Top 5 Patterns from Fort Gibson – Day 1

WAGONER, Okla. – Day 1 of the Abu Garcia College Fishing Presented by YETI National Championship on Fort Gibson Lake was grind for most everyone in it. Whipped by wind and dealing with mostly uncooperative fish, the top two teams have some separation, but the rest are stuck in a scrum, scratching and clawing for every bite.  

Fishing for East Texas Baptist University, Kaden Proffitt and Cason Ragsdale tallied 17 pounds, 9 ounces to take the lead. In second, brothers Lafe and Matt Messer put up 17-8 for Kentucky Christian University.

2. Lafe Messer and Matt Messer – Kentucky Christian University – 17-8 (5)    

The brothers Messer took the lead fairly early in weigh-in and seem to be about as dialed as you can be on Fort Gibson this week.

“It started out pretty good, our first keeper come on our second spot, and our third spot, we pulled up on and caught a 6-pounder first thing,” said Lafe, a senior majoring in accounting. “We ran around like crazy for a little while, and it seemed like as the day went on, it got better. On a lot of the stuff we ran in the first pass and didn’t get a bite, we’d run about an hour later and catch one. Hopefully the fish are just reloading on our areas and we saved enough for tomorrow.”

Coming straight to the event from a B.A.S.S. tournament in North Carolina, the brothers only got a day of practice in, which hasn’t proved to be a problem so far.

“This place really sets up a lot like where we are from in eastern Kentucky,” said Matt, a sophomore accounting major. “So, we just showed up and fished our strengths. We just went chucking and winding, burning the banks up as fast as we could go, looking for five bites, and it ended up working out for us.”

“It don’t really set up the same visually, but the fish are acting the same way,” said Lafe. “This place has a lot more big rock than we do back home, but they’re setting up textbook like they do at the house. We’re just doing what we’ve done our whole life.”

3. Gaige Blanton and Kody Mazur – Missouri Western State University – 14-4 (4)  

Catching only four fish, but four of the right ones, Gaige Blanton and Kody Mazur ended the day with a super clutch catch.

“We caught that big one with seven minutes left to go,” said Mazur, a senior biology major. “We had three fish from 12:30, all the way until 2:49.”

The day started well, with a fish early on one of their primary spots, and two other keepers as well. But, the afternoon was a definite lull. Fishing shallow, the pair are focused on catching fish headed to the bank.

“We told ourself we needed to fish for fish that would be coming to us, and they’ve showed up every day,” said Blanton, a senior wildlife major.

“Saturday was tough, Sunday we didn’t catch a fish,” said Mazur of the practice period. “Yesterday was the best day we’ve had, we caught nine keepers. We thought today would be good, but the bite was still tough.”

As for what tomorrow may bring, Blanton is looking forward to anything but more wind.

“I feel good. I’m kinda anxious for this weather change,” said Blanton. “I think it might spark something. Sometimes a weather change will do that for the better. The thing I’m mostly excited for, is we really like to fly around and go fishing. We weren’t able to do that today with the wind. If we can get the wind to calm down a little bit, I think we can fly around and maybe get a few more bites.”

4. Jacob Andrews and Connor Nimrod – University of Louisiana-Monroe – 14-0 (5)    

Repping ULM, Jacob Andrews and Connor Nimrod are hunting for the school’s third National Championship title, which would be the most any university has won with MLF or FLW. Like most teams, they were hampered by the wind.

“We’re fishing around a bunch of people, fishing slower than a lot of guys,” said Nimrod, a senior marketing major. “We’re just fishing those flatter points, places where fish want to move to. It seems like they’ve been coming all week, we’re just looking for those areas.”

“I’m glad we caught ‘em when we did,” said Andrews, also a senior, majoring in criminal justice. “Because when that wind got high it got bad tough.”

For Day 2, the plan is the same – to grind out bites and fish smart.

“I think we’ve got to do the same thing we did today,” said Nimrod. “Just go fish and keep an open mind – see what looks good and hit it.”

5. Kyle Hopping and Lane Stephens – McKendree University – 13-15 (5)

Both freshmen, Kyle Hopping and Lane Stephens appear to be carrying McKendree’s reputation as a bass-fishing powerhouse with ease. They’re also one of the few teams with local experience on the lake, as Stephens is from Oklahoma.

“We did lose one fish that really would have put us up there,” said Stephens, who is majoring in marketing. “That’s really the only thing that hurt us. I knew the wind was going to be bad today, so it eliminated a ton of water. I found an area in practice that was productive, and we just set in it all day.

“I knew running around and running and gunning, they’re just not biting that well out here,” said Stephens. “We stayed in an area, a staging zone, and they’re just pulling up and down constantly. When it’s tough like this, it’s always notoriously good.”

Well known for a shallow bite, you don’t expect folks to fish deeper than a few feet on Fort Gibson. However, Stephens says a deeper strategy is helping to set them apart.

“The lake level is the big thing, this lake is so affected by the lake level,” said Stephens. “It’s such a shallow fishery, if those fish can be in the bushes, they’re going to be in the bushes. We’re actually fishing pretty deep, deeper than most of the field. We caught most of our fish in 10 or 12 feet of water today, and we caught two out of close to 20.”