THE TOURNAMENT REPORT
1. ABU GARCIA COLLEGE
FISHING PRESENTED BY YETI
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
PRESENTED BY LOWRANCE
Harris Chain
Feb. 26-28, 2020
Hank Harrison and Ethan
LeGare of Stephen F. Austin
University weighed in the
biggest bag of the day when
it mattered most, sacking up
20 pounds, 8 ounces on day
three of the Abu Garcia
College Fishing presented by
YETI National Championship
presented by Lowrance on
the Harris Chain for a 56-5
total, a new Phoenix 518 Pro
bass boat with a 115-horse-
power Suzuki outboard and
qualification into the 2020
Toyota Series Championship.
The duo struggled with
the conditions on day two,
as much of the field did
throughout the tournament
on a Harris Chain that was
68
fishing a little finicky thanks
to some unstable weather
conditions. But after weigh-
ing in just 13-14 that day,
Harrison and LeGare
rebounded and shot all the
way from sixth to first by
targeting a trio of offshore
grass flats that were holding
waves of fish moving in and
out of their spawning bays.
With grass flats on Lake
Eustis, Lake Dora and Lake
Beauclair, the eventual
champions rode their off-
shore bite through the warm
weather on day one with
moving baits such as a 6th
Sense square-bill and 6th
Sense Provoke jerkbait. As a
cold front moved in and
slowed the bite, though,
they had to mix things up
and slow down. They
adjusted with split-shot rigs
and Texas rigs equipped
with a watermelon red
Zoom Salty Super Fluke or a
soft-plastic stick worm in
California 420 with gold
fleck. Harrison and LeGare
also mixed in a Carolina rig
and a drop-shot on day
three to finish the job.
“[Day two], having 13-14,
we adjusted positively, but
not enough,” Harrison says.
“We were going into [day
three] sitting in sixth place,
and we knew we needed a
bag, so we went out today
with that mindset.
“Every single day,
whether we were fishing
fast or slow, we had to find
the cast. We were moving
around these points trying
to find the cast. We just had
to go fishing and pick our
spots apart.”
Making the right cast on
their grass flats was crucial,
as was their decision-mak-
ing in the waning hours of
the final tournament day.
With just 15 minutes left,
the duo decided to stop on
its spot in Eustis on the way
back to weigh-in. LeGare
picked up the drop-shot and
landed two keepers in that
span – the second being
what proved to be their win-
ning kicker with just a cou-
ple minutes left to fish.
“The key this week was
keeping our heads down
and slowing down and
adapting,” LeGare says.
“We knew we had the areas
to do well in this tourna-
ment; we just had to pick
them apart, and today we
did that. We didn’t give up,
and we fished until the last
second.”
In addition to the new
bass boat, Harrison and
LeGare also earned their
spot as pros in the 2020
Toyota Series Championship
on Lake Cumberland on
Nov. 5 for a shot at the
$200,000 top prize.
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