Oklahoma State wins FLW College Fishing event on Sam Rayburn

William Powell and Jeremy Bersche, representing their Oklahoma State University collegiate bass-fishing club, took first place in the National Guard FLW College Fishing event at Sam Rayburn Reservoir with six bass weighing 18 pounds, 9 ounces. For the win, they earned $10,000 in scholarship money for their club and the university. Photo by Kevin Hunt. Anglers: Will Powell, Jeremy Bersche.

March 21, 2009 • MLF • Abu Garcia College Fishing

JASPER, Texas – The Oklahoma State University team of William Powell of Oklahoma City, Okla., and Jeremy Bersche of Stillwater, Okla., won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Texas Division tournament on Sam Rayburn Reservoir Saturday with six bass weighing 18 pounds, 9 ounces. The victory earned the team $10,000 to be split evenly between the school and the school’s bass-fishing club.

“It feels good to win this one,” laughed Powell, who admitted the win will help earn support for his enthusiasm for the sport. “My mom says I have a bad addiction (to bass fishing), but I’m going to go home with a check now, so that’s pretty funny. She keeps saying it’s going to be a problem, but I don’t see a problem.”

Powell said the team caught eight or nine fish throughout the course of the day sight fishing. Powell said a few of their fish were caught on a trick worm, however, the team threw a variety of baits at fish they could see.

“I don’t know if you can `junk’ sight fish, but if you can, we did it,” Powell said. “The fish were spread out and spooky, so we had to stay off of them. We’d get up on them and they’d leave and we’d come back 15 minutes later and just go down the bank.”

Rounding out the top five teams are LSU-Shreveport – Zach Caudle and Joe Landry, both of Shreveport, La., (six bass, 17-15, $5,000); Lamar University – Matt Morrison of Silsbee, Texas, and Danny Iles of Hemphill, Texas (six bass, 17-9, $4,000); Texas A&M – Tyler James of College Station, Texas, and Weston Brown of Midlothian, Texas (six bass, 16-3, $3,000); Angelo State – Josh Seale of Beckenridge, Texas, and Austin Adcock of Leander, Texas (six bass, 15-10, $2,000).

FLW Outdoors announced the College Fishing trail in May 2008. The entire schedule, which is organized around the five Stren Series Divisions can be found by visiting CollegeFishing.com, along with the rules, requirements and information on how to create a bass club.

Full-time students enrolled in four year colleges or universities are eligible to participate in the events. Schools in each division can send two-person teams to each of the four qualifying events in their division, with each event limited to a maximum of 40 teams. Each team will have an opportunity to win $10,000 for first and $2,000 through fifth place. The prize money will be split evenly between the winning team’s club and the school they represent. The tournaments are free to enter, boats and drivers will be provided and all collegiate teams will receive a travel allowance. The top five teams in each of the qualifying events will advance to one of five televised three-day FLW National Guard Regional Championships.

Each school represented in a televised Regional Championship will have team shirts and boats provided by Ranger. The purse for each Regional Championship will be a Ranger 177TR with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Yamaha outboard wrapped in school colors for the winning club and $25,000 for the school they represent. Awards of $6,000 will also extend through fifth place for the club and school to split evenly.

The FLW National Guard College Fishing National Championship will be a three-day televised event hosting the top five teams from each regional, 25 total teams. The teams will be provided with team shirts and wrapped Ranger boats towed by Chevy trucks for this competition. The purse for the championship will range from $25,000 cash and a Ranger 177TR with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Yamaha outboard wrapped in school colors and $50,000 for the school they represent to $15,000 for fifth, split between the club and school.

The winning team will be declared the FLW National Guard Collegiate National Champion and will qualify for the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup presented by BP and Castrol in 2010. The winners will also receive use of a wrapped boat and Chevy truck for the Forrest Wood Cup.

FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. FLW Outdoors also is taking fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing, offering the largest awards possible in the history of fantasy sports, $10 million in cash and prizes. Sign up for Player’s Advantage for only $10 to get your edge and win.

For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.