Ohio State wins College Fishing Northern Conference event on 1000 Islands
CLAYTON, N.Y. – The Ohio State team of Tyler Berger from Worthington, Ohio and Kyle Feucht from Marysville, Ohio, won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Northern Conference event on 1000 Islands, Saturday with five bass weighing 19 pounds, 11 ounces. The victory earned the team $5,000.
Berger described it best when he said that it was a good day to be fishing. Under bluebird skies with light winds that died down as the morning progressed, Berger and Feucht were able to beat number two Michigan State University by 3 pounds, 5 ounces and advance to the Northern Conference Championship.
“Kyle and I came here about a week ago for practice,” said Berger a senior marketing major. “We found an area close to the lake that produced some quality fish. It didn’t have the quantity that other areas we practiced in did, but it had the good quality bass that we knew we needed to win.
“We made the 20 minute run and caught four fish right away that probably weighed 15- or 16-pounds,” Berger continued. “Not getting the fifth bite we decided to come back up towards the marina and fish the spots we had found fish in the week before. We caught several fish and were then able to cull a couple of times.
The team from Ohio State has been fishing together for about four years. They said that they were drop-shotting in 25- to 50- feet of water using Warrior Baits soft plastics in green pumpkin magic to catch all their bass.
“I lost a couple of really nice fish first thing this morning that probably would have put us over the 20-pound mark,” said Feucht, a senior in agricultural business. “But we kept our heads down and fished hard the rest of the day and capitalized on most everything else to get the win.
“1000 Islands has a remarkable largemouth population as well,” Feucht went on to say. “We qualified for the conference championship last year on 1000 Islands by catching smallmouth so we decided to fish what we knew and were fortunate enough to win the tournament.”
Rounding out the top five teams and also advancing to the Northern Conference Championship are:
2nd: Michigan State University – Thomas Rumpf Jr., Perrysburg, Ohio, and Luke Baker, Lansing, Mich., five bass, $1,500
3rd: University of Akron – Rob Conley, North Canton, Ohio, and Austin Levering, Calenonia, Ohio, five bass, 15-13, $1,000
4th: State University of New York – Plattsburgh – Chris Benninger, Grand Island, N.Y., and Richard Lee, Port Kent, N.Y., five bass, 13-11, $1,000
5th: Ramapo College – Jeffrey Voss, Secaucus, N.J., and Joseph Zapf, Whippany, N.J., five bass, 13-11, $1,000
Four regular-season qualifying events are held in each conference – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southern and Western. The top five teams from each qualifying tournament will advance to one of five televised three-day National Guard FLW College Fishing Conference Championships, where the first-place team wins a Ranger Z117 bass boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard. The top five teams from each conference championship advance to the national championship.
The next Northern Conference event will be the Northern Conference Championship which will take place Sept. 13-15 on Philpott Lake in Martinsville, Va. For a list of all qualifying teams and event details visit CollegeFishing.com
College Fishing is free to enter and FLW 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.
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