University of Evansville Wins Central Opener on Table Rock
Four K-State Teams in the top 10
KIMBERLING CITY, Mo. – The University of Evansville team of Nick Uebelhor and Lee Knies, both of Jasper, Indiana, won the FLW College Fishing Central Conference event on Table Rock Lake Saturday with five bass weighing 16 pounds, 2 ounces. The victory earned the club $2,000 and advanced the team to the FLW College Fishing Central Conference Championship tournament.
“It feels great to bring a check home to the club,” said Uebelhor, a senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering. “We’ve done well in FLW competition in the past but have never won before.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Knies, a sophomore majoring in Electrical Engineering. “We figured we had enough weight to qualify for the Conference Championship but we didn’t think that we had enough to win the tournament.”
The duo said that they started their day off in an area near Indian Point, targeting banks in shallow, off-color water. By 10 a.m., they had netted two keepers throwing an umbrella-rig with Berkley Havoc swimbaits.
“We sat in 10 feet of water and threw up into about 2 to 4 feet,” said Knies. “They really liked the Berkley swimbaits and bit it quick.”
At 10:30 a.m. the anglers decided to make a run to an area near Long Creek to explore banks with similar cover and picked up two more bass.
“About 50 yards from where we stopped, we found our 5-pound kicker,” said Uebelhor.
With a few minutes left in their day, the Evansville duo returned to the take-off ramp and boated their final keeper.
“It was almost four pounds – our second largest fish of the day.” said Uebelhor. “By then we felt good about what we had in the livewell.”
Of the nine fish the team caught during the tournament, two were caught on the umbrella rig while the rest came on a Phantom Green-colored Storm Wiggle Wart.
“This win is a big deal for our team to be able to fish more tournaments,” said Knies. “Money is hard to come by so this is great for our club.”
The top 15 teams that advanced to the Central Conference Championship tournament on Table Rock Lake are:
1st: University of Evansville – Nick Uebelhor and Lee Knies, both of Jasper, Ind., (five bass, 16-2, $2,000)
2nd: Kansas State University – Quinn Fowler, Olathe, Kan., and Dylan McKee, Abilene, Kan., (five bass, 15-1, $1,000)
3rd: Kansas State University – Garrett Cates, Overland Park, Kan., and Brett Herder, Lee’s Summit, Mo., (five bass, 14-14, $500)
4th: Kansas State University – Lance Maldonado, Chapman, Kan., and Ethan Dhuyvetter, Manhattan, Kan., (five bass, 14-1, $500)
5th: University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point – Mark Hugus and Cody Hahner, both of Stevens Point, Wis., (five bass, 13-12, $500)
6th: Missouri State University – Brian Bueker and Darin Schildknecht, both of Springfield, Mo., (five bass, 13-10)
7th: Murray State University – Mathew Cardani, Murray, Ky., and Jason Shaw, Wildwood, Mo., (five bass, 13-3)
8th: Eastern Illinois University – Mitchell Meinhart, Effingham, Ill., and Dan Martin, Elmhurst, Ill., (five bass, 13-0)
9th: University of Missouri – Daniel Fuhrig, Wentzville, Mo., and Michael Fink, Saint Louis, Mo., (five bass, 13-0)
10th: Kansas State University – Kyle Alsop, Overland Park, Kan., and Taylor Bivins, Manhattan, Kan., (five bass, 12-12)
11th: Greenville College – Ray Hingson, Montrose, Ill., and David Weyers, Peoria, Ill., (five bass, 12-10)
12th: University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point – Samuel Sobieck, New Prague, Minn., and Connor Graham, Stevens Point, Wis., (five bass, 12-10)
13th: University of Nebraska – Ben Kroeger and Zach Kroeger, both of Omaha, Neb., (five bass, 12-9)
14th: University of Wisconsin-Platteville – Evan Chambers, Saint Charles, Ill., and Jacob Clisch, Reedsburg, Wis., (five bass, 12-9)
15th: University of Illinois – Qiurun Chen and Luke Stoner, both of Pekin, Ill., (five bass, 12-7)
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
This FLW College Fishing Central Conference tournament was hosted by the Table Rock Lake Chamber of Commerce and was the first regular-season qualifying tournament. The next event for Central Conference anglers is scheduled for June 13 at Kentucky Lake in Gilbertsville, Kentucky, and is hosted by the Kentucky Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau.
FLW College Fishing teams compete in qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top fifteen teams from each regular-season tournament will qualify for one of five Conference Championship tournaments. The top ten teams from each of the five Conference Championship tournaments will advance to the 2016 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college 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.
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