“It feels absolutely amazing to win this tournament,” said Brown, a junior majoring in petroleum engineering. “To come out here and see all of our hard work pay off is truly special.”

“After the practice we had, we thought it would take a lot less weight to qualify. But, the conditions changed so we had to step up our game,” said Rascoe, a junior majoring in secondary education.

“We decided to focus on bass that were in an odd prespawn pattern,” Rascoe continued. “We ended up fishing in three spots that were a lot shallower than we originally had planned.”

The duo said their hot spots were in an area along the edges of mid-lake reeds. They said they used one bait all day long – a green-pumpkin V & M Chopstick – to nab their fish.

“The reeds needed to be in about four feet of water for the fish to be active,” said Brown. “If the wind was blowing on them, it was even better.”

The team said they were able to catch seven keepers throughout the day, with four of five keepers coming between noon and 2 p.m.

“We were definitely surprised by the weights that other teams were bringing in,” said Brown. “Luckily the five we had were heavy enough to win the whole thing.”

The top 10 teams that advanced to the 2017 College Fishing National Championship are:

1. Louisiana State University-Shreveport – Christian Brown, Pelican, La., and Jared Rascoe, Stonewall, La. – 18-7 (5) – $2,000 Club Scholarship

2. Louisiana State University – Levi Sharp, Haughton, La., and Dakota Sparks, Denham Springs, La. – 18-0 (5) – $1,000 Club Scholarship

3. Stephen F. Austin State University – Tyler Woods, Mansfield, Texas, and Robert Tweed, Round Rock, Texas – 17-9 (5) – $500 Club Scholarship

4. Louisiana Tech University – Tyler Wilk, Ruston, La., and Scott McClellan, Leesville, La. – 17-0 (5) – $500 Club Scholarship

5. Lamar University – Brandon Simoneaux, Bridge City, Texas, and Colby Ogden, Kountze, Texas – 15-13 (5) – $500 Club Scholarship

6. Texas Tech University – Adam Estlack, Lubbock, Texas, and Matthew Bowden, Spring, Texas – 14-4 (4)

7. Sam Houston State University – Dillon Harrell, New Caney, Texas, and Dustin Moreno, Shepherd, Texas – 13-15 (5)

8. Angelo State University – Scott Halbrooks, San Angelo, Texas, and Chase Gibson, Denver City, Texas – 13-12 (5)

9. Louisiana Tech University – Gunner Durrett, Simsboro, La., and Austin Watkins, Boyce, La. – 13-7 (4)

10. Tarleton State University-Stephenville – Zach Ziober and Dakota Ebare, both of Stephensville, Texas – 13-4 (5)

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

This FLW College Fishing Southern Conference event was the first regular-season qualifying tournament. The next event for Southern Conference anglers is a tournament scheduled for April 30 on Fort Gibson Lake in Wagoner, Oklahoma.

FLW College Fishing teams compete in regular-season qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top ten teams from each division’s three regular-season tournaments and the top 15 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2017 FLW College Fishing National Championship.

College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a college fishing club.

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