Champion College Angler Eager To Get Bassmaster College Series Underway On Okeechobee
Florida’s Lake Okeechobee has a reputation as a bass factory, but it can be fickle like this time of year when cold fronts moving through can give the largemouths lockjaw.
“Okeechobee doesn’t care who you are,” said Jacob Nummy, who teamed with fellow Auburn University at Montgomery student Tom Frink to win the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship on Chatuge Reservoir at Young Harris, Ga., in August. “It will shut down on you in a heartbeat. It’s a different fishery, but it’s fun and it can be rewarding.”
Frink has graduated, but Nummy will team with his childhood friend and fellow UAM student, Corey Pierce, for the 2014 Carhartt Bassmaster College Southern B.A.S.S. Regional Jan. 3-4 to kick off the college series for the coming year.
College teams from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and west Tennessee will be competing in the Southern Regional, which kicks off the series of regional college tournaments across the United States. Covering five geographic regions and some of the best bass waters in the country, the College Series will crown a new national champion in 2014 and send a talented young angler to the 2015 Bassmaster Classic.
“Corey and I finished third out of 181 boats in the only college tournament I have fished with him, the BOAT-US National Championship in either 2010 or 2011. We’ve fished together a lot in other tournaments and he and I have both had top five finishes in college bass tournaments,” Nummy said.
He grew up fishing Florida strain bass and he has experience on Lake Okeechobee and other Florida waters. This past January he and Frink finished 6th in a college bass tournament on the Harris Chain, then followed that a week later with a third place in the FLW College Fishing tournament on Okeechobee.
“It’s lining up to be the same type conditions this year,” Nummy said. After fairly warm conditions, a cold front is expected a few days before the tournament.
“Florida strain largemouths will shut down in cold water, 55 degrees or less, but if we get a warming trend we can catch some fish,” he said.
“There will be 129 teams in the tournament, so even though Okeechobee is a giant lake it fishes really small. Take an area like the Monkey Box, it will be fished so hard I don’t even know if I will go in there.”
Nummy left the day after Christmas to spend as much time checking out the Okeechobee bass as possible before the tournament.
“It’s the best way to finish off the Christmas break,” Nummy said. “I love Okeechobee this time of year, and it’s nice to get on the spring bite. I’ve been watching the weather, and we’re going to have a new moon when I’m down there. One thing I know about Okeechobee is that the tournament is going to be won on a flipping bite.
“There may be some sight fishing during practice, but I wouldn’t count on it during the tournament. I think the fish are going to be so spooky from practice that the option to sight fish may be there, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a pattern,” he said
“Okeechobee can be overwhelming, but I don’t see why Corey and I can’t be successful,” Nummy said.
2014 Carhartt Bassmaster College Southern B.A.S.S. Regional
Jan. 3-4, 2014
Lake Okeechobee
C Scott Driver Park
