Auburn takes control at FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference Championship

Auburn University's Shane Powell and Jordan Lee lead the Southeast Conference Championship on Lake Wylie with 12 pounds, 2 ounces. Photo by Brett Carlson. Anglers: Jordan Lee, Shane Powell.

September 28, 2012 • MLF • Abu Garcia College Fishing

ROCK HILL, S.C. – The Auburn University team of Jordan Lee and Shane Powell, both of Auburn, Ala., increased their lead on day two of the National Guard FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference Championship presented by Evinrude on Lake Wylie Friday with a five-bass limit weighing 12 pounds, 4 ounces. Their two day total weight of 24 pounds, 6 ounces leads the University of Alabama, their closest competitor, by a commanding 4 pounds, 9 ounces going into the final day of competition. Twenty college teams from around the region are participating in the tournament and competing for a Ranger Z117 bass boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and a berth in the National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship.

“We had such a fun day and were so blessed,” said Lee a senior in business marketing. “We caught about 30 or 40 fish again today, 20 of them were keepers. We pretty much caught them the same way today, deep with crankbaits. We tried shallow fishing again but, nothing. Everything we caught shallow was short.

“We still haven’t caught a 3-pounder yet,” Lee continued. “But we have a pretty comfortable lead and we are confident we can catch them again tomorrow. The way we have been catching them we just need five minutes on the right spot and I’m pretty sure we’ll have a limit.”

Powell and Lee said they are catching their fish in 25 to 40 feet of water. Most of the bass seem to be close to the bottom, “maybe three feet off the bottom,” said Lee. Their deepest fish came in 40 feet of water on a swimbait.

“One spot was so prolific we were catching them two at a time,” said Powell, a senior in fisheries. “You could just see the bass stacked-up on the graph. We caught so many fish today; it was so much fun!

“The first three spots we went to this morning already had boats sitting on them so we kept moving,” Powell went on to say. It wasn’t until we hit our third or fourth stop that we even had a bite. Once we found the right spot and we hit it at the right time the fish were biting like crazy. One spot we hit three times before we could actually get the fish to bite, but we knew they were there because we could see them on the graph so we kept going back.”

While Auburn University has a commanding 4 pound, 9 ounce lead over second place, only 10 ounces separates second, third and fourth places.

Rounding out the top-five teams and also qualifying for the FLW College Fishing National Championship are:

1st: Auburn University – Jordan Lee and Shane Powell, both of Auburn, Ala., 10 bass, 24-6

2nd: University of Alabama – Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., and Logan Johnson, Tuscaloosa, Ala., 10 bass, 19-13

3rd: University of North Carolina-Charlotte – Shane Lehew, Charlotte, N.C., and Adam Waters, Denver, N.C., 10 bass, 19-10

4th: Indian River State College – Kyle Monti and Mike Cornell, both of Okeechobee, Fla., 10 bass, 19-3

5th: University of Central Florida – Miles Burghoff, Orlando, Fla., and Casey O’Donnell, Bradenton, Fla., 10 bass, 16-2

Anglers will take off from Ebenezer Park located at 4490 Boatshore Road in Rock Hill, S.C., at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. Final weigh-in on Saturday will be at Walmart located at 4875 Old York Road in Rock Hill, S.C., beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

Fans will be treated to the FLW Expo at Walmart on Saturday from noon-4 p.m. prior to the final weigh-in. The Expo includes interactive games, activities and giveaways provided by sponsors. Fans can also learn more about the sport of fishing and other outdoor activities. All activities are free and open to the public.

Four regular-season qualifying events were held in each conference – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southern and Western – the top five teams from each regular-season event qualified for one of five conference championships. The top five teams from each conference championship advance to the National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship.

College Fishing is free to enter and FLW provides boats and drivers for each competing team along with travel allowances. All participants must be registered, full-time undergraduate students at a four-year college or university and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university.

Coverage of the Southeastern Conference Championship will be broadcast in high-definition (HD) on NBC Sports Network when “FLW” airs Dec. 23 from 1-2 p.m. EST. “FLW” is hosted by Jason Harper and is broadcast to more than 559 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.

For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow College Fishing on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing. Visit CollegeFishing.com to sign up or to start a club at your school.