Chico State wins National Guard FLW College Fishing event on Clear Lake

Wetmore, Carrico net $10,000 with 20-pound, 1-ounce catch during Western Division event

The top five teams for the National Guard College Fishing event at Clear Lake. Photo by David A. Brown.

September 24, 2011 • MLF • Abu Garcia College Fishing

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Chico State team of Nicholas Carrico and Matthew Wetmore won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Western Division event on Clear Lake Saturday with five bass weighing 20 pounds, 10 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 Western Division Regional Championship.

“We had a great day,” said Carrico, a sophomore Agriculture Science major. “Matt was using 1/2 ounce white Booyah chatterbaits and I was drop-shotting spinnerbaits and swimbaits. We caught a lot of fish today, but most of them were pretty small. We probably caught one good bass every hour. We caught two right away in the morning but then it slowed down and we really had to grind it out.”

“It was slow, frustrating and tough today,” said Westmore, a senior in Construction Management. “We didn’t catch our last fish until five minutes before we had to come in.

“We were fortunate in that we were able to come here three times for pre-practices so were able to find areas that had a good fish population,” Westmore continued. “The lake has been under a lot of pressure lately so I knew the fishing was going to be tough. But Nick and I worked hard as a team and we were able to get it done.”

Rounding out the top five teams and also advancing to the Western Regional Championship are:

2nd: California State University, Long Beach – Justin Gangel and Alex Cox (five bass, 19-3, $3,000)

3rd: California State University, Monterey Bay – David Hamblin and Matthew Diaz (five bass, 19-0, $2,000)

4th: Boise State University – Jared Spickelmier and Jacob Leanna (five bass, 18-9, $2,000)

5th: Chico State – Bo Harkins and Anthony Dayton (five bass, 18-7, $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.

The next National Guard FLW College Western Division tournament is the regional championship scheduled for Nov. 17-19 at Saguaro Lake in Mesa, Ariz. and will be hosted by Arizona State University.

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.