“We’ve never won an event this big,” said Hurst. “Right now, I feel amazing. We didn’t get much practice in before this event. The first time that we got to fish on the lake was yesterday. And we didn’t find much in practice. But, we did find the spot that we fished today and it turned out great.”
The spot that Hurst referred to was a 500-yard stretch of grassline that the Tennessee duo covered methodically with Bill Lewis Rat-L-Traps, a pattern that they also discovered in practice yesterday.
“We tried everything during our practice,” Hurst continued. “We were flipping and pitching, and when we didn’t catch any we tried deep cranking. We ended up catching our only two keepers in practice on the Rat-L-Trap, so that’s what we decided to use during the tournament.”
“The bite really turned on after the fog lifted around noon today,” Minnich added. “We fished our key stretch this morning, but only caught two. When we went back after the fog, it was hot. I caught a 5-pounder and while I was boating mine, Parker caught a 5-pounder. Then we followed it up with a big 6- and 7-pounder and we knew we had something special. Every fish we caught came on the red Rat-L-Trap.”
The victory was extra special for the Volunteer Bass Club, as both Minnich and Hurst are senior Wildlife and Fisheries Management majors and neither have qualified for an FLW College Fishing Invitational event in their career.
“We can’t wait for the Invitational on Chickamauga,” said Minnich went on to say. “It’s going to be our first shot to qualify for the national championship and it’s right in our backyard. We only live about 40 minutes from Chick, and you can bet we will be ready.”
The top 15 teams that advanced to the Southeastern Conference Invitational tournament are:
1st: University of Tennessee Jackson Minnich and Parker Hurst both Knoxville, Tenn. five bass 24-8 $2,000
2nd: University of North Alabama Dawson Lenz, Peachtree City, GA.and Evan HorneFlorence, Ala. five bass 20-14 $1,000
3rd: University of Florida Shelby Concon, Fruitland Park,Fla. and Kyle Smith, Macclenny, three bass 20-10 $500
4th: University of West Georgia Kenny Johnson, Newnan, Ga., and Bradley Rilling Fayetteville, Ga. five bass 20-2 $500
5th: Southern Polytechnic State University Grant Kelly, McDonough, Ga., and Daniel Harkness, Thomasville, Ga. five bass 19-7 $500
6th: University of Alabama Keith Kirkley, Northport, Ala., and Frankie Appaluccio, Tuscaloosa, Ala. three bass 18-6)
7th: Western Carolina University Austin Neary, Cullowhee, N.C., and Zack Hicks, Cherokee, N.C. five bass 17-10
8th: Tennessee Tech University Joe Ellis and Matthew Townson Chattanooga, Tenn. three bass 14-1
9th: Auburn University-Montgomery Tyler Strock, Slapout, Ala., and Dalton Darnell, Millbrook, Ala. four bass 11-12
10th: Georgia Southern University Cody Shepherd and Luke Greenwell Statesboro, Ga. four bass 11-8
11th: Mississippi State Taylor Odom, Meridian, Miss., and Josh Cameron, New Orleans, La. four bass 10-8
12th: University of Central Florida Patrick Teaf, Tallahassee, Fla., and Chad Bass, Orlando, Fla. three bass 10-3
13th: Valdosta State University Michael Harback and Taylor Minick, Valdosta, Ga. five bass 8-9
14th: Seminole State College Michael Skat, Sanford, Fla., and Phillip Heyde, South Bend, Ind. five bass 7-2
15th: University of Florida Grant Bergeron, Longwood, Fla., and Stephen Carlisle, Gainesville, Fla. two bass 6-15
Three regular-season qualifying events are held in each conference Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southern and Western. The top 15 teams from each qualifying tournament will advance to one of five two-day FLW College Fishing Conference Invitational tournaments, where the first-place team wins $4,000 for their club. The top 10 teams from each Conference Invitational 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.
The next FLW College Southeastern Conference qualifying tournament is scheduled for March 1 at Clarks Hill Lake in Appling, Ga., and is hosted by the Columbia County Board of Commissioners.
For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow College Fishing on Facebook at Facebook/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter/FLWFishing. Visit the CollegeFishing website to sign up or to start a club at your school.
ABOUT FLW
FLW is the industry’s 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. FLW is committed to providing a lifestyle experience that is the “Best in Fishing, On and Off the Water.” For more information about FLW visit the FLWOutdoors website and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube.
By: Joe Opager, Director of Public Relations
