Adrian in First, Second on Kentucky
Weights strong in College Open despite high water and cold front conditions
They tried the obvious pattern, but when practice yielded only frustration, Adrian College’s Chase Serafin and Cody Batterson made a key decision that allowed them to leverage seasonal patterns and catch the 24-pound, 15-ounce limit that leads day one of the YETI FLW College Fishing Open on Kentucky/Barkley lakes.
A newly arriving cold front chilled the area and built up some pretty fierce winds for day one of competition, but the leaders recognized that it would also put the brakes on the prespawn movement. With Kentucky Lake several feet above summer pool, flooded shorelines are offering bass attractive staging areas that might be more relevant, were it not for current conditions.
“Depth is a key factor. We’re fishing some stuff that most of the guys aren’t fishing right now,” Batterson says. “The weather and the water temperature were our main considerations. The lake came up really fast, and, if the weather would have stayed nice, the fish would have been in the bushes. But the water temperature just isn’t high enough, and the fish aren’t there. We flipped so many bushes in practice, and then we ran into this little pattern we’re running, and it took off from there.”
Serafin says he and his partner are fishing reaction-style baits, including swimbaits, spinnerbaits, umbrella rigs and lipless crankbaits, but they’re employing a slower-than-normal retrieve to entice fish in the colder conditions. This, plus a deeper focus enabled them to fish crowded areas and catch fish that others were missing.
“I think this water still hasn’t warmed up enough, and a lot of guys are fishing way too close to the bank,” Serafin adds. “We had lots of spots where we went in directly behind other boats, and it didn’t bother us at all. We’re fishing farther off the bank, about 10 to 15 feet in front of the flooded bushes.”
On the broader view, Serafin says he and Batterson found their better fish on main-lake points.
“I think that was the biggest deal. Those fish haven’t quite moved into the creeks yet; they’re sitting just outside of them,” he says. “We had a really good practice doing a lot of different things. We had those fish in the bushes, but we noticed that in the last couple of days they started to pull off, and we’ve been able to follow those fish all the way. Tomorrow’s going to be a big challenge. The temperature is going to drop significantly, and we’ll see if we can keep following the fish.”
The Adrian team’s day got off to a strong start, but it stayed busy until it was time to head back for check-in.
“For the most part, we caught quite a few in the morning; more than we did in practice, but throughout the day we seemed to pick up a big one here and there,” Batterson says.
Serafin and Batterson hold a lead of 1 pound, 3 ounces over fellow Adrian College teammates Nick Czajka and Jack Hippe going into Wednesday’s final round of competition, where the top overall team will win a new Ranger bass boat. The top 21 teams will qualify for the 2019 YETI FLW College Fishing National Championship.
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Top 10 teams
1. Adrian College – Chase Serafin and Cody Batterson – 24-15 (5)
2. Adrian College – Jack Hippe III and Nicholas Czajka – 23-12 (5)
3. Iowa State University – Pat Morrison and Dylan Rague – 21-7 (5)
4 (tie). Bethel University – Brad Ableman and Kristopher “KJ” Queen – 20-14 (5)
4 (tie). Bethel University – Cody Huff and Garrett Enders – 20-14 (5)
6. Campbellsville University – Dakota Cantrell and Austin Moore – 19-11 (5)
7. East Texas Baptist University – Chad Poulsen and Jacob Sanders – 19-4 (5)
8. Adrian College – Alex Henderson and John Franko – 19-1 (5)
9. Bethel University – Hunter Louden and Seth Roberts – 18-7 (4)
10. Murray State University – Harbor Lovin and Evan Bramhill – 18-0 (5)