The University of Wisconsin-Platteville team of Colby Peterson of Waupun, Wisconsin, and Aaron Gohla of Houlton, Wisconsin, won the FLW College Fishing Central Conference event on the Mississippi River Saturday with five bass weighing 14 pounds, 8 ounces. The victory earned the club $2,000 and advanced the team to the 2017 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
“If we hadn’t qualified for the National Championship, today would’ve been my last college fishing tournament,” said Gohla, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering. “It was a great day and I hope this win gets the club some more recognition. It’s great exposure for our school.”
“We held our own out there, but never expected to win,” said Peterson, a senior majoring in industrial technology management. “We’re two of our club’s oldest members so I guess it was our turn.”
The team said they spent their day in Pool No. 9 scouring a 300-yard stretch of weedline near Lynxville. They said they caught all of their keepers between 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. using two different baits.
“The weedline had a deep edge and a strong current running near it,” said Gohla. “I used a black and blue-colored Yamamoto Senko with a ¼-ounce weight. Colby (Peterson) threw a black and blue Berkley Havoc Pit Boss and caught our heaviest largemouth around 9:15 a.m.”
The duo said they ended up weighing in three largemouth and two smallmouth bass.
“The smallmouth came from a 30-yard stretch where the current was hitting the edge hard,” said Peterson. “We kept our lines tight and kept working the baits back toward us. It was tough to gauge how deep the fish were because of the drop-off. The stretch was basically a bend and we fished the outside of it.”
After two passes along the weedline, Gohla said they made their way back to the takeoff ramp.
“We had to lock back down to Prairie du Chien at 11 a.m. due to all of the barge traffic,” said Gohla. “We only culled once and brought in what we had.”
The top 10 teams that advanced to the 2017 College Fishing National Championship are:
1st: University of Wisconsin-Platteville – Colby Peterson, Waupun, Wis., and Aaron Gohla, Houlton, Wis., five bass, 14-8, $2,000
2nd: Saint Ambrose University – Cole Atkinson and Tanner Atkinson, both of Camanche, Iowa, five bass, 13-13, $1,000
3rd: University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point – Max Hellmann, Woodstock, Ill., and Ty Woodward, Poynette, Wis., five bass, 13-6, $500
4th: University of Dubuque – Brian Goebel, Gratiot, Wis., and Austin Brimeyer, Dubuque, Iowa, five bass, 13-3, $500
5th: University of Wisconsin-Platteville – Grant Ehlenfeldt, New Richmond, Wis., and Brett Stanek, Elroy, Wis., five bass, 13-0, $500
6th: Winona State University – Wyatt Stout and Tayler Stolpa, both of Winona, Minn., five bass, 12-12
7th: University of Wisconsin – Jake Anderson, Princeton, Wis., and Bryce Smith, Madison, Wis., five bass, 12-12
8th: University of Illinois – Charlie Sterrett, Naperville, Ill., and Jordan Wolf, Homer, Ill.., five bass, 12-9
9th: Bemidji State University – Luke Gillund, Ham Lake, Minn., and Nickolas Retka, Little Falls, Minn., five bass, 12-2
10th: Kansas State University – Travis Blenn, Westmoreland, Kan., and Kyle Alsop, Overland Park, Kan., five bass, 11-3
This FLW College Fishing Central Conference event was hosted by the Prairie du Chien Area Chamber of Commerce/Tourism Council and was the third and final regular-season qualifying tournament in the Central conference. The next event for Central Conference anglers will be the FLW College Fishing National Championship, held early next spring on a lake yet to be announced.
FLW College Fishing teams compete in regular-season qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top 10 teams from each division’s three regular-season tournaments and the top 15 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2017 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a college fishing club.
About FLWFLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2016 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 235 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico and South Korea. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros.
By: Brian Johnson, FLW
