The Glenville State College team of Dustin Vaughan and Andrew Darby, won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Northern Division on Lake Champlain Saturday with six bass weighing 16 pound, 8 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 Northern 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’m shocked,” said Dustin Vaughan, a senior in Elementary Education. “Andrew and I just had an awesome day. We caught a bunch of fish all day long, I think we were able to actually cull three fish a piece. We had a good limit by 10 this morning. All of our keeper fish came on rocky points where we were drop-shotting Berkley Gulp Leeches.”
The team from Glenville State College learned their lesson after finishing in eighth place at last year’s event and were out for a little revenge today. They knew targeting buoys would produce a good limit. The wind wasn’t much of a factor early in the day, the team let the wind carry them within a 100 yard stretch but by early afternoon Vaughan said that it was tough just staying on the boat.
“This was just an amazing day,” said Andrew Darby, a freshman in Environmental Science. “My 2 1/2 pounder came when I was trying to untangle my line from a bird’s nest; my line was still dangling in the water and all of a sudden I felt a fish bite so I just started wrapping the line around my hand and finally Dustin was able to net it for me, it was pretty incredible.”
Rounding out the top five teams were Wayne State University – Peter Bommarito and Andrew Smith., (six bass, 16-1, $5,000); Radford University – Matthew Conners and Tyler Vaughn., (six bass, 15-12, $4,000); Virginia Tech – Jody White and Carson Rejzer., (six bass, 14-6, $3,000); University of North Carolina, Charlotte – Tyler Beam and Eric Self, (six bass, 13-11, $2,000).
The next National Guard FLW College Northern Division tournament is scheduled for Sept. 11, at Lake Erie in Erie, Pa. College Fishing is free to enter, boats and drivers are provided by FLW Outdoors and all collegiate teams receive a travel allowance.
The top five teams in each qualifying event advance to one of five televised three-day National Guard FLW College Fishing Regional Championships. The Northern Regional is scheduled for Nov. 11-13 at Jordan Lake and will be hosted by North Carolina State University.
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.
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,
