Anthony Gagliardi of Prosperity, S.C., won the Forrest Wood Cup on South Carolina’s Lake Murray last August. Casey Ashley of Donalds, S.C., won the Bassmaster Classic on Lake Hartwell which lies on the South Carolina-Georgia border in February.

Now Patrick Walters of Summerville, S.C. and Gettys Brannon of Columbia, S.C. would love nothing more than to complete the Palmetto State trifecta and win the third bass fishing national title – the FLW College Fishing National Championship – on Lake Murray this week.

As the only collegiate team from South Carolina to qualify for the national championship, Walters and Brannon said they feel like they are not only representing the University of South Carolina where they fish for the Anglers@USC team, they are actually representing the entire state this week.

“This is a big opportunity for us, to represent South Carolina in this championship,” said Brannon. “There were 800 college teams and only 50 made it, 10 from each region.”

Brannon and Walters finished 5^th in the FLW college tournament on Lake Guntersville in Alabama last May and then had to finish in the top 10 in the Southeastern Conference Invitational on Tennessee’s Lake Chickamauga last October to make it to the championship.

“We finished 9^th at Chickamauga and we feel good going into the championship on Lake Murray,” Brannon said.

Both he and Walters say the home lake can be an advantage – or a curse.

“Being the only team from South Carolina, I feel that gives us a small home team advantage,” Walters said, “but the way the fish are biting right now it’s anybody’s game. This will not be a game for secrets; anybody can get lucky and stumble on them.”

The main reason it can help, Brannon said, is in the two days of practice before the tournament begins Thursday.

“The good thing about having the lake in our backyard is knowing the lake,” Brannon said. “We’ll spend the practice days burning a lot of gas and eliminating places we won’t fish during the tournament.”

Brannon said the fish are in all three phases right now. Some are pre-spawn, some are spawning and some are already post-spawn. Walters said the fish are biting all the way from the rivers at the upper end of the lake down to the dam at the lower end so it should not be too crowded during the tournament – at least on Thursday and Friday.

“We should have the lake to ourselves Thursday and Friday, but I know of several local tournaments going out of Dreher Island on Saturday, so we will have to deal with that local pressure on the last day,” he said.

Both said consistency will be a major factor for whoever wins.

“There are a bunch of bedding fish right now, so somebody is going to get lucky and stumble on some big bedding fish,” Walters said. “The thing is to do that all three days.”

“Patrick and I are hitting on all cylinders right now,” Brannon said. “We bounce ideas off of each other and we have good chemistry. It will take a lot of teamwork to win this tournament.”

With that confidence and trust in each other, they feel confident heading into the tournament, he said.

“If we get out there, take our time and do what we normally do we should be fine,” said Walters.

And both said there will be a lot of fish caught in the championship, which should make the weigh-ins held in conjunction with the South Carolina-Vanderbilt baseball games exciting. Weigh-in will be held adjacent to Carolina Stadium at Williams and Wheat Streets in Columbia beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday (or immediately following the end of the baseball game).

Brannon and Walters will throw out the first pitch for Thursday’s game.

Visit the USC Bass Fishing Team’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/uofscbassfishing and follow them on Twitter https://twitter.com/anglersusc @anglersusc

 

FLW College Fishing Series National Championship

Apr 16-18, 2015

Lake Murray

SCE&G North Recreation Area at Dreher Shoals

www.flwoutdoors.com