Ramapo College nets early lead on Sayers Lake

Voss, Zapf team up for top stringer at FLW College Northern Regional

Ramapo College's Joseph Zapf and Jeff Voss sacked up a nice bag of smallmouth to lead day one. Photo by David A. Brown.

September 1, 2011 • MLF • Abu Garcia College Fishing

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – The Ramapo College team of Jeff Voss, Secaucus, N.J., and Joseph Zapf, Whippany, N.J., took the day one lead at the National Guard FLW College Fishing Northern Division Regional championship hosted by Penn State University on Sayers Lake Thursday with five bass weighing 12 pounds, 10 ounces. The team holds nearly a two pound lead over their nearest competitor, Fairmont State University. Teams are fishing for a top award of $50,000 to be split between the university and the university’s bass fishing club – $12,500 and a Ranger 177TR with a 90-horsepower outboard wrapped in school colors for the bass club and $12,500 for their school.

“This is the best event I’ve ever been in,” said Voss, a junior information systems major. “This is just a crazy event, what a blast. I came up here to practice just before the lake went off limits and I practiced a lot. We are fishing a spot I found during practice. I hope we can do it again tomorrow.

“We got all our fish in one area,” Voss continued. “We were probably done fishing by 11 this morning. The area I found is a spot that should replenish itself and hopefully it will last for three days. It is one of the creek channels, near a deep water rock pile.”

“This feels real good, said Zapf, a sophomore accounting major. “We found a hot spot that hopefully will last the rest of the tournament. Our weight today was a little more than we expected and hopefully we can keep it up for two more days.

“We caught our fish pretty quick and then we were done. We didn’t want to wear it out,” added Zapf. “We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

The team from Ramapo College finished in 2nd-place at both the Lake Champlain and 1000 Islands qualifying events to reach the Northern Regional championship. Reluctant to divulge too much information before the tournament was over all they would say is that they were not fishing banks.

Rounding out the top 10 teams:

2nd: Fairmont State University, Wil Dieffenbauch, Hundred W. Va., and Brent Dodrill, Fairmont, Va., five bass, 10-14

3rd: Virginia Tech, Wyatt Blevins, Pulaski, Va., and Carson Rejzer, Hampton, Va., five bass, 8-13

4th: Rampo College, Charles Danza, Ringwood, N.J., and Bob Rieder, West Milford, N.J., five bass, 8-11

5th: Christopher Newport, Ryan Ingalls, Fairfax, Va., and Derek Berhalter, Farnham, Va., five bass, 7-6

6th: Slippery Rock University, Benjamin Tawney, Stoystown, Pa., and Justin Lonchar, Clinton, Pa., three bass, 6-3

7th: Ohio State, Tyler Berger, Worthington, Ohio and Kyle Feucht, Marysville, Ohio, four bass, 5-3

8th: North Carolina State University, Ben Dziwulski, Woodbine, Md., and Jeff Bumgarner, Wade, N.C., two bass, 4-6

9th: North Carolina State University, Josh Hooks, Apex, N.C., and Casey Johnson, Raleigh, N.C., two bass, 3-0

10th: Vermont Technical College, Justin Brouillard, Rochester, Vt., and Kyle Sabourin, Milton, Vt., two bass, 2-10

Anglers will take off from Bald Eagle State Park, Hunters Run East Ramp located at 149 Main Park Road in Howard, Pa., at 7 a.m. each morning. Weigh-ins will be held at Bryce Jordan Center (Beaver Stadium) beginning at 4 p.m. Fri. Final weigh-in will be on Sat. beginning at 4 p.m. or upon completion of the Penn State vs. Indiana State football game at Beaver Stadium. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

Penn State is hosting the College Fishing Festival throughout the three day tournament. Students and fishing fans alike will be treated to the National Guard Warrior Challenge, a Ranger Boat simulator, tailgate games, a sports zone along with contests for cash and several prize give-aways. The festival will take place at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center (Beaver Stadium) located at 127 Bryce Jordan Center in University Park from 2 – 4 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on Saturday.

The top five teams from each of the five regional tournaments will advance to the national championship where the first-place team will win a top award of $100,000; $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.

Coverage of the Northern Regional Championship will be broadcast in high-definition (HD) on VERSUS. “FLW Outdoors,” will air Nov. 6 from 1 – 2 p.m. ET. “FLW Outdoors,” hosted by Jason Harper, is broadcast to approximately 500 million households worldwide.

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.

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.