Purdue Bests Bull Shoals

3/6/2010 5:56:55 PM

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The Purdue University team of Chad Dunham and Alex Lowe won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Central Division event on Bull Shoals Lake Saturday with three bass weighing 7 pounds, 8 ounces. The victory earned the team $10,000 to be split evenly between the university and the university’s bass-fishing club. The win also helped them advance to the Central Division Regional Championship where they could ultimately win a Ranger 177TR with a 90-horsepower engine wrapped in school colors for their school’s club and $25,000 for the school they represent.

“It was tough, but we just kept chuggin’,” Dunham said. “We started out deep, moved around a little, had some boat trouble, got through that and just kept going.

“I started the day using jerkbaits and YUM Money Minnows in deep water and nothing was happening so we moved to the mouth of the cove to try up there, still nothing. Then my partner put on a Storm Wiggle Wart and got a fish, so I decided to try it too and was able to get two more with the Wiggle Wart and luckily that’s all we needed.”

Only 21 teams weighed in today, however many were just happy to be fishing on an ice free lake including the team from Purdue University.

“This was my first time on Bull Shoals and my first FLW Outdoors tournament,” Lowe said. “We are so surprised to be in first spot-with only three bass. We came to the scales just hoping to make the top-5, but to actually win, what a thrill.”

Rounding out the top five teams today were Winona State University – Jerry Jonsgaard and Zac Cassill (one bass 4-13, $5,000); Henderson State – Justin Westfall and Michael Jennings (one bass, 4-8, $4,000); Southeast Missouri State – Andrew Pinkley and Jim McDevitt (two bass, 4-7, $3,000); Truman State University – Mike McCarthy, Jr., and Spencer Clark (two bass, 4-6, $2,000).