UT Wins on G-Ville
Tennessee tops record 273-boat field at Lake Guntersville, 27 teams advance to National Championship
The University of Tennessee team of John Lambert of Blountville, Tennessee, and Logan Brewster of Maryville, Tennessee, won the largest collegiate fishing tournament of all-time – 273 boats – Saturday at the YETI FLW College Fishing event on Lake Guntersville presented by Berkley. The duo weighed a five-bass limit of 25 pounds, 9 ounces to best the massive field, which included Jake Fromm, starting quarterback for the NCAA College Football National Championship runner-up Georgia Bulldogs.
The victory earned the Volunteers bass club $2,400 and a spot in the 2019 FLW College Fishing National Championship. Eleven limits in excess of 20 pounds were brought to the scale.
“We only caught eight fish all day long, but they were the right size,” says Lambert, a sophomore majoring in construction science. “We were fishing in an area right across from the takeoff ramp at the State Park. We had our boat sitting in 6 feet of water and we were throwing into 2 feet, just slow rolling our ChatterBaits over the grass.”
Lambert says that he and his partner each threw green-pumpkin-colored vibrating jigs – Brewster, a Z-Man ChatterBait Jack Hammer and Lambert, a Z-Man Original ChatterBait, with green-pumpkin Yamamoto Zako trailers.
“I caught a couple on a RyPro Cyclebait, but all of our limit that we weighed came on the ChatterBaits,” Lambert says. “It took us a while to figure it out, but slowing down was key for us. We had to fish it over the grass, but slowly.”
“The bait had to be ticking the bottom or the grass to trigger the bites, you couldn’t burn it too fast,” Brewster adds.
The top 10 teams
1st: University of Tennessee – John Lambert of Blountville, Tenn., and Logan Brewster, Maryville, Tenn., five bass, 25-9, $2,400
2nd: University of South Carolina – Trevor Topken, Warwick, N.Y., and Brandon Biby, New City, N.Y., five bass, 24-7, $1,000
3rd: Bethel University – Cole Walker, Counce, Tenn., and Wilson Smith, Southaven, Miss., five bass, 22-4, $500
4th: University of North Alabama – Drake Tavel, Dora, Ala., and Parker Davis, Morris, Ala., five bass, 22-2, $700
5th: Mississippi State University – Tristan Hendrix, Hoover, Ala., and Grant Hyche, Sterrett, Ala., five bass, 22-0, $500
6th: Bethel University – Dax Ewart, Humboldt, Tenn., and Logan Millsaps, Jasper, Ga., five bass, 21-15
7th: University of Montevallo – Dallin Hatter, Brookwood, Ala., and J.T. Russell, McCalla, Ala., five bass, 21-4
8th: Calhoun Community College – Christopher Lupo, Huntsville, Ala., and Austen Willard, Athens, Ala., five bass, 20-14
9th: Presbyterian College – Thomas Broom and Andrew Snellgrove, both of York, S.C., five bass, 20-12
10th: Auburn University – Sean Murphy, Lutz, Fla., and William Phillips, Auburn, Ala., five bass, 20-5
The YETI FLW College Fishing on Lake Guntersville presented by Berkley was hosted by the Marshall County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and was the second of three regular-season qualifying tournaments for Southeastern Conference anglers in 2018. The next YETI FLW College Fishing event takes place March 6-7, when college anglers from around the country compete at the annual FLW College Fishing Open at Kentucky and Barkley lakes in Gilbertsville, Kentucky.
YETI FLW College Fishing teams compete in three regular-season qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top ten teams from each division’s three regular-season tournaments and the top 20 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2019 FLW College Fishing National Championship. Additional teams will qualify for the National Championship if the field size in regular-season events exceeds 100 boats.
The 2018 FLW College Fishing National Championship will take place May 30-June 1 on the Red River in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission & Red River Waterway Commission.