Truman State(ment) on Monroe

Big comeback sack propels McCarthy and Clark to Central Regional lead

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Tough cold front conditions hanging over Lake Monroe delivered another day of slim picking for the FLW National Guard College Fishing Series Central Regional Championship. However, some of the teams pulled out impressive weights, like the 14 pound, 2-ounce bag that put Truman State in the top spot.

Coming into day two with a fifth place weight of 7-13, Mike McCarthy Jr. and Spencer Clark caught the only limit thus far in the tournament and took over the lead with 21-15. Cranking wind-blown points in five to 10 feet, McCarthy threw a chartreuse Wigglewort and Clark used a Lucky Craft RC 1.5 with a green back and red sides.

As the anglers saw firsthand, Lake Monroe’s many potential bass spots are like a bank’s safe deposit boxes. Some hold little value; others are packed with riches. Claiming the latter requires getting those boxes open and the fish’s internal feeding clock holds the key.

“There are a lot of places where you can catch big fish; you just have to be on them at the right time,” Clark said. “We got into a flurry. We caught most of our fish in three hour span. I caught my first one – a 4 1/2-pounder about 30 minutes into the tournament and then for about the next three hours, we were hammering on them pretty good.”

Clark also noted that he and McCarthy used nature’s cues to dial in their bass bite.

“We didn’t really know that the bass were feeding per se, but we were hooking into a lot of other big fish,” he said. “We caught some big wipers (hybrid striped and white bass), we caught a 12-pound walleye. When you get all those predators in there, you know there’s big shad around, so we knew there were big bass around too.”

More late day action keeps IU second

Mornings have not been kind to Indiana University’s Jesse Schultz and Dustin Vaal, but the hometown team has managed to get the big afternoon bites. Today, Schultz said they did not have a keeper before 1:30 but another round of late day rod bending gave them four keepers that went 12 even and kept them in second place with 20-3.

Missing their team limit two days in a row has been frustrating, but Vaal said the puzzle started fitting together this afternoon. “You just have to capitalize on every fish. Today, we didn’t do that, but I found out something last year and it turned on today, so now we’re ready.”

Prudent judgment blended with an open-minded approach was paramount for the IU team. As Schultz noted, “Making the right decisions is important. On this lake, you’ve got to be moving around. You can zig when you need to zag and the other way around. Today, Justin and I just threw out some ideas and decided to try something new today. And all of the sudden, boom – there they were.”

Schultz and Vaal fished a spot that has produced for them in the past. Oddly, they could not get the spot to produce in practice, but it turned on today. Crankbaits produced all of their fish today, but Schultz said it was a particular presentation tactic that made the difference.

Schultz said his team’s consistent performance in the opening rounds has put them in position to accelerate their game. “Our main goal was to make the top five and that’s what we did. It’s one step at a time and guess what – now we’re gunning for it. Now we’re going for first place.”

Stout goes big for third

On day one, UW-Stout placed eighth with one fish – the 5-pounder that Jeremy Anibas caught on a spinnerbait. Today, Anibas and teammate Ryan Helke decided to fish for the big bites and they got three keepers that weighed 12-4 and pushed them up five notches to third with a two day total of 17-4.

“Fishing slow and methodically was the key,” Anibas said. “We have one cove that’s loaded with big ones and we kept giving them breaks and coming back to it. We have three other coves that we hit.”

The UW-Stout anglers caught their fish on a crankbait, a jig and a spinnerbait. Unlike day one, when Anibas caught his big fish early, day two made them wait until about 12:30 before the big keepers started chewing.

Helke said that precise targeting was essential to his team’s success: “We’re fishing all laydown trees. Sometimes, you have to hit them right on the head.”

Eastern Kentucky’s Kyle Raymer and Jonas Ertel remain in fourth with 16-9, while day one leaders Jordan Truttschel and Tyler Netzer of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater slipped to fifth with 13-2.

Best of the rest

Rounding out the top-10 leaders at the Western College Regional Championship:

6th: Purdue University, Chris Bookout and Michael Ruhana, 11-14

7th: WKU, David Stephens and Andy Southard, 9-1

8th: Southeast Missouri State, Andrew Pinkley and Jim McDevitt, 8-9

9th: Purdue University, Chad Dunham and Alexander Lowe, 8-3

10th: University of Iowa, Tyler Mehrl and John Mercer, 8-3

Day three of FLW National Guard College Fishing Series action continues at Friday’s takeoff, scheduled to take place at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern Time) at Cutright Ramp located at 8012 Knightridge Road in Bloomington, Ind.