The Murray State University team of Clayton Trueblood of Petersburg, Illinois, and Nick Montilino of Edina, Minnesota, won the YETI FLW College Fishing event at Kentucky and Barkley Lakes presented by Berkley on Saturday with a five-bass limit weighing 21 pounds, 7 ounces. The victory earned the Racers bass club $2,000 and a spot in the 2019 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
“We had planned to spend the day fishing inside the Kentucky Dam Marina, but we made a last minute call to make a run and fish the north end of Lake Barkley,” said Trueblood, a sophomore majoring in agricultural business.
“We decided to go to Barkley for two reasons – one, there was another local tournament going on with around 250 boats, so there was quite a bit of pressure on Kentucky Lake,” said Montilino, a junior majoring in business administration. “The second reason is because the water was a little dirtier on Barkley. The water is very clear on Kentucky Lake right now and it is hard to get any bites flipping.”
The Murray State duo said that they targeted bushes in creek channels running into the main bays. They caught only six keepers throughout the day on Texas-rigged black and blue-colored Strike King Rage Bugs, pegged with 3/8-ounce weights.
“It happened fast – within the first hour and a half on the water,” said Trueblood. “We thought we had around 17 pounds and we assumed that we needed one more big bite to earn the win, but we were shocked when the scale read 21 pounds.”
“The key for us was fishing clean,” Montilino said. “We didn’t miss any fish and landed every one of our bites – that was huge with only six bites all day long.”
The top 10 teams on Kentucky Lake that advanced to the 2019 College Fishing National Championship are:
1st: Murray State University – Clayton Trueblood, Petersburg, Ill., and Nick Montilino, Edina, Minn., five bass, 21-7, $2,000
2nd: Murray State University – Peyton Porter, Gilbertsville, Ky., and Micah Chessor, Paducah, Ky., five bass, 18-7, $1,400
3rd: Campbellsville University – Mason Sapp, Campbellsville, Ky., and Tray Hardwick, Monticello, Ky., five bass, 16-3, $500
4th: Murray State University – Jordan Hartman, Murray, Ky., and Will Gentry, Utica, Ky., four bass, 12-12, $750
5th: Southern Illinois University – Jake Wagner and Kyle Wagner, both of Waterloo, Ill., four bass, 12-12, $500
6th: Murray State University – Adam Puckett and Blake Albertson, both of Bloomington, Ind., three bass, 12-9, $200
7th: Purdue University – Zach Zanders and Chanler Fleetwood, Vallonia, Ind., three bass, 12-2
8th: Southeast Missouri State University – Luke Brozovich, Minooka, Ill., and Andrey Atkeson, Fredericktown, Mo., four bass, 12-0
9th: University of Missouri – Tyler Beckerman and Ethan Wallace, both of Columbia, Mo., four bass, 11-6
10th: Indiana State University – Cody Will, Teutopolis, Ill., and Jordan Nauert, Fillmore, Ind., three bass, 11-6
The YETI FLW College Fishing event at Kentucky and Barkley Lakes presented by Berkley was hosted by the Kentucky Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, and was the first of three regular-season qualifying tournaments for Central Conference anglers in 2018. The next YETI FLW College Fishing event takes place May 5, when Southeastern Conference anglers compete at the YETI FLW College Fishing event at Lake Chickamauga presented by Bass Pro Shops in Dayton, Tennessee.
YETI FLW College Fishing teams compete in three regular-season qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top ten teams from each division’s three regular-season tournaments and the top 20 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2019 FLW College Fishing National Championship. Additional teams will qualify for the National Championship if the field size in regular-season events exceeds 100 boats.
The 2018 FLW College Fishing National Championship will take place May 30-June 1 on the Red River in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission & Red River Waterway Commission.
YETI FLW 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 that is recognized by their school.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com.
About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2018 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW and their partners conduct 286 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa and Spain. 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: Joe Opager, Director of Public Relations
