Thirty six teams from eleven universities throughout the state of Texas met at Belton Lake on October 23rd to contest the inaugural Texas Collegiate Bass Championship hosted by Texas State University and Sam Houston State University. This event is sanctioned by the Association of Collegiate Anglers and supported by the BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Series.
Tanner Morgan and Stephen Campbell led the effort for Tarleton State University that resulted in the school claiming three of the top ten spots. Morgan and Campbell concentrated on shallow, wind-blown points in the mid lake area that offered a mix of large rocks and timber. A watermelon/green pumpkin Stanley jig produced three of their four keepers including a 4.97 pounder that was good enough to claim big bass honors. The team’s fourth keeper was fooled with a crankbait. Although they were one bass shy of a limit, Tanner and Stephen claimed the victory by more than a 2 pound margin with 12.75 pounds.
Finishing in second place with a limit of bass tipping the scales at 10.71 pounds was Brian Bauer and Joey Garland of Baylor University. The team caught a nice smallmouth on a deep diving crankbait early followed soon after by a small keeper on a football jig. Both fish were positioned on secondary points that featured nice drop offs. After an extended period of running wind-blown points with topwaters and crankbaits to no avail, Bauer and Garland slowed down and concentrated on isolated laydowns. They finished their limit with one caught on a Baby Brush Hog and two, including their biggest, on a small square bill crankbait.
Ryan Watkins and Zach Brown of Stephen F. Austin claimed 3rd place with 9.26 pounds by targeting transition banks in the backs of creeks. Both flipped light watermelon/chartreuse jigs rigged with Pro’s Choice E’gr Craws in watermelon seed. Watkins and Brown caught five keepers by targeting laydowns that were positioned at a 45 degree angle to the bank.
Rounding out the top 10 is:
4th Tarleton State Colt Farris & Zack Jones
5th Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Chris Schaefer & Jake Heath
6th Texas State Joey Reich & Elliott Gundelach
7th Tarleton State Brent Vincent & Tyler Graves
8th Texas A&M Weston Brown & Paul Manley
9th Univ. of Texas-Tyler Michael Huss & Charlie Brown
10th Texas A&M Cody Collins & Kris Luensmann
This is one of many events sanctioned by the Association of Collegiate Anglers and supported by the BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship Series. Numerous prizes provided by Cabela’s, Columbia, frogg toggs, Costa, Sperry Top-Siders, Sebile, Lazer Trokar, American Rodsmiths and Big Bite Baits were awarded to the top 7 teams.
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