Louisiana Tech University Wins College Fishing Southern Conference Event on Sam Rayburn Reservoir
OutdoorHub 02.26.12
The Louisiana Tech University team of Peyton Igo, Minden, La., and Matthew Loetscher, Many, La., won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Southern Conference event on Sam Rayburn Reservoir Sunday with five bass weighing 15 pounds, 8 ounces. The victory earned the team $5,000. The win also helped them advance to the Southern Conference Regional Championship.
“We were targeting major spawning pockets,” said Loetscher, a sophomore in construction engineering. “We knew the fish were going to be scattered so our plan was to catch one fish at a time hoping to be able to find the spawning bass. We were able to find one pocket that really paid off for us today, it was a recently flooded bank with hay grass and we pretty much stayed there all day.
“All of our bass were caught in less than 5 feet of water,” Loetscher continued. “We were using Carolina and Texas rigs with Zoom Speed Craws.”
Under bluebird skies the bite on Sam Rayburn Reservoir was tougher than most of the young anglers anticipated. Both young men from Louisiana Tech University expected heavier sacks to cross the stage today. Igo indicated that going into the tournament they were anticipating it would take 20-pounds or more to even be in contention.
“Things went pretty good for us today,” Igo, a sophomore in agriculture business said. “We were catching fish back and forth all morning and then Matthew got the first good fish and we started to breathe a little easier. I got my big one (a 7 ½ – pounder) shortly after and we knew we had a pretty good sack.
“We didn’t think we really had enough to win going in,” Igo continued. “We were pretty nervous sitting in the hot seats after weighing-in second, but it held tough.”
Rounding out the top five teams and also advancing to the Southern Regional Championship are:
- 2nd: University of Louisiana – Monroe – Brian Eaton and Nick Ladart, both of Monroe, La. (five bass, 13-8, $1,500)
- 3rd: Central Arkansas – Robert Bartoszek, Conway, Ark., and Justin Harrell, Mayflower, Ark. (five bass, 12-11, $1,000)
- 4th: Stephen F. Austin – Kyle Turner, Tyler, Texas, and Robert ‘Blaze’ Platt, Azle, Texas (five bass, 10-3, $1,000)
- 5th: University of Louisiana – Lafayette – Neil Arnaud, Lafayette, La., and Cody McCrary, Baton Rouge, La. (five bass, 9-10, $1,000)
Complete results can be found at FLWOutdoors.com.
The top five teams from each tournament qualify for the regional championship where the first-place team will win a Ranger 177TR bass boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard wrapped in school colors for their fishing club. The top five teams from each regional tournament advance to the national championship.
College Fishing is free to enter and FLW provides boats and drivers for each competing team along with travel allowances. All participants must be registered, full-time undergraduate students at a four-year college or university and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university.
The next National Guard FLW College Southern Conference tournament is scheduled for April 1 at Eufaula Lake in Eufaula, Okla.
For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow College Fishing on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishingFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing. Visit CollegeFishing.com to sign up or to start a club at your school.
