Both Spotted and Largemouth Bass Expected To Be Factors SENECA, S.C. (Feb. 20, 2014) – The second event in the 19th season of the major leagues of professional bass-fishing, the Walmart FLW Tour, kicks off March 6-9 with the Walmart FLW Tour on Lake Hartwell presented by Ranger Boats. Hosted by the Mountain Lakes Convention and Visitors Bureau, the tournament will feature 178 of the world’s best bass-fishing pros and 178 co-anglers casting for top awards of up to $125,000 cash in the pro division and up to $25,000 cash in the co-angler division. “I think that both the largemouth and spotted bass will play a factor in this tournament,” said Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes pro Dave Lefebre, who finished in ninth place and 11th place when the FLW Tour previously visited Lake Hartwell in 2011 and 2012. “I think that we’re going to see anglers in the top 10 who weigh in only spotted bass, or only largemouth and still do really well. I like the type of fishery that Hartwell is, and I love the pre-spawn time of year. This tournament lines up really well for me.” Lefebre said that tournament anglers would be fishing multiple techniques and patterns, both deep and shallow. “I don’t like to fish the deep end of the lake,” Lefebre said. “I’m always way up the river somewhere in the backs of the pockets targeting the shallow fish. The last couple of times that we have been here, everybody has been able to throw multiple baits and fish to their style. “Guys fishing deep will be using typical spotted bass tactics. Drop-shot rigs, spoons, deep-diving crankbaits and swimbaits will all be pretty popular for those anglers.” Lefebre did not divulge any of his shallow water tactics, but in previous events anglers choosing to fish shallow have caught their fish using spinnerbaits, swimjigs or via flipping soft plastics. “The last two times that we were here the lake was fishing completely opposite,” Lefebre went on to say. “The water was up the first year, and then real low when we came back. I would guess that the weights will be very similar to our prior events, maybe even a little better. I think that we’re going to see the winner finish with a four-day total of more than 75 pounds.” In FLW Tour competition, anglers are also vying for valuable points in hopes of qualifying for the 2014 Forrest Wood Cup, the world championship of bass fishing. The 2014 Forrest Wood Cup will be in Columbia, S.C., Aug. 14-17 on Lake Murray and anglers could win as much as $500,000 – the sport’s biggest prize. Anglers will take off from the Clemson Marina located at 150 Clemson Marina Drive in Seneca, S.C., at 7 a.m. the first three days of competition. On the final day of competition the top 10 anglers will take off at 7:30 a.m. from the Clemson Marina. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will be held at Clemson Marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday’s final weigh-ins will be held at the Walmart located at 1636 Sandifer Blvd. in Seneca beginning at 4 p.m. Fans will also be treated to the FLW Expo at Walmart on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. prior to the final weigh- ins. The Expo includes Ranger boat simulators, the opportunity to interact with professional anglers, enjoy interactive games, activities and giveaways provided by sponsors, and fans can learn more about the sport of fishing and other outdoor activities. All activities are free and open to the public. Also on Sunday, country music star Chris Janson will perform a free live concert on the Walmart weigh-in stage at 3 p.m. Courtesy of FLW Outdoors.

LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. (Feb. 1, 2014) – The University of Oregon team of Kyle Schneider of Beaverton, Ore., and Jacob Wall of Jacksonville, Ore., won the FLW College Fishing Western Conference tournament on Lake Havasu Saturday with three bass weighing 12 pounds, 8 ounces. Their win qualified them for the 2014 Western Conference Invitational on Clear Lake. Schneider and Wall picked up a win in the first college fishing event they fished together by slowing down with a jig and picking apart a pre-spawn area. “The winds were howling,” said Schneider. “There were like 6-foot waves we had to navigate back through. It was pretty gnarly. “We had to get away from the wind and we ended up pitching jigs in a place that we were pretty sure was heavily fished but where we caught fish anyway,” said Schneider. “We just tried to stay out of the wind and threw brown jigs with twin-tail grubs for trailers,” said Wall. “It was slow; we were just crawling the jig over rocks until we got a bite.” “All our fish came by some marina docks,” said Schneider. “There was one 7-foot deep area where we would get bit. Nearby the water was 5- or 6-feet deep and we only got bites in the 7-foot area.” “This is my first year fishing as a college angler,” said Wall. “It’s pretty awesome to win; I moved up from fishing in high school, and jumped right in to fishing at the University of Oregon. It’s awesome and I can’t wait to fish some more of these events.” The top 12 teams that advanced to the 2014 FLW College Fishing Western Conference Invitational are: 1st: University of Oregon – Kyle Schneider, Beaverton, Ore., and Jacob Wall, Jacksonville, Ore. (three bass, 12-8, $2,000) 2nd: Chico State – Kevin Chen and Koulton Westbrook, both of Vacaville, Calif. (five bass, 9-14, $1,000) 3rd: Utah Valley University – Matt George, Orem, Utah, and Clif Gallagher, Eagle Mountain, Utah (five bass, 8-12, $500) 4th: Dixie State University – Mathew Baker and Nordel Erickson, both of St. George, Utah (two bass, 8-0, $500) 5th: Cal Poly – John Zeolla, Oak Park, Calif., and Kyle Greenlaw, San Luis Obispo, Calif. (two bass, 7-4, $500) 6th: Eastern Washington University – Jarred Walker, Westerville, Ohio, and Nick Barr, Cheney, Wash. (two fish, 6-0) 7th: Weber State University – Kory Tams, North Ogden, Utah, and Schafer Summers, Ogden, Utah (four bass, 5-3) 8th: Eastern Washington University – Travis Opel and Steven White, both of Spokane, Wash. (two bass, 5-2) 9th: CSU-Long Beach – Alex Cox, Long Beach, Calif., and Justin Gangel, Huntington Beach, Calif. (one bass, 4-7) 10th: Northern Arizona University – John and Jim Herrero, both of Kingman, Ariz. (one bass, 3-15) 11th: Utah Valley University – Stephen Johnson, Bluffdale, Utah, and Joseph Peterson, Orem, Utah (one bass, 1-12) 12th: Chico State – Andrew Loberg, Rocklin, Calif., and Michael Braswell, Chico, Calif. (one bass, 1-4) Complete results can be found at CollegeFishing.com. 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. College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time undergraduate students at a four-year college or university and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university. Courtesy of FLW Outdoors.

BAINBRIDGE, Ga. (Feb. 1, 2014) – The University of Tennessee team of Jackson Minnich and Parker Hurst, both of Knoxville, Tenn., won the FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference event on Lake Seminole Saturday with five bass weighing 24 pounds, 8 ounces. The victory earned the club $2,000 and advanced the team to the FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference Invitational tournament. “We’ve never won an event this big,” said Hurst. “Right now, I feel amazing. We didn’t get much practice in before this event. The first time that we got to fish on the lake was yesterday. And we didn’t find much in practice. But, we did find the spot that we fished today and it turned out great.” The spot that Hurst referred to was a 500-yard stretch of grassline that the Tennessee duo covered methodically with Bill Lewis Rat-L-Traps, a pattern that they also discovered in practice yesterday. “We tried everything during our practice,” Hurst continued. “We were flipping and pitching, and when we didn’t catch any we tried deep cranking. We ended up catching our only two keepers in practice on the Rat-L-Trap, so that’s what we decided to use during the tournament.” “The bite really turned on after the fog lifted around noon today,” Minnich added. “We fished our key stretch this morning, but only caught two. When we went back after the fog, it was hot. I caught a 5-pounder and while I was boating mine, Parker caught a 5-pounder. Then we followed it up with a big 6- and 7-pounder and we knew we had something special. Every fish we caught came on the red Rat-L-Trap.” The victory was extra special for the Volunteer Bass Club, as both Minnich and Hurst are senior Wildlife and Fisheries Management majors and neither have qualified for an FLW College Fishing Invitational event in their career. “We can’t wait for the Invitational on Chickamauga,” said Minnich went on to say. “It’s going to be our first shot to qualify for the national championship and it’s right in our backyard. We only live about 40 minutes from Chick, and you can bet we will be ready.” The top 5 teams that advanced to the Southeastern Conference Invitational tournament are: 1st: University of Tennessee – Jackson Minnich and Parker Hurst, both of Knoxville, Tenn. (five bass, 24-8, $2,000) 2nd: University of North Alabama – Dawson Lenz, Peachtree City, Ga., and Evan Horne, Florence, Ala. (five bass, 20-14, $1,000) 3rd: University of Florida – Shelby Concon, Fruitland Park, Fla., and Kyle Smith, Macclenny, Fla. (three bass, 20-10, $500) 4th: University of West Georgia – Kenny Johnson, Newnan, Ga., and Bradley Rilling, Fayetteville, Ga. (five bass, 20-2, $500) 5th: Southern Polytechnic State University – Grant Kelly, McDonough, Ga., and Daniel Harkness, Thomasville, Ga. (five bass, 19-7, $500) Courtesy of FLWOUTDOORS.COM