oN tour
LAKE CHICKAMAUGA, DAYTON, TENN. – SEPT. 24
brYaN coLLeGe WINS bIGGeSt coLLeGe quaLIfIer ever
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by Colin Moore
n what was the largest qualifying event in FLW College Fishing tournament history, Connor Cohran and Cole Sands of
Bryan College turned back a strong bid by 2015 national champs Patrick Walters and Gettys Brannon to win a 2016
Southeastern Conference tournament on Lake Chickamauga in late September. Cohran, a freshman, and Sands, a
sophomore at the school of about 1,400 students, had a limit that totaled 16 pounds, 3 ounces, while Walters and
Brannon of the University of South Carolina had 16-2.
A record field of 203 teams notwithstanding, Cohran and Sands were able to take advantage of their experience and
Bryan’s proximity to Lake Chickamauga to overcome most of the traditional powerhouses of the Southeastern Conference.
“Basically, we’re right on the lake, practically overlooking Dayton [Tenn.] Boat Dock, and any day we have off is a practice
day,” notes Cohran. “Prior to the tournament, on Monday, we had about 18 1/2 pounds, so we knew we had the fish to
do well. We just didn’t know how well until the weigh-in.”
The Bryan anglers started the morning in Possum Creek fishing deep wood cover in 15 to 22 feet of water with MGC
jigs in green pumpkin paired with Strike King Rage Craw trailers. They
had a small limit within 45 minutes. Though they boated about 35
keepers during the day – including 10 that were caught on either a
Strike King Shadalicious (blue gizzard shad) or a Gambler Big EZ (new
shad) – the fish that made the difference came from an area between
Chester Frost Park and Soddy Creek. That’s where Sands, a business
major, boated a 5 1/2- and 4 1/4-pound bass.
“We wound up fishing the outside edges of hydrilla mats where they
disappeared into deeper water,” recalls Sands. “You couldn’t really see
the hydrilla, but you could feel it. I was just dragging the jig along the
bottom and popping it loose whenever it got caught in the grass.
Sometimes that’s when a fish would grab it.”
OUACHITA RIVER, MONROE, LA. – OCT. 8
Home team PuLLS off a WIN oN tHe ouacHIta rIver
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by Colin Moore
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amiliarity with the fishery and a lifelong habit of fishing together paid off for juniors Tyler Stewart and Nicholas Joiner
of the University of Louisiana-Monroe in the FLW College Fishing Southern Conference qualifier on the Ouachita
River as they won the title with a limit that totaled 16 pounds, 9 ounces.
Stewart and Joiner had the advantage of an abundance of practice time just prior to the tournament, and also bene-
fited from their shared years of experience on the river. As it was, they finished just 10 ounces ahead of the runner-up
team of Southern Conference rookies Cody Salzmann and Aaron Porterfield of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff,
who had 15-15.
Mainly, the two anglers flipped and pitched shallow wood cover in the back of Darbone Bayou, which was all but inac-
cessible to most boat traffic at tournament takeoff. The pair took advantage of low water to pole an aluminum boat back
into an area where the fish hadn’t been pressured in weeks, then fished
1/2-ounce black/blue or black/red V&M Adrenaline Flippin’ Jigs with
matching V&M Wild Thang Craw trailers.
“We caught 90 percent of our fish on the jigs, and we caught them
consistently all day,” recalls Stewart. “When it got really good, they
would take off with the jig as soon as it hit the water. Sometimes you
couldn’t hardly get your reel in gear before they took off with it.”
In stretches of Darbone where cover was scarce, Stewart and
Joiner also fished the channel with a black and chartreuse-colored
WEC Custom Lures E1 square-bill crankbait.
“We caught fish out of about 2 or 3 feet of water when we were
flipping, and from about 6 feet of water when we were cranking,” says
Stewart. “We must have caught 80 fish all day, which wasn’t surpris-
ing, considering that nobody had touched them in at least a few
weeks. They were hungry.”
fLWfISHING.com I december 2016