Northeastern State Whacks 19-4 on Texoma
Smallmouths key the win
The Northeastern State University team of Cody Metzger of Wagoner, Oklahoma, and Blayke Haggard of Gans, Oklahoma, won the YETI FLW College Fishing event on Lake Texoma on Sunday with a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 4 ounces. The victory earned the Riverhawk bass club $2,600 and a spot in the 2019 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
The duo say they spent the day targeting smallmouth bass on main-lake points, about 5 to 8 miles away from the takeoff ramp at Highport Marina.
“We were wearing short sleeves in practice, but the temperature dropped to 32 degrees the morning of the tournament,” says Metzger, a senior majoring in criminal justice. “We knew that fishing for largemouth was going to be tough, so we decided to target the smallmouth.”
“We focused on the points where the wind was blowing the hardest, fishing the mid to southeastern areas of the lake,” says Haggard, a sophomore majoring in cellular and molecular biology. “We had five or six points that we rotated through that all looked very similar, fishing in 4 to 10 feet.”
The Riverhawk club cited citrus shad-colored Bandit 200 crankbaits and a prototype Bandit squarebill crankbait as their most productive lures. They say that they caught 10 to 12 keepers.
“I think our timing was really key,” Metzger says. “The key was finding the right spots and then sticking it out to find a couple of good bites. A couple of people were fishing next to us, but they weren’t staying long enough. It had to be at the right time.”
“We had great execution,” Haggard went on to say. “I caught a 4-pounder early, then three casts later Cody put a 3½-pounder in the boat. Those early fish clued us in that we were doing the right thing. It also helped that we didn’t lose any fish, all day.”
Top 10 teams
1st: Northeastern State University – Cody Metzger, Wagoner, Okla., and Blayke Haggard, Gans, Okla., five bass, 19-4, $2,400
2nd: Louisiana Tech University – Spencer White and Greg Herman, both of Minden, La., five bass, 18-14, $1,000
3rd: Colorado State University-Pueblo – Danielle Dupont and Austin Miles, both of Pueblo, Colo., five bass, 18-6, $500
4th: University of Louisiana-Monroe – Jacob Andrews, Monroe, La., and Luke O’Neal, Madisonville, La., five bass, 18-0, $500
5th: University of Arkansas – Samuel Meaders, Fayetteville, Ark., and Kyle Jessie, Pearcy, Ark., five bass, 17-15, $500
6th: Northeastern State University – Caleb Gibson and Tyler Winn, both of Tahlequah, Okla., five bass, 17-14
7th: Southern Arkansas University – Drake Vines, El Dorado, Ark., and Reed Barham, Hope, Ark., five bass, 17-10
8th: Oklahoma State University – Rhett Meyer, Stilwell, Okla., and Jake Biram, Tulsa, Okla., five bass, 17-4
9th: Tarleton State University – Hayden Pittman, Bergheim, Texas and Jarrett Robertson, Kerrville, Texas, five bass, 17-3
10th: University of Louisiana-Monroe – Hunter Freeman, Monroe, La., and Wesley Banks, Calhoun, La., five bass, 17-1
The YETI FLW College Fishing event on Lake Texoma was hosted by the Denison Area Chamber of Commerce, and was the second of three regular-season qualifying tournaments for Southern Conference anglers in 2018. The next YETI FLW College Fishing event takes place April 21, when Northern Division anglers compete at the YETI FLW College Fishing event at Smith Mountain Lake in Bedford, Virginia.
YETI FLW College Fishing teams compete in three 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 20 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2019 FLW College Fishing National Championship. Additional teams will qualify for the National Championship if the field size in regular-season events exceeds 100 boats.
The 2018 FLW College Fishing National Championship will take place May 30-June 1 on the Red River in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission & Red River Waterway Commission.
YETI FLW 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 that is recognized by their school.