The Ramapo College team of Jeff Voss, Secaucus, N.J., and Joseph Zapf, Whippany, N.J., went wire to wire to win the National Guard FLW College Fishing Northern Division Regional championship hosted by Penn State University on Sayers Lake Saturday with four bass weighing 5 pounds, 4 ounces, for a three day total of 14 bass weighing 27-2. The team beat their closest competitor, Fairmont State University, by 7 pounds, 12 ounces. Teams were competing for a total award of $50,000 and a berth in the National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship.
“This is amazing,” said Zapf, a sophomore accounting major. “The feeling kept getting better and better with each fish we caught. Even with a five and a half pound lead we knew we couldn’t blank and with each fish we caught we felt better and better.
“We lost three fish today,” Zapf continued. “We had the opportunity to bring in another limit, but it just didn’t pan out. We were pretty upset about that but as it turned out we didn’t need them anyway.
As promised and after all the fish were weighed Voss and Zapf finally revealed that they were fishing an old road bed in the middle of the lake with black stick baits.
“I found the area when I was down for pre-practice,” said Voss, a junior information systems major. “Because it was an old road bed it just replenished itself every day. The one thing I found that they would bite on was a three-inch black Senko Worm. We tried some reaction baits on the first day but couldn’t get anything to bite so we stuckwith the stick bait for the rest of the week.
“Joe and I were fishing side by side for most of the tournament. We tried a few different things but nothing worked except dragging the bottom with a worm so we both decided to do it and we both kept catching fish.
Indicating that the morning bite was definitely better than the afternoon bite both anglers agreed that slowing down was also key to their victory.
Rounding out the top five teams and also qualifying for the 2012 National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship are:
| 2nd: | Fairmont State University | Wil Dieffenbauch, Hundred W. Va., and Brent Dodrill, Fairmont, Va. | 10 bass | 19-6 | $10,000 |
| 3rd: | Virginia Tech | Wyatt Blevins, Pulaski, Va., and Carson Rejzer, Hampton, Va. | 10 | 17-6 | $5,000 |
| 4th: | Rampo College | Charles Danza, Ringwood, N.J., and Bob Rieder, West Milford, N.J. | 11 bass | 16-1 | $5,000 |
| 5th: | Christopher Newport | Ryan Ingalls, Fairfax, Va., and Derek Berhalter, Farnham, Va. | 8 bass, | 12-6, | $5,000 |
Overall there were 13 bass weighing 18 pounds, 11 ounces caught by five teams.
Teams were fishing for a top award of $50,000 to be split between the university and the university’s bass fishing club – $12,500 and a Ranger 177TR with a 90-horsepower outboard wrapped in school colors for the bass club and $12,500 for their school.
The top five teams from each of the five regional tournaments will advance to the national championship where the first-place team will win a top award of $100,000; $25,000 for their school and $50,000 cash and a Ranger 177TR bass boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard wrapped in school colors for their fishing club.
Jerry Roberts, Ringgold, Va., and Tanner Blanks, South Boston, Va., from George Washington High won the High School Northern Regional tournament held on Sayers Lake Saturday, Sept. 3. TBF along with FLW Outdoors held the high school tournament in conjunction with the FLW College Fishing Northern Regional.
The team representing the state of Virginia had four bass weighing 8 pounds, 4 ounces to beat Chariho Regional High School by 4 pounds, 9 ounces. The winning team will advance to the 2012 High School Fishing National Championship for a chance to win a $10,000 scholarship ($5,000 to each team member).
“We had a pretty tough day,” said Blanks. “We really had to take our time and fish real deep. We were fishing between 10 and 25 feet using black flake and green pumpkin wacky Senkos and drop -shotting.
“This feels real good,” Blanks added.
“I want to for sure go to a school that has a bass fishing club, hopefully Virginia Tech,” said Roberts. “This is so cool.
“We were catching about one fish an hour,” Roberts went on to say. “It was slow and we really had to grind it out.”
State champions from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia were invited to compete.
Rounding out the teams were:
| 2nd: | Chariho Regional High School | Lowell Turner III, Bradford, R.I., and John Ryan, Hope Valley, R.I., | 2 bass | 3-11 |
| 3rd: | West Side High School | Henry Schomaker, Pineville, W. Va., and Phillip Browning, Cyclone, W. Va., | 1 bass, | 2-15 |
| 4th: | South Burlington High School, | Jamison Gott, Georgia, Vt., and Ben Seaman, Colchester, Vt. | 1 bass, | 2-4 |
| 5th: | Plattsburgh Senior High School, | Marshall Maynard, Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Jeremey Barber, Plattsburgh, N.Y., | 1 bass, | 1-5 |
| 6th: | H.C. Wilcox Technical School | Justin and Alia Dingle, South Meriden, CT, | 0 bass | 0-0 |
The winning team was determined by the heaviest weight for a maximum of five bass. The winning team from each of five regional championships advances to 2012 High School Fishing National Championship.
Coverage of the FLW College Northern Regional Championship will be broadcast in high-definition (HD) on VERSUS. “FLW Outdoors,” will air Nov. 6 from 1 – 2 p.m. ET. “FLW Outdoors,” hosted by Jason Harper, is broadcast to approximately 500 million households worldwide.
College Fishing is free to enter and FLW Outdoors provides boats and drivers for each competing team along with travel allowances. 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.
ABOUT FLW OUTDOORS
FLW Outdoors is the best in fishing, on and off the water. Anglers worldwide can compete for millions over the course of 191 tournaments in 2011. FLW Outdoors has taken fishing mainstream with the world’s richest fantasy sports game, FLW Fantasy Fishing presented by Straight Talk, where competitors can play for free as well as sign up for Player’s Advantage to gain an edge. For more information about FLW Outdoors and FLW Fantasy Fishing, visit the FLWOutdoors or the FantasyFishing websitesBy: Julie Huber,
