The Lamar University team of Matt Morrison and Danny Iles won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Texas Division event on Choke Canyon Saturday with five bass weighing 15 pounds, 1 ounce. The victory earned the team $10,000 to be split between the university and the university’s bass fishing club – $7,500 for the bass club and $2,500 for their school. The win also helped them advance to the Texas Division Regional Championship.
“Coming into this event we just wanted to qualify for the regional championship and we accomplished that,” said Iles, a senior mechanical engineering major. “We fished clean and didn’t lose any fish.”
Iles said the team fished a Rayburn Red Rat-L-Trap all day and managed to catch nine keepers and two short fish during competition. Iles said they concentrated on fishing hydrilla in 2 to 4 feet of water.
Iles said the new format for 2011 where college teams fish to weigh cumulative weights played a role in their tournament strategy.
“I really like the new format,” said Iles. “It makes you work together more than before. Now one person can focus on the big fish while the other person focuses on just catching a limit.”
Rounding out the top five teams and also advancing to the Texas Regional Championship are:
2nd: Louisiana Tech University – Brian Eaton and Wade Tracy, (five bass, 12-13, $3,000)
3rd: Texas A&M – Weston Brown and Andrew Shafer, (five bass, 12-10, $2,000)
4th: Texas A&M Kingsville– Cody Burell and Jerod Hawkes, (five bass, 11-6, $2,000)
5th: LSU – Timothy Morris and Richard Murdock, (three bass, 9-15, $2,000)
Tournament director Kevin Hunt said the University of Oklahoma team was disqualified for fishing in an area designated as off-limits for the tournament.
The top five teams from each tournament qualified for the regional championship where the first-place team will win $12,500 cash for their school and $12,500 cash and a Ranger 177TR bass boat with a 90 horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard wrapped in school colors for their fishing club. The top five teams from each regional tournament advance to the national championship where the first-place team will win $25,000 for their school and $50,000 cash and a Ranger 177TR bass boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard wrapped in school colors for their fishing club.
College Fishing is free to enter and FLW Outdoors provides boats and drivers for each competing team along with travel allowances. 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 National Guard FLW College Texas Division tournament is scheduled for Feb. 12 at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Sam Rayburn, Texas. ABOUT FLW OUTDOORS
FLW Outdoors is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world offering anglers worldwide the opportunity to compete for millions over the course of 191 tournaments in 2011. FLW Outdoors has taken fishing mainstream with the world’s richest fantasy sports game, FLW Fantasy Fishing presented by Straight Talk, where competitors can play for free as well as sign up for Player’s Advantage to gain an edge. For more information about FLW Outdoors and FLW Fantasy Fishing, visit FLWOutdoors.com or FantasyFishing.com.
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