Finding groups of bass in the grass will be key in FLW College Southeastern Championship on Pickwick
The FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference Championship on Pickwick Lake this weekend is going to be about one thing and one thing only – grass.
Not the kind you mow in the front yard. This is hydrilla, the most seen on Pickwick in years, and that’s where the bass are, said SE Conference angler Patrick Walters of the University of South Carolina.
“They had a mild winter and now there are miles and miles of hydrilla,” said Walters, who teamed with Gettys Brannon to win the FLW College Fishing National Championship on Lake Murray in April. Walters, of Summerville, S.C., is teamed with Josh Rennebaum of Chapin, S.C., for the 2015 FLW College season.
“Once you get that much hydrilla in a lake it all looks the same.”
The key, Walters said, will be to be patient and work down the grass, finding the pockets of bass hiding in the hydrilla – and fish error-free.
“It’s going to be tough. You are only going to get five or six bites a day, so you have to be consistent and put those five or six fish in the boat. Just don’t make any fishing mistakes.”
Walters noted that it only took 32 pounds to win the Walmart BFL Mississippi Division Super Tournament on Pickwick last weekend.
“That’s a 16-pound average per day, so we figure 12 pounds a day will put us in the top 10,” he said. Forty-five college teams have qualified for this event and will be competing for a top award of $4,000 and a berth in the 2016 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
“We’ll be working a jig in the grass, some topwater and probably a frog, that kind of stuff,” Walters said. “Somebody will have a smallmouth in the bag, but the tournament won’t be won on smallmouth bass. To win you are going to have to have largemouths.”
Walters left for Pickwick Wednesday and Rennenbaum will join him Friday to practice before the tournametn begins.
“We’ll be refining techniques, but mainly we’ll be looking for pockets of fish,” Walters said, noting that during the summer anglers could find one school of fish and catch 30 to 40 bass out of it every day, but that is no longer the case.
“Now if you find a pocket of fish it may hold only four or five fish. We will need to find different areas holding fish. They are getting so much pressure that one or two groups of fish won’t hold up over two days. We will need multiple pockets of fish.”
Rennebaum and Walters qualified for the Southeastern Conference Championship on Pickwick Lake by finishing 8th in the Southeastern Conference tournament at Guntersville May 2. They also finished 6th at the end of May on Lake Hartwell.
While they hope to finish in the top 10 and advance to the 2016 National Championship, Walters said they will be fishing to win at Pickwick.
“If you are not fishing to win you don’t fish as hard as you should be fishing. You don’t try to fish as hard as you can. I am not setting my goal to just come in the top 10, but if you fish to win you can be happy with a top 10 finish,” he said.
FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference Championship
Sep 26-27, 2015
Pickwick Lake
McFarland Park
