RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (Oct. 5, 2012) – The weather turned cool and overcast Friday for the second day of the FLW College Fishing Southern Conference Championship on Lake Dardanelle. Teams adapted to the changing conditions, however, and the Angelo State team of Ethan George of Breckenridge, Texas, and Josh Seale of San Angelo, Texas, weighed in five bass for 16 pounds even to stand atop the leaderboard with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 28 pounds, 8 ounces. They lead Stephen F. Austin, their closest competitor, by a slim 3 ounces going into the final day of competition. Twenty college teams from around the region are participating in the bass fishing tournament and competing for a Ranger Z117 bass boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and a berth in the National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship.
“Today started out fast like every other day,” said George. “We got out there and went straight to our spot. We were the last boat to take off and probably the first boat to start fishing. We were fishing at 7:05 and we had a limit in the boat at 8:00. We didn’t cull a fish after that. The first five were the fish that we weighed.”
Seale said the team caught a total of 10 fish during the course of the day fishing their primary spot. He added the team isn’t catching a large number of bass. Instead, they’re focusing on catching a solid limit and allowing the fish to replenish for the next day of the tournament. Seale said that one area is the only spot the team is targeting.
“We’re allowed five rods apiece, and we’ve both got four swimbait rods,” George said. “We’re pretty much never putting that swimbait rod down all day long, and we’re throwing it shallow — 6 inches to 2 feet of water.”
George said changing weather in the tournament will make it hard to predict how the fish will react on the final day of competition.
“We’ll just have to see,” he said. “It could push them up and get them hungry so they’ll feed, or it could push them down and make them hunker up and not do anything.”
“All we can do is go out there and fish our fish,” Seale added. “We’ve already qualified for the national championship. We’re just thankful to be in this position. We don’t have anywhere to run. We know we have fish located, and if they are there, great, and if not, we did our best.”
The top five teams fishing Saturday, who also qualified for the FLW College Fishing National Championship are:
1st: Angelo State – Ethan George, Breckenridge, Texas, and Josh Seale, San Angelo, Texas, 10 bass, 28-8
2nd: Stephen F. Austin – Kyle Turner, Kennedale, Texas, and Robert Platt, Tyler, Texas, 10 bass, 28-5
3rd: Lamar University – Danny Iles, Evadale, Texas, and Justin Royal, Hemphill, Texas, nine bass, 28-1
4th: University of Louisiana-Monroe – Paul Clark, Pineville, La., and Brett Preuett, Monroe, La., nine bass, 27-7
5th: LSU-Shreveport – Joseph Landry, Haughton, La., and Gavin Havard, West Monroe, La., 10 bass, 26-13
Anglers will take off from Lake Dardanelle State Park located at 100 State Park Drive in Russellville, Ark., at 7 a.m. Saturday morning. The final weigh-in will be at Walmart located at 2409 E. Main St. in Russellville beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday. Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public.