Gamecock Anglers ‘confident’ For Flw College Fishing Tournament On Lake Guntersville
Confidence is one of the greatest assets a fisherman can have. And the University of South Carolina’s bass fishing team members are brimming with confidence right now after two of them won the FLW College Fishing Series National Championship last week on Lake Murray.
“Winning the championship gives you confidence in everything you do,” said Patrick Walters of Summerville, S.C, who teamed with Gettys Brannon of Gaffney, S.C., to win the college bass fishing title. “Even on a typical day of fishing it gives you confidence. It’s a different kind of adrenaline.”
Walters is banking on that confidence to give him and teammate Josh Rennenbaum of Chapin, S.C., a shot at winning the FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference tournament on Lake Guntersville Saturday.
The University of South Carolina bass fishing team, @anglersusc, is sending three teams to the conference tournament on Guntersville. Besides Walters and Rennenbaum, Brannon and Tom Brewbaker of Columbia and William Miller of High Point, N.C., and Ethan Ingle of Burlington, N.C., will also be fishing for the USC Gamecocks.
Walters said he and Brannon, who finished 5th last May in the Southern Conference tournament on Guntersville, took on new teammates this year in order to field more teams with at least one member with extensive tournament experience. Walters and Rennenbaum finished 7th in the Bassmaster Carhartt College Southern Regional on the St. John’s River in January. Brannon and Brewbaker finished 25th.
Walters said he has not had a chance to practice on Guntersville for Saturday’s tournament, but he plans to leave after a final exam on Thursday and spend Friday looking for groups of bass in deep water as most of the bass reportedly have finished the spawn.
“If I can find a couple of schools out deep, I am going to hope for some current and hit those fish all day. But, if I can’t find the deep fish I will just head to the bank. You can always catch them shallow,” he said.
Walters said he will target the deep fish with “a typical ledge arsenal – football jigs, Texas rigs and deep-diving crankbaits” and hope to stumble onto some really big bass schooled up on those ledges.
In addition to winning two berths in the 2015 Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Ouachita in August, he and Brannon won a Ranger Z117 with a 90 horsepower outboard, but don’t expect one of them to fish out of that new boat at Lake Guntersville.
“We are going to put the boat up for sale. He will get a third, I will get a third and we will give the team a third,” Walters said.
FLW College Fishing Series – Southeastern
Sat, May 2, 2015
Lake Guntersville
Civitan Park Ramp
