Arkansas-Little Rock Team Anxious To Fish Flw College Fishing Tournament On Dardanelle
Anglers in the final FLW College Fishing Southern Conference tournament of the year on Arkansas’ Lake Dardanelle Saturday should be able to catch bass just about any way they like to fish, according to a college angler who fishes the lake pretty regularly in regular tournament competition.
“I’ve been fishing a pro-am series the last five or six years on the amateur side so I can learn from the pro anglers and a lot of the guys we have around here are pretty good. They could go pro full time if they wanted to. So, I’ve fished Dardanelle every year for the past five or six years and I’ve had a lot of success there,” said Zach Rollings, who is vice president of the University of Arkansas-Little Rock fishing club.
Rollings, who will graduate in December with a degree in business administration and general finance, said his partner, Tyler Hamby, a rising sophomore from Mabelvale, Ark.,who is fishing his first year on the team, just returned from practice fishing on Dardanelle.
“He pretty much caught them on whatever he wanted to throw. There is a lot of stuff you can do on that lake – throw a frog in the pads, throw a swim jig in the grass, go out and fish the ledges,” said Rollings who hails from Bryant, Ark.
“We just had this cold spell come in and I don’t know if that will affect the fish or not. Last week it was 100 degrees and this past week it has been as low as 67 degrees, but I am expecting it to warm back up to the 90s by next week.”
The Dardanelle tournament will be the last of three qualifying tournaments in the Southern Conference this year. The top 15 teams from each regular-season tournament will qualify for one of five conference invitational tournaments. The top 10 teams from each conference invitational tournament will advance to the 2015 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
“If we do well enough in this tournament we could go to the Regional at Sam Rayburn in October – and from there possibly to the National Championship,” Rollings said, noting that there is historical precedent for his club. Although the club is small in number – it has only five or six “really passionate” members, he said – one of its teams won the Under Armor College Bass National Championship in 2008.
As for Rollings, when he graduates in December he will likely be looking for a job.
“I’d like to go pro, but I will probably keep fishing the local tournaments for a while. Maybe one day I can make a name for myself enough to make it to the pros,” he said.
FLW College Fishing – Southern Conference
Sat, Jul 26, 2014
Lake Dardanelle
Lake Dardanelle State Park
http://www.flwoutdoors.com/bassfishing/collegefishing/tournament/2014/7296/lake-dardanelle-details/
