ETBU Still Ahead by an Ounce After Day 2 of the National Championship
WAGONER, Okla. – Razor-thin margins and bad weather have defined the Abu Garcia College Fishing Presented by YETI National Championship on Fort Gibson Lake so far. Leading by an ounce after Day 1, the East Texas Baptist University duo of Kaden Proffitt and Cason Ragsdale kept the same margin on Day 2, weighing four for 11 pounds, 14 ounces to total 29-7. In second, moving up the leaderboard from seventh, Austin Anderson and Cal Cameron of Stephen F. Austin weighed a limit worth 16-6 for a 29-6 total.
Day 1 was windy and warm, and Day 2 was windy, wet and cold. The ETBU duo attempted to adjust but ended up scratching and clawing for bites on the same places that worked on Day 1.
“The conditions definitely changed,” said Proffitt, a senior business administration major. “We started off the morning expecting them to do something different. With the rain we got last night, we knew there would be water coming in certain places. I didn’t know if the lake would come up, but I knew there would definitely be water running in. So, we started running the backs of some creeks, trying to find some places where water was running in to see if there were fish on them, and there really wasn’t.”
That failure forced the team to go back to fishing rocky transition banks and points in the mid and lower end of the lake.
“Every day has been kind of different,” said Ragsdale, who is also a senior business administration major. “Day 1 was on a crankbait, today we had one on a crankbait, one on this, one on that.”
Currently, only two teams in the Top 10 have managed to catch a limit two days in a row, so, the lack of a limit isn’t necessarily going to hold Proffitt and Ragsdale back. Still, they’re going into the final day clinging to the slimmest possible lead with new and potentially more difficult conditions forecast for the final round.
“We believe we can go out there and catch another bag tomorrow, we’re around quality if we can get the right bites,” said Proffitt. “I expect it to get quite a bit tougher with the high pressure, but if it’s tougher on us, it’s tougher on everybody.”
ETBU is hot now, with a National School of the Year title under its belt and plenty of success across the board. But, their team hasn’t yet won a national title. Given another good, and maybe just five bites, Ragsdale and Proffitt have a chance to do it.
“It’d be huge for us,” said Ragsdale. “It’d be our school’s first, and our first win in a collegiate series.”
“It would mean so much to us, it would mean so much to the program,” said Proffitt. “I probably won’t be able to put words to it when it happens.”
Top 10 Teams
1. Kaden Proffitt and Cason Ragsdale – East Texas Baptist University – 29 – 07 (9)
2. Austin Anderson and Cal Cameron – Stephen F. Austin – 29 – 06 (9)
3. Lafe Messer and Matt Messer – Kentucky Christian University – 29 – 05 (9)
4. Bailey Bleser and Nathan Doty – McKendree University – 27 – 07 (10)
5. Justin Carr and Austin Carr – Illinois State University – 26 – 06 (9)
6. Kayden Effinger and David Wisler – Murray State University – 26 – 04 (8)
7. Cannon Bird and Jacob Keith – East Texas Baptist University – 25 – 13 (10)
8. Donavan Carson and Landon Lawson – King University – 25 – 10 (9)
9. Cole Breeden and Cameron Smith – Drury University – 24 – 01 (6)
10. Dawson Cassidy and Augustus McLarry – Texas A&M – Commerce – 23 – 12 (8)