RICHMOND, Va. — Maurice Hudson and Sean Cummins of Penn State University lead wire-to-wire to win the Bassmaster College Series Eastern Regional tournament on the James River with a four-day total of 42 pounds, 14 ounces. The Nittany Lions teammates only brought four fish to the scales for the second consecutive day, and it was enough to overcome a hard charging Ohio State.
“After Thursday, we thought we had something figured out,” Hudson said. "Then we found out we had a cameraman and media coverage following us around, and we got nervous. We were a little camera shy and didn’t fish clean (flawlessly) at all. Coming in with four fish today had us worried.”
The duo relied heavily on a crankbait bite and ran the changing tides to stay around the quality fish they needed to do well. Hudson, who fishes the Potomac River and Upper Chesapeake Bay, knows how the tides change and the impact they have on the fish so timing was the most critical thing in this event.
“Running with the tide is key,” Hudson said. “Once you figure out a pattern, you have to stick with it on that specific tide. We knew our key bites would come an hour later every day, so we had to stay patient and not fish a spot too early.”
Throughout the transition of the tide they would throw crankbaits that varied in depth. When it was high tide, they could catch fish on deeper-running crankbaits, but with less water on their cover at low tide, they could lean on a shallow squarebill bite. They also added important bass on a jig over the last two days. Hudson and Cummins rotated multiple main river spots throughout the event and think their bite wasn’t affected by the changing weather, which threw three different conditions at the teams this week.
The Ohio State team of Jacob Miller and Kyle Waller stayed consistent over the three-day event and cashed in with a second-place finish for the week. They weighed a final-day limit of 14-2 and pushed their total to 42-5, just 9 ounces behind Hudson and Cummins.
Miller and Waller had two key areas and patterns they could rely on throughout the tournament. Every morning the duo ran down river and fished a stretch of cypress trees adjacent to a spawning pocket to fill their limit. After catching numerous keepers, they would run a grass pattern in the Chickahominy River when the tide started to get low.
“We didn’t plan on our spots holding up as well as they did this week,” Miller said. “We would lay off of our cypress trees after getting a limit, so we could conserve it throughout the tournament because we would catch a limit in the first 15 minutes of our day.”
Their one-two punch helped them stay around the 13 to 14-pound range each day, but on the final day, they couldn’t get that big bite they so desperately needed. The rest of the Top 5 rounded out with Carson Orellana of Strayer Univeristy in third, Tyler Woolcott and Cody Wilson of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in fourth and Sam Glenn and Cameron Baker of UNC Charlotte in fifth. The Top 13 teams after the final weigh-in earned a berth to the 2016 Bassmaster College Series National Championship on Green River Lake in Campbellsville, Ky., on July 28-30.
Hudson and Cummins were also awarded the Bass Pro Shops Nitro Big Bag Award after catching 17-2 on Thursday. They also won the Livingston Lures Day 2 leader award. Jay Emmert and Logan Brewster of the University of Tennessee won the Carhartt Big Bass Award after hauling in a 7-pound, 8-ounce largemouth on the first day of the competition.
Bassmaster College Series Eastern Regional
James River - Osborne Park & Boat Landing - Richmond, VA
STANDINGS BOATER DAY 3
Today's Activity
# Fish Lbs - Oz
Accumulative
Name # Live # Fish # Live Lbs - Oz
1 Maurice Hudson - Sean Cummins Penn State University 4 4 14- 4 13 13 42-14
2 Jacob Miller - Kyle Waller Ohio State University 5 5 14- 2 15 15 42- 5
3 Carson Orellana - Strayer University 5 5 13- 2 15 15 40-10
4 Tyler Woolcott - Cody Wilson Embry-Riddle Aeronoautical University 5 5 13-13 15 15 38-10
5 Sam Glenn - Cameron Baker UNC Charlotte 5 5 13-13 15 15 37- 9
6 Jordan Wise - Chris Phinney East Carolina University 5 5 14- 2 15 15 37- 5
7 Chase Johnson - Eric Leifheit East Carolina University 5 5 12-12 15 15 36-14
8 Garrett Paquette - Zak Fadden Schoolcraft College 5 5 9- 5 15 15 36- 0
9 Josh Cannon - Alex Frazier Western Carolina University 5 5 12- 5 13 13 35-14
10 Zachary Castano - Aaron Sollenberger UNC Charlotte 5 5 12-12 13 13 35-11
11 Hunter Whitman - Alec Lower NC State University 5 5 11-14 15 15 35- 9
12 Justin St Onge - Ryan McLaughlin Haywood Community College 5 5 9- 8 15 15 34-11
13 Zander Monk - Kolton Hawks UNC Charlotte 5 5 10- 5 15 15 34- 0
14 Michael Corbishley - Austin Warmus East Carolina University 5 5 9-10 14 14 33-15
15 Nick Schultz - Zachary McGeehan UNC Charlotte 5 5 11- 3 15 15 33- 7
16 Mark Adams - Kile Quick Virginia Tech 5 5 11- 3 15 15 33- 5
17 John Teare - Christopher Campo Virginia Commonwealth University 4 4 9- 8 12 12 32- 1
18 Pete Kenny - Taylor Godsey Christopher Newport University 3 3 8- 0 13 13 30- 5
19 Matt Allen - Daniel Bray Tennessee Tech University 3 3 6- 2 13 13 29-14
20 Weston Chandler - Chase Nye East Carolina University 2 2 3-11 10 10 27-11
21 Seth Winslow - Galen Creekmore Christopher Newport University 10 10 21-12
22 Josh Cook - Rob Hendrick Western Carolina University 9 9 21- 8
23 Jason Ashe - Justin McClure Western Carolina University 10 10 21- 5
24 Sam Carris - Elliot Lee Tennessee Tech University 9 9 20-14
25 Joshua Fletcher - Bryson Peed East Carolina University 10 10 20-14
26 Jay Emmert - Logan Brewster U. of Tennessee 8 8 20- 8
27 Blaine Atkins - Hunter Altice Patrick Henry Comm College 9 9 20- 7
28 Mack Hicks - Aaron Creech Alice Lloyd College 8 8 20- 5
29 Hunter Fulcher - Andrew Day U. of Kentucky 10 10 18- 8
30 Andrew Annuzzi - Zachary Orsino Ramapo College 6 6 18- 7
31 Andrew Helms - Taylor Thomas UNC Charlotte 10 10 18- 5
32 Kelly Johnson - Matt Reid Appalachian State University 9 9 17- 9
33 Wesley Fox - Cody Pack UNC Charlotte 6 6 16-14
34 Bryce Owen - Greg Burchfield NC State University 10 10 16- 8
35 William Ray IV - Michael Resor Western Carolina University 7 7 16- 4
36 Jacob Crowe - Zachary Tallent Western Carolina University 6 6 15-13
37 Benjamin Hager - Christohper Cordova UNC Charlotte 9 9 15-12
38 Tyler Dixon - Hunter Hatcher Virginia Tech 8 8 15- 8
39 Dylan Jackson - Erik Struder Virginia Commonwealth University 7 7 15- 7
40 Corey Smith - Cantley Krafft Virginia Tech 7 7 15- 5
41 Kyle McHenry - Tyler Barnes West Virginia University 10 9 15- 5
42 Darrell Pease - Justin Anderson Virginia Commonwealth University 7 7 15- 3
43 Nathan Adams - Mason Grabowski Murray State University 5 5 14-14
44 Trevor Lewis - Lucas Harrison Georgetown College 7 7 14-11
45 Nick White - Sean Coast The Apprentice School 7 7 14- 0
46 Matt Pastino - Michael Manning East Carolina University 8 8 13-12
47 Skye Riggleman - Alex Williamson Liberty University 9 9 13-10
48 Dylan Whitmore - Gary Nix The Apprentice School 5 5 13- 3
49 Tripp Norris - Spence Hutcheson NC State University 6 6 13- 0
50 Jacob Osborne - Hunter Massie West Virginia University 7 7 11-12
51 Zachary Bodford - Alex Hinkle NC State University 5 5 10-11
52 Parker Dixon - Nicholas Newberry UNC Charlotte 4 4 10- 4
53 James Shank - Clayton Frey Penn State University 4 4 9-10
54 Brian Travers - Caleb Unger Liberty University 5 5 8- 8
55 Bentley Manning - John Berry Tennessee Tech University 5 5 8- 7
56 JR Little - Sam McLamb NC State University 4 4 8- 7
57 Jackob Leonard - Daniel Smathers Liberty University 4 4 8- 5
58 Jerris Bush - Jake Powell East Carolina University 5 5 8- 5
59 Mark Moran - Zach Browning Glenville State College 5 5 7-13
60 Gerald Ramsey - Kolby Kindley Haywood Community College 5 5 7- 9
61 Andrew Green - Anne Arundel Comm College 4 4 7- 3
62 Tate Clements - Gavin Draper Eastern Kentucky University 3 3 6- 2
63 Jake Thompson - Tyler Maschal Virginia Tech 3 3 6- 0
64 Charlie Sipe - Ethan Howell Appalachian State University 3 3 5- 0
65 Kain Fadeley - Sid Hoover Ohio State University 4 4 4- 9
66 Branden Newcome - Michael Shughart West Virginia University 2 2 4- 2
67 Christian Chavez - Western Carolina University 2 2 3- 9
68 Joe Mullins - David Maples Virginia Tech 2 2 3- 6
69 Qiurun Chen - Johns Hopkins University 2 2 3- 4
70 Andre Vicari - Ryan Worth Ramapo College 2 2 2-15
71 Ryan Rainey - Austin Frazier UNC Greensboro 2 2 2-12
72 Shawn Combs - Hans Mikellsoo Georgetown College 2 2 2- 8
73 Lee Blackmon - Trey Sweeting UNC Greensboro 0 0 0- 0
73 Matthew Combs - West Virginia University 0 0 0- 0
73 Kevin Deley - Tommy Arena West Chester University of PA 0 0 0- 0
73 Ian Hardesty - Milton Sheesley Virginia Tech 0 0 0- 0
73 Elliott Roberson - William Adams Virginia Tech 0 0 0- 0
73 RC Sutton - Andrew Davis Virginia Tech 0 0 0- 0
Name City,State Lbs-Oz
BIG BASS
Day
1 Jay Emmert - Logan BrewsterKnoxville, TN 7- 8
2 Mack Hicks - Aaron Creech London, KY 7- 5
Day # Live Lbs-Oz # Limits
TOTALS
# Fish
1 284 284 637-13 43
2 222 221 495-15 26
3 91 91 221- 6 15