N.C. State University wins FLW College Fishing title
Johnson, Hooks net Northern Division victory on Lake Erie, $10,000 in prize money
BUFFALO, N.Y. – The N.C. State University team of Casey Johnson of Raleigh, N.C., and Josh Hooks of Apex, N.C., won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Northern Division event on Lake Erie Saturday with five bass weighing 20 pounds, 4 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.
“This is awesome,” said Johnson, a junior biological sciences major. “Words can’t describe it. We had a day where nothing went wrong.”
Johnson said his team had an outstanding day on the water and boated about 40 fish, including only two non-keepers. Johnson said they lost only one fish during the course of the day.
The team employed the use of a drift sock to drift over a series of humps off of the main channel with a drop-shot rig. The team used a green and brown Jackall Cross Tail Shad to boat their fish.
“About 9:30 Josh put one in the boat that was about 5 1/2 (pounds), and we were like, `We might have something going here,'” said Hooks, a sophomore engineering major. “Every fish we caught was like 3 1/2 pounds or 4 pounds.
“This morning was phenomenal,” Hooks added. “Every time the drop shot hit the dirt they had it. We were doubled up five or six times easy.”
” border=”1″ align=”left” />Rounding out the top five teams and also advancing to the Northern Regional Championship are:
2nd: Vermont Technical College – Kyle Sabourin, Milton, Vt., and Justin Brouillard, Rochester, Vt. (five bass, 17-13, $3,000)
3rd: State University of New York System-Buffalo – Aaron Meyers, Delevan, N.Y., and Keith Fields, Buffalo, N.Y. (five bass, 17-2, $2,000)
4th: Kent State University – Jaron Barnes, Sterling, Ohio, and Ray Fierst, Broadview Heights, Ohio (five bass, 15-14, $2,000)
5th: Virginia Tech – David Bryant, Covington, Va., and Preston Chrisman, Radford, Va. (five bass, 15-10, $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 National Guard FLW College Northern Division Regional Championship is scheduled for Sept. 1-3 at Sayers Lake in Howard, Pa., and is hosted by Penn State.
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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.