Under overcast skies with on and off light showers the team worked wooded structure to scratch out a limit on the Ohio River.
“We stayed in Tanners Creek all day,” said Snellings a senior in fisheries science. “We knew the river was a tough place to fish and we didn’t know the fishery at all so we decided to stay close. We stayed in a small area, probably ½-mile section, and just picked it apart. We targeted every shelf and log we could find and were able to scratch out a limit. We had about 10 keepers all day, but it was a grind. We didn’t have our fifth bass until about 11 a.m.
“We started drop-shotting Zipper worms and then switched to weightless Texas rigs and threw a couple of topwater baits as well. I think the thing that made the difference was that we stayed focused and didn’t give-up on our area."
With the Northern Conference Championship on Philpott Lake, an hour and a half from Blacksburg, the Hokie team wanted to do everything they could to make the conference championship. Without being officially entered in Saturday’s tournament the team packed up their boat and headed to Lawrenceburg hoping they would be allowed in the tournament. As luck would have it and thanks to a few teams that decided not to make the trip, Virginia Tech was allowed to fish.
“This was the best day that you could have catching 7 1/2 pounds,” said Jackson, a sophomore in agricultural technology. “It was tough, but we were able to grind it out. I’ll be glad to come back. We are pretty excited.”
Rounding out the top five teams and also advancing to the Northern Conference Championship are:
2nd: Ohio State – Larry Helmers and Matthew Tarr, four bass, 5-4, $1,500
3rd: Glenville State College – Brandon Abbott and Nick Lambert, three bass, 3-10, $1,000
4th: Xavier University – Tyler Styons and Ian Goddard, two bass, 3-10, $1,000
5th: Radford University – Ryan McCarthy and Steven Jarrells, three bass, 3-2, $1,000
