The Shippensburg University team of Kevin Hollasch of Shippensburg, Pa., and Hunter Chamberlin of Marriotsville, Md., won the FLW College Fishing Northern Conference event on Lake Champlain Saturday with five bass weighing 17 pounds, 15 ounces. The victory earned the club $2,000 and advanced the team to the FLW College Fishing Northern Conference Invitational tournament.
After winning the FLW College Fishing Northern Conference event on the Potomac River, Hollasch and Chamberlin felt no pressure on Lake Champlain. “We took a gamble and went up north,” said Hollasch. “With the rough waters I don’t think a lot of other teams did that. We basically just went all-in on our spots up there and it paid off.”
Hollasch and Chamberlin weighed three largemouth and two smallmouth, fishing rocks and weeds in 8 to 15 feet of water. “We started off the day and we were going to target smallmouth, but once we got up there and saw the conditions we figured we’d just go and work shallow.” The spur-of-the-moment change worked to the tune of a 5-3 largmeouth and a win by more than three pounds.
The pair said they exclusively fished a Senko on a drop-shot rig with Trokar hooks and Elite Tungsten weights and didn’t lose a fish all day.
The top 15 teams that advanced to the Northern Conference Invitational tournament are:
| 1st: | Shippensburg University | Kevin Hollasch, Marriottsville, Md., and Hunter Chamberlin, Shippensburg, Pa. | five bass | 17-15 | $2,000 |
| 2nd: | Northwood University | Zach Lowe, Huntington Woods, Mich., and Travis Riedel, Falmouth, Mich. | five bass | 14- 4 | $1,000 |
| 3rd: | Kent State University | Matthew Fernandez, Dallas, Pa., and Jennifer Newman, South Amherst, Ohio | five bass | 14-3 | $500 |
| 4th: | Xavier University | Ty Styons, Fairfield, Ohio, and Andrew Decilles, Batesville, Ind. | five bass | 14-2 | $500 |
| 5th: | Grand Valley State | Scott Taege, Algonquin, Ill., and Matt Smartt, St. Clair Shores, Mich. | five bass | 14-00 | $500 |
| 6th: | Glenville State College | Brandon Abbott, Glandeeville, W.V., and Nick Lambert, Oceana, W.V. | five bass | 13-9 | |
| 7th: | SUNY-Plattsburgh | Matt Ziomek, Amherst, Mass., and Myles Tallada, West Chazy, N.Y. | five bass | 13-3 | |
| 8th: | SUNY-Plattsburgh | Brendan Bolis, Canton, N.Y., and Richard Lee, Port Kent, N.Y. | five bass | 12-8 | |
| 9th: | Castleton State College | Dan Infurna, Fair Haven, Vt., and Jordan Aquistapace, Rutland, Vt. | five bass | 12-5 | |
| 10th: | SUNY-Plattsburg | Frank Benedetto, Islip Terrace, N.Y., and Ted Appleton, Penfield, N.Y. | five bass | 12-4 | |
| 11th: | Mansfield University | Matt Novitski, Mansfield, Pa., and Colton Otto, Carlisle, Pa. | five bass | 12-3 | |
| 12th: | Fairmont State University | Ryan Houser, Morgantown, W.V., and Andrew Walker, Fairmont, W.V. | five bass | 11-12 | |
| 13th: | University of Akron | Christian Combs, Clinton, Ohio, and Brenton Casto, Massillon, Ohio | five bass | 11-11 | |
| 14th: | Virginia Commonwealth | Alex Miller, Moseley, Va., and Donnie Miller, Midlothian, Va. | five bass | 11-7 | |
| 15th: | Longwood University | Christopher Hubert, Virginia Beach, Va., and Greg Ewing, Bristow, Va. | five bass | 11-5 |
Three regular-season qualifying events are held in each conference – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Texas 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 2014 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 Northern Conference tournament is scheduled for September 14-15 at the Chesapeake Bay in North East, Md., and is hosted by Cecil County Tourism.
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 2013 over the course of 220 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 websiteand look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube.By: Jody White, Communications Specialist / FLW Outdoors
