The University of Arkansas team of Jonny Schultz and Sam Horn won the FLW College Fishing Southern Conference tournament on Lake Dardanelle on Saturday with a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 5 ounces.
The victory earned the club $2,000 and advanced the team to the FLW College Fishing Southern Conference Invitational tournament on Sam Rayburn Reservoir.
FLW College Fishing Southern Conference Tournament
Lake Dardanelle
1. Arkansas, Jonny Schultz, Maumelle and Sam Horn, Fort Smith (five bass, 19-5, $2,000)
2. Stephen F. Austin, Shelby Hutchens, Spring, Texas and Owen Best, Buna, Texas (five bass, 14-13, $1,000)
3. LSU-Shreveport, J.L. Sepulvado, Zwolle, La., and Jared Rascoe, Stonewall, La. (five bass, 14-6, $500)
4. Louisiana –Monroe, Blake Alford and Tyler Stewart, West Monroe, La. (five bass, 11-15, $500)
5. Texas A&M – Luke Domas, Orange, Texas and Brennan Fertig, Sunrise Beach, Texas (five bass, 11-2, $500)
Complete results CollegeFishing.com
Horn said the familiarity he and Schultz had with Lake Dardanelle paid off.
"We grew up around these parts," said Horn, a freshman from Fort Smith majoring in Chemical Engineering. "We knew the summer patterns and we knew to have a shot at winning you had to be out deep."
Schultz agreed that local knowledge of the lake proved to be the difference for the pair.
"We rotated through four spots today that we knew had potential and we happened to catch fish off all four of them," said Schultz, a freshman from Maumelle studying Economics. "All of our fish came off of hard spots on the bottom. There wasn't much to them except that they had a lot of bait around them. You had to be making one specific cast to get bit. If you didn't make exactly the right cast you didn't get bit.
"We had one really nice flurry around 2 o'clock when they were pulling current. Other than that, we were just catching quality fish all day."
The pair said they caught all of their fish on a Sexy Shad-colored Strike King 6XD crankbait and that all of their spots were in 10 to 15 feet of water.
"We're just finishing up our first year of FLW College Fishing and it has been a fun ride for sure," said Horn. "We figured it would take 20 pounds to get the win, so we feel very blessed."
Three other teams from Arkansas also placed in the top 15. The Southern Arkansas teams of Brette Pitard of El Dorado, and Matthew Underwood, Magnolia placed sixth with five bass totaling 11.2 pounds. The Arkansas-Little Rock team of Tyler Hamby of Little Rock and Zachary Rollings of Mabelvale placed seventh with four bass totaling 10.15 pounds.
Brandon Rieve of Sheridan and Sawyer Grace of Russellville, fishing for Arkansas Tech, placed 13th with three bass totaling 6.9 pounds.
FLW College Fishing teams compete in three qualifying events in one of five conferences -- Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top 15 teams from each regular-season tournament will qualify for one of five conference invitational tournaments. The top 10 teams from each conference invitational tournament will advance to the 2015 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
Sports on 07/28/2014