MOUNT IDA, Ark. (April 17, 2010) – The University of Wisconsin-Stout team of Jeremy Anibas, and Ryan Helke, won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Central Division on Lake Ouachita Saturday with six bass weighing 14 pound, 1 ounce. 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 bass club and $25,000 for the school they represent.
“We went junk fishing today,” said Helke, a sophomore studying Tech Ed. “We were catching them on spinnerbaits, trick worms, salamanders; just about anything we threw they ate. We had our limit by 10 a.m. this morning. I think we caught upwards of 50 fish, it was just an incredible day.”
Early morning cloud cover is also believed to have contributed to their success; after the sun came out at noon the fish stopped biting.
“We caught our biggest fish 20 minutes into the tournament,” said Anibas, a sophomore in Applied Science. “This was our first time on Lake Ouachita; we .just applied everything we knew from fishing back home and hoped it would work. The fact that the fish were spawning made a big difference too, the fish were hungry and aggressive so we just kept throwing them everything we had.”
Rounding out the top five teams were Truman State – Mike McCarthy, Jr., and Spencer Clark (five bass, 13-4, $5,000); University of Arkansas at Little Rock – Brian Duckett and Trent Gephardt (six bass, 11-13, $4,000); Western Kentucky –David Stephens and Andy Southard (six bass, 11-4, $3,000); Eastern Kentucky – John Smith and Christopher Davis (six bass, 11-1, $2,000).
