Adrian College Blasts 50 to Win Open
Serafin, Batterson overcome high water, cold front for big finish at Kentucky Lake
Chase Serafin talked about being “dialed in” on Kentucky Lake, and it’s safe to say he and Adrian College teammate Cody Batterson proved they had massive Tennessee River reservoir Kentucky Lake figured out by posting a two-day total of 50 pounds, 3 ounces to win the YETI FLW College Fishing Open.
As Serafin explains, the week’s changing weather impacted fish positioning, and his team’s ability to interpret the changes and then make the proper adjustments accounted for its victory. Specifically, a cold front that ushered in high winds and dropped the temperature by about 10 degrees pushed fish back along their spawning migrations.
“The last day of practice and early in the first day of the tournament we could catch those fish in front of the bushes,” Serafin says. “But by late yesterday and all of today, those fish had made their way out of the creeks and onto the points.”
Serafin and Batterson topped day one with 24-15 and followed up with 25-4 today – also the biggest bag of the tournament. They headed out this morning just 1 pound, 3 ounces ahead of fellow Adrian College anglers Jack Hippe III and Nicholas Czajka, but today’s performance pushed the champs over the finish line by a margin of 7-6 ahead of runners-up Jacob Sanders and Chad Poulsen of East Texas Baptist University. Hippe and Czajka slipped to fourth.
“That was the first time we had 25 pounds in a college tournament, or any big tournament, and we did it back-to-back days,” Serafin says. “I think the key is you can’t be too spot specific. We had probably 15 different spots, and there were a couple of specific spots that ended up playing every day.
“We really had to pay attention to what the fish were doing every day to get locked into a pattern, instead of just having spots to go to.”
The winners caught their fish on a Rapala DT10 crankbait, Terminator spinnerbait with large willow-leaf blades, and an umbrella rig with three 1/8-ounce swimbait heads. Their swimbait choices were Keitech 3.8 Swing Impact FAT Swimbaits in bluegill flash on the outside and a 4.3 Swing Impact FAT swimbait in ayu in the center “target” position.
Batterson says a key adjustment helped bolster their performance.
“Today, we were on one of our better spots where we caught two good fish yesterday, and we weren’t catching anything,” he says. “I told Chase, ‘Why don’t we go check this other spot just up the way.’ We only caught two 3-pounders that we ended up culling out of the spot yesterday, but we rolled up on it and right away we caught one good smallmouth, and then we moved into the cove. On our way out of the cove, we ended up catching our biggest fish of the day.
“It was about rotating through your spots. Once we figured out what spots were active during a day, we would hit them through a rotation, like every hour or so, and we’d end up catching one more big one.”
Another good decision came late in the day today, when Serafin and Batterson made a final stop on the break wall outside of Kentucky Dam Marina – the tournament takeoff site – in the waning minutes. Fishing the umbrella rig in the deeper water off the riprap produced a 5 1/2-pounder that slammed the door shut on the win.
For their victory, Serafin and Batterson won a Ranger Z175 with an Evinrude outboard. The top 21 teams in the College Open also qualified for the 2019 YETI FLW College Fishing National Championship.
Day 2 photo galleries
Top 10 teams
1. Adrian College – Chase Serafin & Cody Batterson – 50-3 (10)
2. East Texas Baptist University – Jacob Sanders & Chad Poulsen – 42-13 (10)
3. Bethel University – Garrett Enders & Cody Huff – 41-15 (10)
4. Adrian College – Nicholas Czajka & Jack Hippe III – 41-5 (10)
5. University of North Alabama – Luke Mason & Garett Marler – 40-8 (10)
6. Adrian College – Alex Henderson & John Franco – 39-12 (10)
7. Murray State University – Harbor Lovin & Evan Bramhill – 39-8 (10)
8. Bethel University – Hunter Louden & Seth Roberts – 38-12 (9)
9. Campbellsville University – Dakota Cantrell & Austin Moore – 36-1 (10)
10. Bethel University – Dakota Pierce & Cole Floyd – 33-7 (9)