The University of Tennessee team of Hunter Shults and Bradley Cooper, won the final qualifying National Guard FLW College Fishing Southeast Division event on Pickwick Lake Saturday with a six bass limit weighing 14 pounds, 13 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 Southeast 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.
“I am so pumped,” said Hunter Shults, an undecided freshman. “This was my first FLW Outdoors tournament and to qualify for the regional championship is so exciting.
“We caught both our big fish using a spinnerbait; Bradley and I used the exact same baits and I caught all largemouth and he caught all smallmouth, it was kind of amazing,” Shults added. “We tried some topwater baits early; we had the numbers but not the size so we adjusted pretty quickly and were able to bring in a limit.”
Temperatures dropped from the high 90s to mid to low 80s over the course of a week and Cooper believes that plus the pros fishing the lake all week added to the tough fishing conditions.
“I was pretty surprised by how slow the fishing was today,” said Bradley Cooper a junior in Logistics. “I was here fishing another tournament last weekend and we had a ton of bites, today we caught only eight keepers.”
Rounding out the top five teams and also qualifying for the Southeast Regional Championship are:
| 2nd: | Austin Peay | Chase Hunnell and Ethan Ingle | six bass | 13-14 | $5,000 |
| 3rd: | University of Florida | Travis Fledderman and Rhett Rampi | six bass | 13-10 | $4,000 |
| 4th: | Auburn University | Caleb Rodgers and Kyron Browning | six bass | 12-3 | $3,000 |
| 5th: | Lipscomb University | James Crague and Bobby Blackwell | six bass | 11-8 | $2,000 |
The National Guard FLW College Southeast Regional Championship is scheduled for Oct. 21-23, at Monroe Lake in Orlando, Fla. The three day tournament will be hosted by University of Central Florida and will be televised on VERSUS Nov. 21 from 12:30 to 1:30 EST.
Also qualifying for the Southeast Regional were:
| Auburn University | Shaye Baker and Jordan Lee |
| Florida Gulf Coast | Dew Underwood and Garrett Farmer |
| Freed-Hardeman University | Nathan Pirtle and Brad Martin |
| Georgia College | Jared Kutil and Josh Futch |
| Georgia Southern | Jed Thigpen and Wesley Maples |
| Kennesaw State University | Jake Akin and Thomas Frink |
| Lagrange College | Torre Pike and Ryan Wakenigg |
| Middle Tennessee State | Nolen Spencer and Tyler Barnes |
| Southern Polytechnic State University | Dustin Holland and Zachary Dixon |
| Tennessee Tech | Jonathan Cody Gass and Adam Goodwin |
| Troy University | Jeremy Knight and Connor Bedsole |
| University of Central Florida | Leonard Gordon and Miles (Sonar) Burghoff |
| University of Florida | Dennis Croyle and Travis Gates |
| University of Florida | Jake Gipson and Matthew Wercinski |
| University of South Carolina, Upstate | Michael Smith and David Scruggs |
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 OUTDOORS
FLW 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, call (270) 252-1000.By: Julie Huber,
