College boys hit tournament circuit

If they would have had a college bass fishing tournament circuit when I was 20 years old, I would probably have a picture of some big bass hanging on the wall instead of a college diploma today. That’s because I probably never would have graduated. I would have been fishing all the time. Seems like today’s college anglers have a better balance than I might have struck:

FLW’s Southern Conference College Bass circuit kicks off Saturday, Jan. 26 at Lake Amistad in Del Rio, Texas, with teams from 24 different colleges competing for the $2,000 top award and a berth in the Southern Conference Invitational.  That includes teams from the University of Louisiana-Monroe,  Louisiana Tech & LSU. Here’s the lineup representing our area. Good luck, guys!

University of Louisiana-Monroe – Blake Alford, West Monroe, La., and Paul Clark, Monroe, and Nick Ladart and Brian Eaton, both of Monroe.

Louisiana Tech University – Dalton Tam, Deville, and Peyton Igo, Minden, and Matthew Loetscher, Many, and Wade Tracy, Pineville, La.

LSU – Louisiana State University – Brett Matherne, Westwego, and Logan Mount, Leesville; Drew Comeaux and Bryan Coleman, both of Denham Springs; and Richard Murdock, Lawrenceville, Ga., and Beau Hadskey, Baton Rouge.

Schools like Texas A&M, TCU, Oklahoma State, Baylor,Oklahoma, ULL, McNeese and others are also competing.  “Amistad is really a fun lake to fish,” said FLW Tour pro Cody Bird of Granbury, Texas, who

Paul Clark and Brett Pruett of the University of Louisiana-Monroe at last year’s Southern Championship. FLW photo

has 21 top-10 tournament finishes in FLW competition. “It’s a deep, clear reservoir right on the Mexico border, and it’s a little warmer down there. The weights haven’t been as big lately as when FLW has been there in years past, but there’s definitely still the potential to catch 25 pounds.”

FLW College Fishing teams compete in four qualifying events in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top fifteen teams from each regular-season tournament will qualify for one of five conference invitational tournaments. In last year’s Southern Conference Championship, Paul Clark and Brett Pruett of the University of Louisiana-Monroe had a three-day total weight of 43-10 and finished second, earning a check worth $5,000.

The top 10 teams from each conference invitational tournament will advance to the 2014 FLW College Fishing National Championship. College Fishing is free to enter and FLW Outdoors 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.

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.