DAYTON, Tenn. (Oct. 24, 2021) – The Carson-Newman University duo of Ben Cully of Rockwall, Texas, and Hayden Gaddis of Seymour, Tennessee, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Friday weighing 18 pounds even to win the College Fishing tournament at Lake Chickamauga. The victory earned the Eagles bass club $2,000 and qualified the duo to compete in the 2022 College Fishing National Championship.
The field of 278 teams competing broke an MLF record as the largest Collegiate Fishing tournament of all-time. The previous record was set in March of 2018, when 276 teams competed in a Southeastern Conference event at Lake Guntersville.
According to post-tournament reports the duo caught their fish on an unnamed frog, targeting weedy areas.
TOP 10 RESULTS*
|
RANK |
COLLEGE NAME |
ANGLER NAME/HOMETOWN |
BASS |
WEIGHT |
AWARD |
|
1st |
Carson-Newman University |
Ben Cully, Rockwall, Texas |
5 |
18-0 |
$2,000 |
|
2nd |
Columbia State Community College |
Hunter Jones, Mount Pleasant, Tenn. |
5 |
15-14 |
$1,000 |
|
3rd |
Emmanuel College |
Cy Casey, Evans, Ga. |
5 |
15-0 |
$500 |
|
4th |
Florida Gateway College |
Seth Slanker, Lake City, Fla. |
5 |
14-14 |
$500 |
|
5th |
Florida Gateway College |
Tommy Dunaway, Havana, Fla. |
5 |
14-8 |
$500 |
|
6th |
Georgia College |
Noah Campbell, Madison, Ga. |
5 |
14-1 |
|
|
7th |
University of North Alabama |
Walker Sahagun, Trussville, Ala. |
5 |
13-11 |
|
|
8th |
University of Montevallo |
Tyler Cain, Bessemer, Ala. |
5 |
13-10 |
|
|
9th |
University of Montevallo |
Andrew Howell, Pisgah Forest, N.C. |
4 |
13-9 |
|
|
10th |
Kentucky Christian University |
Lafe Messer, Warfield, Ky. |
5 |
13-7 |
|
*Top 27 teams advance to the 2022 College Fishing National Championship
2021 QUALIFICATION OPPORTUNITIES
|
EVENT |
DATE |
LOCATION |
HOST |
|
College Fishing National Championship |
March 29-31, 2022 |
Fort Gibson Lake, Wagoner, Okla. |
Wagoner Area Chamber of Commerce |
The event was the third and final qualifying tournaments for Southeastern Conference anglers.
College Fishing teams compete in regular-season qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top ten teams from each division’s three regular-season tournaments and the top 20 teams from the annual College Fishing Open advance to the following year’s College Fishing National Championship.