ALSOP ADVANCES TO THE 2017 CUP
best bet first thing in the morning, when the bass were on an early bite. The next part of their plan would be to fish the docks only after the sun got up high enough to condense the shade around them to a smaller area, thereby narrowing the strike zone. And finally, since the deep brush piles were all the way back near takeoff, they would save them for last, building in an hour or so to check the cover before calling it a day.
Perfect Timing
KSU’ s timing couldn’ t have been orchestrated better. On the first two days of competition, the team scored two or three decent keepers right off the bat on the Decatur ledges.
“ That first stop of the morning required some teamwork,” Alsop recalls.“ As soon as one of us got hooked up, the other one netted the fish and took care of getting it unhooked and in the livewell so the other one could make an immediate cast back out there. Twice over the first two days we doubled up on quality fish on the flats, which gave us a huge start each of the first two days.”
After getting a few quality keepers from the ledges, Alsop and Blenn moved to the docks to finish off a limit. Then they made the run back to the brush piles in First Creek, where they got the best surprise of all – big upgrades.
“ The stuff we found around the marina close to the launch ended up being the biggest bonus,” Blenn says.
“ The first two days we didn’ t even fish all of our piles before we culled up to 16 pounds. That allowed us to save a few brush piles for the last day.”
With limits of 16-8 and 16-9 weighed in over the first two days, the Wildcats took the lead going into the final day of competition by just 4 ounces ahead of Bethel University’ s Evan Owrey and KJ Quen.
Banking on Brush
As it turned out, Alsop and Blenn would need the extra brush piles the last day as their fishing spots near Decatur dried up. The ledges only produced one fish for the livewell; likewise, the docks only yielded one keeper. With just two in the box, the anglers had to make an early return to the lower end near the takeoff marina to see if the deep brush piles could bail them out. The piles provided a limit, but getting big bites remained an issue. Instead of 16 pounds plus, they brought in 11 pounds, 11 ounces, leaving the door cracked for either Bethel or the University of South Carolina’ s Gettys Brannon and Patrick Walters to make a move. Neither could rally enough weight to catch K-State.
“ I really didn’ t think we had enough to win,” Blenn says.“ Every day, another team besides us was bringing in a 16- or 17-pound limit, and I just figured someone else would do it. Apparently, Wheeler was pretty tough on everyone that final day, and our weight was good enough to keep us in the top spot. Those brush piles really saved us.”
photo by aNdy hagedoN
ALSOP ADVANCES TO THE 2017 CUP
Because only one member of the YETI FLW College Fishing National Championship team can advance to the Forrest Wood Cup, Blenn and Alsop participated in a one-day fish-off on Wilson Lake on the day after the championship to determine who would get to go. Each was issued an identical Ranger bass boat and given eight hours to see who could catch the heaviest weight for a five-fish limit. Ultimately, Alsop came out ahead.
Prior to the championship, the anglers spent a couple hours on Wilson“ fun fishing” and just getting a feel for the scenario there, in case they wound up winning, but overall they didn’ t have much information about Wilson to work with. Both college anglers were forced to“ shoot from the hip” and fish what they could see.
“ Obviously, we both would have liked to have fished offshore like we did at Wheeler because that’ s where the bigger fish are now in the TVA system,” Blenn says of the challenge.“ But we had very little knowledge of Wilson, so I just went and fished visible stuff – grass and docks.”
Blenn spent most of the day fishing the shallow willow grass with a white popping frog, and pitching a jig to docks. By weigh-in time he had five fish that totaled 7 pounds, 7 ounces. Meanwhile, Alsop ventured offshore first thing in the morning to catch a solid 3-pounder off a ledge and then finished his limit by pitching a Texasrigged Brush Hog in shallow grass. His limit weighed 10 pounds, 5 ounces, sending him to the 2017 Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Murray in Columbia, S. C.“ Wow, I don’ t know what to say,” Alsop says of his Cup berth.“ It’ s been an incredible week. To accomplish this in my very last collegiate event is pretty special. I can’ t wait to go to Murray.”
photo by aNdy hagedoN
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