Chico State wins FLW College Fishing Western Conference event on California Delta

Chico State's Andrew Loberg and Nick Carrico used dropshots and topwater frogs to win the College Fishing Western Conference event on the Cal Delta. Photo by David A. Brown. Anglers: Nick Carrico, Andrew Loberg Sr, Matthew Wetmore, Anthony Dayton, John Hutchings, James Rodgers, Andrew Loberg.

May 18, 2013 • MLF • Abu Garcia College Fishing

BETHEL ISLAND, Calif. – The Chico State team of Andrew Loberg of Rocklin, Calif., and Nick Carrico of Oroville, Calif., won the FLW College Fishing Western Conference event on the California Delta Saturday with a five-bass limit weighing 24 pounds, 1 ounce. Chico State beat second-place Eastern Washington University by 3 pounds, 6 ounces. The victory earned the club $2,000 and advanced the team to the FLW College Fishing Western Conference Invitational tournament.

“We qualified for the FLW College Fishing Western Invitational already,” said Carrico, a senior majoring in Agricultural Science. “With that pressure off we just put our heads down and went fishing. We went out there to have fun.”

“I caught our biggest fish, an 8-pounder, on a drop-shot (rig),” Carrico went on to say. “I was drop-shotting Roboworms.”

According to Loberg, the tide played a large part in the team’s victory. They started the day during low tide targeting tules. As the tide continued to come up throughout the day it kept pushing bass into the area they were fishing.

“Everything went right for us today,” said Loberg, a freshman majoring in Business Administration. “We started catching fish right away and never stopped. We caught about 25 or 30 today. I got a 4-pounder right away on a black frog. Then I caught a few more before I caught a 7 1/2-pounder. Nick caught an 8-pounder shortly after that on a drop-shot. We had a solid day of fishing where nothing went wrong.”

The top 15 teams that advanced to the Western Conference Invitational are:

1st: Chico State – Andrew Loberg, Rocklin, Calif., and Nick Carrico, Oroville, Calif., five bass, 24-1, $2,000

2nd: Eastern Washington University – Nick Barr, Cheney, Wash., and Jarred Walker, Westerville, Ohio,

five bass, 20-11, $1,000

3rd: Colorado State University – Benjamin Robey and Michael Harpell, both of Fort Collins, Colo., five bass, 19-0, $500

4th: Northern Arizona University – Daniel Vine and Andrew Cates, both of Flagstaff, Ariz., five bass, 17-6, $500

5th: Chico State – Bo Harkins and Michael Braswell, both of Chico, Calif., five bass, 16-8, $500

6th: Humboldt State University – Christopher Childers, McKinleyville, Calif., and Erich Coulter, Arcata, Calif., five bass, 15-7

7th: University of Wyoming – Tyler Webber, Powell, Wyo., and Taylor Armstrong, Laramie, Wyo., five bass, 15-7

8th: Sacramento State – Thomas Kanemoto, Elk Grove, Calif., and Seth Trujillo, Sacramento, Calif., five bass, 14-14

9th: California State University-Long Beach – Alex Pisarski, Costa Mesa, Calif., and Alfredo Gutierrez, Inglewood, Calif., five bass, 14-12

10th: University of Oregon – Kaitlin Tanner, Eugene, Ore., and Eric Lee, Mather, Calif., five bass, 14-6

11th: California Polytechnic – Kyle Greenlaw, San Luis Obispo, Calif., and John Zeolla, Oak Park, Calif., five bass, 14-5

12th: Fresno State – Shai Van Gelder and Joseph Piedimonte, both of Fresno, Calif., four bass, 13-4

13th: San Jose State University – Cody Wilson, Newark, Calif., and Adam McAndrews, Santa Clara, Calif., five bass, 13-3

14th: Chico State – Kevin Chen and Koulton Westbrook, both of Chico, Calif., five bass, 12-6

15th: University of Wyoming – Michael Barbero, Arvada, Colo., and Tyler Stingley, Laramie, Wyo., five bass, 12-1

FLW College Fishing teams compete in four qualifying events in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top fifteen teams from each regular-season tournament qualify for one of five conference invitational tournaments. The top ten teams from each conference invitational tournament will advance to the 2014 FLW College Fishing National Championship.

The next FLW College Western Conference event is the Western Invitational which is scheduled for Oct. 12-13 on Clear Lake in Lakeport, Calif.

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/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing. Visit CollegeFishing.com to sign up or to start a club at your school.