The Eastern Washington University team of Jarred Walker of Moses Lake, Wash., and Nick Barr of Lacey, Wash., won the FLW College Fishing Western Conference event on Lake Oroville Saturday with five bass weighing 9 pounds, 8 ounces. The victory earned the club $2,000 and advanced the team to the FLW College Fishing Western Conference Invitational tournament.
“We put together a game plan and tried out a few different things until we found something that worked,†said Barr, a marketing major. “We didn’t end up catching a single fish until about 10 o’clock. Jarred and I haven’t fished for months. Our lakes in Washington are frozen over. I haven’t touched a rod until last week when we were getting our gear ready.â€
“It was the first time we’ve ever been out to the lake before,†added Barr. “We are from eastern Washington, so it is about a 15-hour drive. We fished Shasta before, but never fished Lake Oroville.â€
“Our first fish came on a Yamamoto Hula grub,†said Walker, a construction management major. “We ran around and caught another fish on a drop-shot Senko. Within the last hour, we caught three in a row on the drop-shot (rig). Later in the day, the fish had started to come up shallower, and we were catching them in about 15 feet of water.â€
“It was slow fishing,†Barr continued. “We literally let the Senko sit for over a minute. We were using 6-pound fluorocarbon, and we think the light line was key to catching some of our fish.â€
The top 15 teams that advanced to the Western Conference Invitational tournament are:
1st: Eastern Washington University – Jarred Walker, Moses Lake, Wash., and Nick Barr, Lacey, Wash.(five bass, 9-8, $2,000)
2nd: UC Santa Cruz – Jason Coslovich, San Jose, Calif., and Tyler Brownell, San Diego, Calif. (five bass, 9-8, $1,000)
3rd: Oregon State University – Zach MacDonald, Willits, Calif., and Ryan Sparks, Haines, Alaska (five bass, 8-11, $500)
4th: Sacramento State – Thomas Kanemoto, Elk Grove, Calif., and Kyle Derbish, San Bernardino, Calif. (five bass, 8-8, $500)
5th: UC Davis – Christopher Beck, Diamond Springs, Calif., and Michael Manas, Carmel Valley, Calif. (five bass, 8-8, $500)
6th: University of Nevada, Reno – Anthony Milano and Brandon Cramer, both of Petaluma, Calif. (five bass, 8-3)
7th: CSU-Long Beach – Alex Cox, Long Beach, Calif., Justin Gangel, Valley Center, Calif. (five bass, 8-0)
8th: University of the Pacific – Garrett Brown, Stockton, Calif., and Siddhartha Nag, Cupertino, Calif. (five bass, 7-10)
9th: CSU Monterey Bay – Andrew Sjostrom, Mariposa, Calif., and Joshua Smith, Clovis, Calif. (five bass, 7-9)
10th: Colorado State University – Alex Stuart and Austin Young, both of Highlands Ranch, Colo. (five bass, 7-9)
11th: University of Oregon – Kaitlin Tanner, Missoula, Mont., and Eric Lee, Mather, Ore. (five bass, 7-7)
12th: Sonoma State University – Adrien Briens and Ernest Gorham, both of Carlsbad, Calif. (five bass, 7-7)
13th: CSU Monterey Bay – Matthew Diaz and Sebastian Resendiz, both of Castroville, Calif. (five bass, 7-5)
14th: California State University – Alex Pisarki, Costa Mesa, Calif., and Alfredo Gutierrez, Inglewood, Calif. (five bass, 7-4)
15th: Fresno State – Kong Moua and Cynthia Vang, both of Fresno, Calif. (five bass, 6-14)
Complete results can be found at CollegeFishing.com.
