Stingy Sibley frustrates college teams in Texas Regional

Baylor on top as slim pickings sends anglers back to study hall

NATCHITOCHES, La. – OK, so Sibley Lake got no love from the 40 collegiate anglers who struggled through day one of the National Guard FLW College Fishing Texas Regional Championship. But if you trust the locals, a few lucky casts could unlock the treasure chest.

Twenty two-man teams produced 80 keepers, with just three boats sacking up their six-fish limits. Hometown favorites Jeffrey Rich and Aaron Sistrunk of host school Northwestern State saw their promising practice pattern fizzle into a three-fish effort of 6 pounds, 3 ounces, but Rich’s prediction foretells a little more potential than most afforded to Sibley.

“We were on good fish in practice, but (today’s) high pressure killed us,” he said. “If we can get them to bite tomorrow, it’s gonna get ugly. We could come in with 25 pounds.”

For most, day one was a grind. Some found lots of little fish; others went long periods without a bite. Baylor University’s Jay Holland and Andrew McAdams found themselves somewhere between the two extremes. Their limit catch of 10 pounds, 15 ounces led the day-one field.

“We got lucky today, but at the same time, we put our heads down and fished until 3 o’clock,” McAdams said. “We got No. 6 in the boat at 2:45. We had to work – it wasn’t easy.”

Reaction baits were most productive for the Baylor team. McAdams said he and Holland caught a good number of fish, but the action came in spurts as they moved throughout the lake.

“We moved around a lot, and it seemed that our fish were bunched up,” Holland said. “When we caught one, we’d catch another one. If it wasn’t happening in (one spot), we’d come back to it later. We just had a little milk run and just ran our holes until we came across the fish.”

“Every decision we made paid off – every time we moved was the right time to go to that spot,” McAdams said.

The leaders hit eight different areas on Lake Sibley. Holland said that finding the right depth range was a key element of their success. “The lake’s pretty shallow, so we had to pay attention to the range we were fishing and how the boat was positioned.”

Angelo State goes offshore for second

Trailing the lead by 15 ounces, Josh Seale and Austin Adcock of Angelo State University found a limit of fish that weighed 10 pounds even. After driving all through Thursday night, arriving in Natchitoches around 6 a.m. on Friday, they put in a full day of practice and located a sweet spot that they hope will keep them in the hunt.

Flipping neon-blue creature baits, the duo targeted an offshore flat in about 2 1/2 feet of water. “Everybody’s beating the bank, so we decided we needed to do something different.”

Seal said he and Adcock pulled a nice trio of fish from their prime area and then left to give the spot a chance to settle and hopefully replenish for day two. “We didn’t by any means hit those fish too hard. We just went in there, got what we need and got out of there.”

Chunky trio yields third for Oklahoma State

In the third-place spot, Oklahoma State’s Will Powell and Jeremy Bersche boated only half a limit, but their 7 pounds, 4 ounces gave them the best average of day one. The anglers were mum on details, stating only that they fished moving baits.

“We went through a lot of stuff today,” Bersche said. “We found a little pattern in practice that didn’t hold up today, so it was just junk-fishing. We went everywhere, and we were able to scratch out three nice fish.”

Powell lamented what he described as indecisive fish. “We lost three nice ones toward the end of the day that would have helped … they shook off. They weren’t hitting the baits right. They just didn’t want to commit.”

Texas A&M, Texas State round out top five

Andrew Shafer and Paul Manley of Texas A&M placed fourth with 6-10, while Jay McCollum and David Cosner of Texas State University finished fifth with 6-9.

Despite a tough day on the water, several teams expressed optimism over putting together a solid day-two game plan based on what today showed them. Texas Tech’s Ryan Dupriest and Dustin Perry caught only two fish, but with their weight of 4-1 indicated that they knocked on the right doors.

“The bad thing was that we found a big group of fish like those two, and we had the chance to get a nice limit, but we just didn’t get them,” Dupriest said. “We had a reel break, we broke the line on one, and two jumped off. The good thing is that we can go back tomorrow and maybe get them.”

Logan Mount of LSU wouldn’t divulge what baits he planned to fish on day two, but he said he was confident that he and teammate Joel Jackson could get the job done.

“We’ve figured everything out, and we know what to do tomorrow,” Mount said.

Jackson put a positive spin on coming up one fish short of a limit: “We wanted to leave something for tomorrow to keep the suspense going.”

Very thoughtful of you, Mr. Jackson.

Best of the rest

Rounding out the top 10 college teams at the Texas Division Regional Championship:

6th: Joel Jackson and Logan Mount of LSU, 6-6

7th: Cody Burell and Jerod Hawkes of Texas A&M-Kingsville, 6-4

8th: Jeffrey Rich and Aaron Sistrunk of Northwestern State, 6-3

9th: Bobby Frey and Bill Waldschmidt of University of Texas, 6-0

10th: Ryan Watkins and Andrew Upshaw of Stephen F. Austin University, 5-8

Day two of FLW National Guard College Fishing Series action continues at Sunday’s takeoff, scheduled to take place at 7 a.m. CT at the public boat ramp on Sibley Lake, located at 2019 Texas Street in Natchitoches, La.