FLW College Fishing is headed to Grand Lake October 17-18 for the Southern Conference Championship tournament. Forty-five college teams have qualified for this event will be competing for a top award of $4,000 and a berth in the 2016 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
“The fish on Grand Lake are still in their summertime patterns at this point, but they’re going to be moving to the back of the creeks and into their fall patterns any time now,” said 2015 Walmart FLW Tour Rookie of the Year Zack Birge of Blanchard, Oklahoma, who has three career top-10 finishes on Grand Lake. “There are thousands upon thousands of shad back in the creeks already and I think a big wave of fish will be moving up very soon. It could definitely happen before this tournament.”
The Walmart Bass Fishing League (BFL) Super Tournament held on Grand Lake at the end of September saw a winning two-day total of 35 pounds, 11 ounces. Birge said that he expects the weights to be slightly higher for the college competitors.
“The weights were a little down on the first day of the BFL Super Tournament and you’ll most likely see a little more weight in this tournament,” Birge said. “If a team can catch 17 pounds a day it’ll most likely be enough to finish in the top 10 and qualify for the National Championship. Once those fish move up and start eating, though, we’ll start see a lot more of the 20-pound stringers.
“I think topwater baits will be the most popular choice among the college anglers,” Birge continued. “Traditionally, a bone-colored Heddon Zara Spook, Reaction Innovations Vixen or a 6th Sense Crush Dogma all produce real well in the fall. I also like throwing a buzzbait there, and I experimented with a frog a little bit before the BFL, just looking for something a little different. They were eating it fairly well.”
Birge had one other piece of advice for college anglers visiting Grand Lake – don’t burn a lot of gas.
“There are a million docks on the lake, and they all look good,” Birge went on to say. “However, the majority of the tournaments held on Grand go out of Martin Landing or the Wolf Creek ramp – that general area. If you fish those areas and don’t run very far, you’ll be around a ton of fish.”
Anglers will take off from Martin Landing, located at 26700 S. Highway 125, in Monkey Island, Oklahoma, at 7:30 a.m. CT each day. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at Martin Landing, beginning at 3:30 p.m. The top-15 teams will compete and weigh in on Sunday at Walmart, located at 2115 S. Main St., in Grove, at 4 p.m. All takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
Schools registered to compete in the Southern Conference Championship, which is hosted by the Grand Lake Association, include:
Angelo State University – Logan Clark, Marble Falls, Texas, and Blake Turner, Georgetown, Texas
Colorado Mesa University – Josh Worth, Grand Junction, Colo., and Kennedy Kinkade, Alpine, Utah
Dallas Baptist University – Chase Winston, Dallas, Texas, and Jacob Sepeda, Roby, Texas
Dallas Baptist University – Nathan Wood, Meadows of Dan, Va., and Trent Newman, Midlothian, Texas
Dallas Baptist University – Zackery Hines, Clyde, Texas, and Reed Foster, Combine, Texas
East Central University – Wyatt Smith, Depew, Okla., and Trevor Yates, Norman, Okla.
Henderson State University – Michael Gross, Gurdon, Ark., and Cobey Wingfield, Malvern, Ark.
Lamar University – Colby Ogden, Kountze, Texas, and Brandon Simoneaux, Bridge City, Texas
Lamar University – Quinton Evans, Orange, Texas, and Garrett Hilton, Beaumont, Texas
Louisiana State University – Jarod Hughes, St. Amant, La., and Darrell Henson Jr., Greenwell Springs, La.
Louisiana State University – Zack Remedies, Many, La., and Adam Gotangco, Lafitte, La.
Louisiana State University-Shreveport – James Kimbrough, Bossier City, La., and Jared Rascoe, Stonewall, La.
Louisiana Tech University – Austin Sepulvado, Calhoun, La., and Zachary Sparish, Robeline, La.
Nicholls State University – Jess Robertson, Houma, La., and Tyler Rivet, Raceland, La.
Nicholls State University – John Authement, Lockport, La., and Wesley Landry, Thibodaux, La.
Northeastern State University – Cody Metzger and Michael King, both of Wagoner, Okla.
Northwestern State University – John Ledet, Natchitoches, La., and Justin Cooper, Pelican, La.
Northwestern State University – Robert Lafitte and Bailey Walker, both of Many, La.
Southeastern Oklahoma State University – J.C. Thompson and Cory Johnson, both of Calera, Okla.
Southeastern Oklahoma State University – Dwight Camp, Talihina, Okla., and Jonathan Furlong, Bixby, Okla.
Southwestern Oklahoma State University – Mitchell Decker, Coweta, Okla., and Dalton Warrington, Thomas, Okla.
Stephen F. Austin State University – Shelby Hutchens, Spring, Texas, and Brian Blades, Terrell, Texas
Stephen F. Austin State University – Easton Heigley, Brookeland, Texas, and Hunter Price, Austin, Texas
Stephen F. Austin State University – John-Michael Brattlof and Zachary Thames, both of Tyler, Texas
Stephen F. Austin State University – Robert Lawson, Corrigan, Texas, and Matthew Anthony, Colleyville, Texas
Stephen F. Austin State University – Tyler Woods, Mansfield, Texas, and Robert Tweed, Round Rock, Texas
Tarleton State University – Jacob Beyer and Dakota Ebare, both of Stephenville, Texas
Tarleton State University – Marshall Hughes, Port Neches, Texas, and Tanner Crim, Devine, Texas
Texas A&M University – Evan Cook, La Porte, Texas, and Brennan Fertig, Medina, Texas
Texas A&M University – Garrett Mai, San Antonio, Texas, and Luke Domas, Orange, Texas
Texas A&M University – Garrett Nance, Pearland, Texas, and James Wittenborn, Haskell, Texas
Texas A&M University – Josh Bensema, Willis, Texas, and Matthew McArdle, College Station, Texas
Texas A&M University – Bradley Fleming, Magnolia, Texas, and Robert Vaughn, College Station, Texas
Texas A&M University-Galveston – Garrett Goettee, Tomball, Texas, and Hugh Keller, Houston, Texas
Texas A&M University-Kingsville – Clint Marek and Cody Garrett, Tomball, Texas
Texas A&M University-Texarkana – Jared Hunter, Texarkana, Texas, and Michael Moore, Antioch, Calif.
Texas A&M University-Texarkana – Josh Cole and Logan Byrd, both of Texarkana, Texas
Texas Christian University – Brogan Cooper, Sacramento, Calif., and Joseph Sanderson, Fort Worth, Texas
University of Arkansas – Travis Harriman, Huntsville, Ark., and Chaz Miller, Fayetteville, Ark.
University of Arkansas – Drew Porto, Colleyville, Texas, and Zachary Pickle, South Lake, Texas
University of Central Oklahoma– Brock Enmeier, Enid, Okla., and Colten Hutson, Edmond, Okla.
University of Central Oklahoma– Zach Holliday, Yukon, Okla., and Chris Zins, Oklahoma City, Okla.
University of Louisiana-Lafayette – Dustin Robichaux, Houma, La., and Ry Savoy, St. Martinsville, La.
University of Louisiana-Monroe – Brian Eaton, Monroe, La., and Tyler Craig, Frierson, La.
University of Oklahoma – Charles Vang, Tulsa, Okla., and Landon Dixon, Hinton, Okla.
FLW College Fishing teams compete in qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top fifteen teams from each regular-season tournament qualify for one of five Conference Championship tournaments. The top ten teams from each of the five Conference Championship tournaments will advance to the 2016 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 fishing club recognized by their college or university.
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 2015 over the course of 240 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.
By: Joe Henry
