joe Wilkerson |
| Fairmont State University | Wil Dieffenbauch and Brent Dodrill |
| Glenville State College | Dustin Vaughan and Andrew Darby |
| Messiah College | Daniel Poli and Louis Wenger |
| North Carolina State University | Jeff Bumgarner and Will White |
| North Carolina State University | Ben Dziwulski and Kevin Beverley |
| Radford University | Matthew Conners and Tyler Vaughn |
| Rensselaer | Mike Ahrens and Tom Cooley |
| Rensselaer | Jonathan Cummings and Steven Taylor |
| University of North Carolina, Charlotte | Tyler Beam and Eric Self |
| Vermont Technical College | Justin Brouillard and Ben Cayer |
| Virginia Tech | Jody White and Carson Rejzer |
| West Point | Justin Hunter and Hugh Clark |
| West Virginia University | Corey Straight and Corey Hill |
The top five teams from each regional championship will advance to the National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship. The National Championship is a three-day televised event hosting the top five teams from each regional, 25 total teams. Teams will be provided jerseys and wrapped Ranger boats towed by Chevy trucks for this competition.
College Fishing is free to enter, boats and drivers are provided by FLW Outdoors and all collegiate teams receive a travel allowance.
ABOUT FLW OUTDOORSFLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world offering anglers worldwide the opportunity to compete for millions over the course of 189 tournaments in 2010. For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.By: Julie Huber,
