Grand Lake College Fishing 6 March 2021

[Mike Cork]

GROVE, Okla. (March 5, 2021) – The Drury University duo of Cole Breeden of Eldridge, Missouri and Cameron Smith of Nixa, Missouri, weighed a five-bass limit Friday totaling 14 pounds, 10 ounces to win the 2021 Abu Garcia College Fishing presented by YETI National Championship presented by Lowrance at Grand Lake . This is the first national title for Drury, who had two teams in the top five, and earned the team a $33,500 prize package, including a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury outboard and automatic entry into the 2021 Toyota Series Championship to compete as pros for a shot to win up to $235,000.

After leading on Day One, then dropping to third place on Day Two, the Panther duo's three-day total of 15 bass weighing 41-10 gave them the win by a 1-pound, 5-ounce margin. Zackary Martin and Harbor Lovin from Murray State University finished second with 15 bass weighing 40-5.

"This has been an awesome week," said Smith. "At the beginning of the week, we planned to just get a limit each of the first few days and to keep to ourselves and stay in contention. We didn't realize at the time that what we were catching would keep us in contention for the win."

Breeden said Grand Lake was a lot like one of their home lakes, Lake of the Ozarks, but the fish seemed to be in an atypical position for this time of year.

"If we were on Lake of the Ozarks right now, we would be fishing secondary points pretty much all day, but this week we found them up shallow," said Smith. "We think it had something to do with the sunny, warm days earlier this week, warming up the water and making the fish up by the bank a little more active than the ones out deep."
The duo said they spent most of the week throwing jerkbaits in the pockets in the back of creeks but the Jackall Rerange Jerkbait was key and definitely reeled in the most fish.

"We found ourselves even farther back in pockets on the final day," Smith said. "The wind was blowing that direction, which moved the shad and baitfish even farther back. We looked for pockets that had steeper bank on them then dropped off – the fish were hanging right on that edge – so we dropped the jerkbait on top of the ledge, then worked it down. They followed it out and we could see them eat the bait on the livescope about half-way back to the boat."

"Areas were a big thing for us – just finding the right depth in a pocket with the perfect kind of ledge on it was key," said Breeden.

On taking home the win, the duo said they couldn't be happier and knew their coach and school would definitely be proud.

"I've got to be honest, the only thing keeping me from passing out during the weigh-in was that seat holding me up – It was a nail-biter," laughed Smith. "It just means so much – watching our team at Drury grow is amazing. Having the opportunity to fish on Championship Friday alone is amazing, let alone two teams making it into the top five and one of us taking home the win – we couldn't be more excited."

The top 10 teams on Grand Lake finished:

1st:       Drury University – Cole Breeden, Eldridge, Mo., and Cameron Smith, Nixa, Mo., 15 bass, 41-10
2nd:      Murray State University – Zachary Martin, Murray, Ky., and Harbor Lovin, Fayetteville, Ohio, 15 bass, 40-5
3rd:       Josh Kelly, Cortland, Ohio, 15 bass, 39-3     
4th:       Drury University – Grant Harris, Springfield, Mo., and Beau Browning, Hot Springs, Ark., 15 bass, 36-7
5th:       Zachary Potter, Haddon Township, N.J. and Alex Johnson, Milltown, N.J., 13 bass, 35-0
6th:       Murray State University – Blake Albertson, Bloomington, Ind., and Luke Ripple, Mount Vernon, Ind., 15 bass, 33-9
7th:       McKendree University – Trey Schroeder, Crestwood, Mo., and Tyler Christy, Bolingbrook, Ill., 12 bass, 33-1
8th:       Justin Luetkemeyer and Josh Luetkemeyer, both of Chesterfield, Mo., 13 bass, 31-0
9th:       University of Montevallo – Grayson Morris, Birmingham, Ala., and Jacob Pfundt, Ball Ground, Ga., 12 bass, 27-6
10th:     Adrian College – Gunner Wilson, Fenton, Mich., and Zach Manneback, Hartland, Mich., 11 bass, 25-10

For a full list of results, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.