University of Oregon wins FLW College Fishing event on Lake Havasu
Wall, Schneider net top honors during Western Division contest in Arizona
The University of Oregon team of Kyle Schneider of Beaverton, Ore., and Jacob Wall of Jacksonville, Ore., won the FLW College Fishing Western Conference tournament on Lake Havasu with three bass weighing 12 pounds, 8 ounces. Their win qualified them for the 2014 Western Conference Invitational on Clear Lake.
Schneider and Wall picked up a win in the first college fishing event they fished together by slowing down with a jig and picking apart a pre-spawn area.
“The winds were howling,” said Schneider. “There were like 6-foot waves we had to navigate back through. It was pretty gnarly.
“We had to get away from the wind and we ended up pitching jigs in a place that we were pretty sure was heavily fished but where we caught fish anyway,” said Schneider.
“We just tried to stay out of the wind and threw brown jigs with twin-tail grubs for trailers,” said Wall. “It was slow; we were just crawling the jig over rocks until we got a bite.”
“All our fish came by some marina docks,” said Schneider. “There was one 7-foot deep area where we would get bit. Nearby the water was 5- or 6-feet deep and we only got bites in the 7-foot area.”
“This is my first year fishing as a college angler,” said Wall. “It’s pretty awesome to win; I moved up from fishing in high school, and jumped right in to fishing at the University of Oregon. It’s awesome and I can’t wait to fish some more of these events.”
The top 12 teams that advanced to the 2014 FLW College Fishing Western Conference Invitational are:
1st: University of Oregon – Kyle Schneider, Beaverton, Ore., and Jacob Wall, Jacksonville, Ore. (three bass, 12-8, $2,000)
2nd: Chico State – Kevin Chen and Koulton Westbrook, both of Vacaville, Calif. (five bass, 9-14, $1,000)
3rd: Utah Valley University – Matt George, Orem, Utah, and Clif Gallagher, Eagle Mountain, Utah (five bass, 8-12, $500)
4th: Dixie State University – Mathew Baker and Nordel Erickson, both of St. George, Utah (two bass, 8-0, $500)
5th: Cal Poly – John Zeolla, Oak Park, Calif., and Kyle Greenlaw, San Luis Obispo, Calif. (two bass, 7-4, $500)
6th: Eastern Washington University – Jarred Walker, Westerville, Ohio, and Nick Barr, Cheney, Wash. (two fish, 6-0)
7th: Weber State University – Kory Tams, North Ogden, Utah, and Schafer Summers, Ogden, Utah (four bass, 5-3)
8th: Eastern Washington University – Travis Opel and Steven White, both of Spokane, Wash. (two bass, 5-2)
9th: CSU-Long Beach – Alex Cox, Long Beach, Calif., and Justin Gangel, Huntington Beach, Calif. (one bass, 4-7)
10th: Northern Arizona University – John and Jim Herrero, both of Kingman, Ariz. (one bass, 3-15)
11th: Utah Valley University – Stephen Johnson, Bluffdale, Utah, and Joseph Peterson, Orem, Utah (one bass, 1-12)
12th: Chico State – Andrew Loberg, Rocklin, Calif., and Michael Braswell, Chico, Calif. (one bass, 1-4)
For a list of complete results, click here.
FLW College Fishing teams compete in three qualifying events in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top 15 teams from each regular-season tournament will qualify for one of five conference invitational tournaments. The top 10 teams from each conference invitational tournament will advance to the 2015 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
College Fishing is free to enter. 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.