MANY, La. – The Lamar State College-Orange duo of Trent Buchholz of Beaumont, Texas, and Dakota Posey of Orange, Texas, won the MLF Abu Garcia College Fishing Presented by YETI event on Toledo Bend Friday with a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds, 15 ounces. The victory earned the Gators’ bass club $2,000 and a slot in the 2023 MLF College Fishing National Championship.

“Dakota and I had been working up for this one,” said Buchholz. “And everything went right for us. When it’s your time, it’s your time. We just caught them. We never lost a fish, and it just happened. This feels awesome.”

Buchholz, who claims Sam Rayburn as his home lake, said he visited Toledo Bend the week before the tournament and fished for two days and established a pattern that produced 16 pounds one of those days. For the tournament, the team continued focusing on that pattern – targeting rocks in 5 to 15 feet of water. Buchholz said the key bait for the team was a Strike King Chick Magnet Flat-Sided Crankbait.

“The first rock point we pulled up to I caught one that was 5½ pounds on the Chick Magnet,” Buchholz said. “My partner caught two 2½-pounders on a jerkbait and we ended up culling up.”

The top 10 teams advanced to the 2023 College Fishing National Championship:

1st: Lamar State College–Orange – Trent Buchholz, Beaumont, Texas, and Dakota Posey, Orange, Texas, five bass, 16-15, $2,000

2nd: Tarleton State University – Sam Semper, Parker, Texas, five bass, 16-12, $1,000

3rd: Texas A&M University–Commerce – Iain McClelland, Celina, Texas, and Tristan White, Celina, Texas, five bass, 16-0, $500

4th: Louisiana Tech University – Cooper Arthur, Calhoun, La., and Brodie Paige, Biloxi, Miss., five bass, 15-7, $500

5th: Lamar State College–Orange – Brett Fregia and Jack Tindel, both of Orange, Texas, five bass, 14-8, $500

6th: Tarleton State University – Kreed Averhoff, Hico, Texas, and Jordan Kalsbeek, Stephenville, Texas, five bass, 13-14

7th: Louisiana Christian University – Harrison Bieber, Dry Prong, La., and Ben South, Jasper, Texas, five bass, 13-5

8th: Tarleton State University – Luke Lewis, Corsicana, Texas, and Blake Martinez, New Braunfels, Texas, five bass, 13-3

9th: East Texas Baptist University – Corey Morris, Rockwall, Texas, and Chase Walker, Burleson, Texas, five bass, 11-15

10th: Northwestern State University – Luke Iles, Saint Francisville, La., three bass, 11-13

Complete results

The Abu Garcia College Fishing Presented by YETI event on Toledo Bend was hosted by the Sabine Parish Tourist Commission and Toledo Bend Lake Country. It was the first of three regular-season tournaments for Southern Conference anglers. The next event for College Fishing anglers will be the Abu Garcia College Fishing Presented by YETI OPEN event on Lake Chickamauga, Feb. 24-25, in Dayton, Tennessee.

MLF College Fishing teams compete in three regular-season tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top 10 teams from each division’s three regular-season tournaments and the top 20 teams from the annual Abu Garcia College Fishing Open will advance to the following season’s National Championship. The 2022 MLF Abu Garcia College Fishing Presented by YETI National Championship Presented by Lowrance will be held on Fort Gibson Lake in Wagoner, Oklahoma, March 29-31, and is hosted by the Wagoner Area Chamber of Commerce.