The Skyhawks tossed a swimbait some and weighed a few key fish that were caught with a Carolina rig , but crankbaits produced their biggest bass .
of their day-one bag of 24-3 , the Racers wound up third with 39-15 .
“ The pattern that we tried to run was fishing where the boat was in 8 or 10 feet of water , and we were a long cast away from a natural rock bank ,” recalls True , a junior agricultural business major . “ There wasn ’ t really anything special about the spots we fished . The bottom just came out gradually , and we threw crankbaits up there for the most part .”
After nighttime temperatures dipped into the 30s between the first and second days , the heavier females apparently moved even farther offshore , and the reaction bite melted away . Even still , True caught a couple of keepers on a Strike King KVD 2.5 square-bill . Lamastus likewise contributed to the effort with a Strike King 2.5 in chartreuse with a black back .
“ Saturday [ the second day ] we had to change up ,” says True . “ There were so many crappie fishermen and bass fishermen along the banks in Jonathan that we figured it was time to go . The bass boats were basically doing what we had been doing , so we didn ’ t think it would be too productive to fish behind them . Also , unless we slowed way down , we couldn ’ t get bit . Everything just kind of stopped , not that they were eating it up Friday .”
Abandoning Jonathan Creek , the Skyhawks ran south to the equally vast Blood River arm . There , they fished Carolina rigs dragging Strike King 6-inch Rage Lizards ( green pumpkin ) and wound up catching seven keepers overall .
“ We really just couldn ’ t get a bite ,” Lamastus says , explaining the switch from crankbaits to the excruciatingly slow Carolina rigs . “ The second keeper we caught Saturday barely had the crankbait by the back hook . That was the last crankbait keeper we had up until the very end , when we went to Jonathan again on the way back and I caught a 3 1 / 2-pounder to cull a 2-pounder .”
For the most part , True and Lamastus employed G . Loomis or Hammer rods with Shimano baitcasters . They cranked with 12-pound-test
P-Line Halo fluorocarbon , and fished 20-pound test on the Carolina rigs .
“ This was a real boost for our program ,” says True , UT Martin ’ s club president . “ We ’ ve got about 20 members now , and we went to Kentucky Lake with seven teams . So , we ’ re making some progress and hope to show up at every college tournament we fish with teams that are capable of winning it all .”
As champions of the 2017 Kentucky Lake Open , True and Lamastus won a Ranger Z175 bass boat equipped with a 90-hp Evinrude . They also took home various prizes provided by YETI , Costa , Plano and others . The total package is valued at more than $ 30,000 .
Per tournament rules , the top 20 teams qualified for the 2018 YETI FLW College Fishing National Championship . Several teams in the top 20 had already qualified for the 2018 championship in other tournaments prior to the Kentucky Lake Open , so YETI FLW College Fishing Director of Tournament Operations Kevin Hunt worked down the list clear to 30th place to determine the 20 qualifiers .
2018 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS
1 . Matthew Lamastus & Dylan True – UT Martin – 44-4 ( 10 ) 2 . Koby Littrell & Martin McCravy – University of North Alabama – 40-8 ( 10 ) 3 . Nick Montilino & Brock Spencer – Murray State University – 39-15 ( 10 ) * 4 . Nathan Bell & Cole Sands – Bryan College – 36-12 ( 10 ) * 5 . Bradley Devaney & Saxton Long – University of Tennessee – 35-5 ( 10 ) * 6 . Austin Mize & Ethan Goodwin – University of North Alabama – 34-9 ( 10 ) 7 . Tyler Black & Ryan Winchester – Bethel University – 34-0 ( 9 ) 8 . Nicholas Czajka & Jack Hippe III – Adrian College – 33-10 ( 10 ) * 9 . Brian Pahl & John Coble Garrett – Bethel University – 33-0 ( 10 ) 10 . Thomas Soileau & Hunter Freeman – Univ . of Louisiana-Monroe – 32-13 ( 10 ) 11 . Austin Elswick & Hunter Fulcher – University of Kentucky – 32-10 ( 9 ) 12 . Austin Butler & Ryan Kirkpatrick – Murray State University – 32-3 ( 10 ) * 13 . Bradley Fleming & Evan Cook – Texas A & M – 31-13 ( 10 ) * 14 . Tyler Rocke & Justin Schick – Illinois State University – 31-9 ( 10 ) 15 . Ben Wiley & Colin Bope – Ohio State University – 31-1 ( 10 ) * 16 . Cole Floyd & Carter McNeil – Bethel University – 30-14 ( 9 ) 17 . Hunter Mills & Hunter McKinley – Murray State University – 30-13 ( 10 ) 18 . Thor Swanson & Mitchell Swanson – Bemidji State University – 30-11 ( 9 ) 19 . William Bond & Hunter Buice – University of South Carolina – 30-11 ( 10 ) 20 . Nick Ratliff & Luke Patterson – Campbellsville University – 30-7 ( 10 ) 21 . Conner Thompson & Dylan Pritchett – Bryan College – 29-14 ( 10 ) 22 . Ben Bates & Andrew Dawson – University of Tennessee – 29-6 ( 10 ) 23 . Jacob Miller & Jaycen Newsome – Ohio State University – 28-10 ( 10 ) * 24 . Cody Stahl & Daniel Kennedy – Savannah College of Art & Design – 28-10 ( 10 ) 25 . Ryan Lancaster & Boris Muskoff – Murray State University – 28-9 ( 9 ) 26 . Joe Bardill & Luke Ripple – Murray State University – 28-7 ( 10 ) * 27 . JT Russell & Jacob Louis – McKendree University – 28-1 ( 10 ) 28 . Tyler Robinson & Jack Kons – Bemidji State University – 28-0 ( 9 ) * 29 . Dalton Wesley & Zach Hartnagel – SIU-Edwardsville – 27-15 ( 10 ) 30 . Will Miller & Ethan Ingle – University of South Carolina – 27-7 ( 9 ) * Qualified via previous College Fishing events .
MAY-JUNE 2017 I FLWFISHING . COM 93