OSAGE BEACH, Mo. (March 16, 2013) – The Missouri University of Science and Tech team of Drew Schrader of Saint Charles, Mo., and William Kleine of Rolla, Mo., won the FLW College Fishing Central Conference event on Lake of the Ozarks Saturday with four bass weighing 12 pounds, 14 ounces. The victory earned the club $2,000 and advanced the team to the FLW College Fishing Central Conference Invitational tournament.
“It feels pretty awesome,” said Kleine, a mechanical engineering major. “We weren’t sure that we had what it would take to win the tournament. We only caught four bass today and thankfully they were all keepers. The only other bites we had were a bluegill and a drum.
“We didn’t have a single fish in the livewell until around 10 o’clock,” Kleine continued. “We were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at them. We figured that we just had to slow down and start dragging jigs around. It was a grind all day. We tried to count to at least 15 seconds before we even moved the jig at all. That’s eventually how we got the bass to pick it up. We were mainly using Crock-O-Gator and Pig Sticker Jigs.”
“We were using darker crawfish colors,” said Drew Schrader, a civil engineering major. “We mainly fished the jigs over rocks that were 15 to 20 feet deep.” The partner group of Schrader and Kleine does not intend to fish the next event in the Central Conference, but they are planning to fish the Kentucky Lake tournament on June 15. Expect their skills and experience with jigs to be a factor on Kentucky’s famous ledges.
The top 15 teams that advanced to the Central Conference Invitational tournament are:
1st: Missouri University of Science and Tech – Drew Schrader, Saint Charles, Mo., and William Kleine, Rolla, Mo. (four bass, 12-14, $2,000)
2nd: University of Nebraska-Omaha – Ben Milliken, Bennington, Neb., and Ben Kroeger, Omaha, Neb. (three bass, 10-4, $1,000)
3rd: Winona State University – Cade Laufenberg, La Crosse, Wis., and Kody Mattson, Blair, Wis. (two bass, 9-6, $500)
4th: Missouri State University – Joe McBride, Springfield, Mo., and Brennan Halbersma, Ozark, Mo. (three bass, 9-1, $500)
5th: Murray State University – Cody Sieben, Belle Plaine, Minn., and Dan Schult, Millstadt, Ill. (three bass, 8-14, $500)
6th: University of Iowa – Tony Mehrl, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Brandon Madison, Bronson, Iowa (two bass, 8-10)
7th: University of Louisville – Scott Davis, Louisville, Ky., and Jeffry Endly, Louisville, Ky. (two bass, 6-13)
8th: University of Wisconsin – Levi Warner, Shiocton, Wis., and Kevin Yeska, Wild Rose, Wis. (two bass, 6-6)
9th: Ambrose University – Daniel Butler, Houston, Texas, and Kyle Gates, Decatur, Ill. (two bass, 5-11)
10th: Eastern Illinois University – Tyler McCune, Saint Joseph, Ill., and Dan Martin, Elmhurst, Ill. (two bass, 5-6)
11th: Southern Illinois University – Aaron Connor, Murphysboro, Ill., and Brenton Ward, Carbondale, Ill. (two bass, 5-5)
12th: Milwaukee School of Engineering – James Simonson, Fargo, N.D., and Brandon Lehrer, Appleton, Wis. (two bass, 5-3)
13th: Northern Kentucky University – Brandon Houston, Burlington, Ky., and Darian Ginter, Maplewood, Ohio (two bass, 5-2)
14th: Northern Illinois University – Derek Malanowski, Woodridge, Ill., and Chris Kosior, Palos Hills, Ill. (two bass, 4-14)
15th: University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point – Jason Hawksford, Hudson, Wis., and Cody Lincoln, Okauchee, Wis. (two bass, 4-7)
Three regular-season qualifying events are held in each conference – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Texas and Western. The top 15 teams from each qualifying tournament will advance to one of five two-day FLW College Fishing Conference Invitational tournaments, where the first-place team wins $4,000 for their club. The top 10 teams from each Conference Invitational advance to the 2014 FLW College Fishing National Championship.