Fairmont State University wins FLW College Fishing event on Lake Champlain
Dieffenbauch, Dodril grab tournament title, $10,000 in prize money at Northern Division contest
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – The Fairmont State University team of Brent Dodrill of Fairmont, W. Va., and Wil Dieffenbauch of Hundred, W.Va., won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Northern Division on Lake Champlain Saturday with five bass weighing 16 pounds, 2 ounces. The victory earned the team $10,000 to be split between the university and the university’s bass fishing club – $7,500 for the bass club and $2,500 for their school. The win also helped them advance to the Northern Division Regional Championship.
“We are real excited,” said Dodrill, a sophomore occupational safety major. “We had a 12 hour drive and this was my first time on Lake Champlain, what a thrill. Wil and I came up here with what we thought was a pretty good game plan and things seemed to work out for us.
“It was windy pretty much all day, lots of big waves,” continued Dodrill. “We fished three rock points that produced all our fish. I was drop-shotting a Jackall Cross Tail on a casting rod. The rod is what really made the difference for me because I could feel every bite.”
“I was on Champlain one other time,” said Dieffenbauch, a junior in civil engineering. “I had a pretty good idea of what the lake was like. We picked a few areas on the map that looked like they would hold smallmouth and went fishing.
“Most of our big fish came in the morning, added Dieffenbauch. “We didn’t get our last three-pound smallie until the last hour of the day.”
This will be the third consecutive year the team from Fairmont State qualified for the Northern Regional Championship.
Rounding out the top five teams and also advancing to the Northern Regional Championship:
2nd: Ramapo College – Joseph Zapf, Whippany, N.J., and Jeffrey Voss, Secaucus, N.J., five bass, 15-3, $3,000
3rd: Christopher Newport – Derek Berhalter, Farnham, Va., and Ryan Ingalls, Fairfax, Va., five bass, 14-1, $2,000
4th: Castleton State College – Dan and Patrick Infurna, Fair Haven, Vt., five bass, 13-6, $2,000
5th: North Carolina State University – Jeff Bumgarner, Wade, N.C., and Ben Dziwulski, Woodbine, Md., five bass, 12-0, $2,000
The top five teams from each tournament qualify for the regional championship where the first-place team will win $12,500 cash for their school and $12,500 cash and a Ranger 177TR bass boat with a 90 horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard wrapped in school colors for their fishing club. The top five teams from each regional tournament advance to the national championship where the first-place team will win $25,000 for their school and $50,000 cash and a Ranger 177TR bass boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard wrapped in school colors for their fishing club.
College Fishing is free to enter and FLW Outdoors provides boats and drivers for each competing team along with travel allowances. 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.
The next National Guard FLW College Northern Division tournament is scheduled for July 30 at 1000 Islands in Clayton, N.Y. and is hosted by French Creek Marina. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow College Fishing on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWCollegeFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/CollegeFishing. Visit CollegeFishing.com to sign up or to start a club at your school.
About FLW Outdoors
FLW Outdoors is the best in fishing, on and off the water. Anglers worldwide can compete for millions over the course of 191 tournaments in 2011. FLW Outdoors has taken fishing mainstream with the world’s richest fantasy sports game, FLW Fantasy Fishing presented by Straight Talk, where competitors can play for free as well as sign up for Player’s Advantage to gain an edge. For more information about FLW Outdoors and FLW Fantasy Fishing, visit FLWOutdoors.com or FantasyFishing.com.