Only The ‘good’ Grass Will Do In The Flw College Northern Division Championship On Chesapeake Bay
Aquatic grass will be a major key in deciding the FLW College Fishing Northern Conference Championship on the Chesapeake Bay this weekend, but it will have to be the right grass, said Thomas Arens of Shenandoah University who teamed with his brother, Billy, to place 8th in the tournament on the bay in 2014.
“You can find them on the grass – if you can find healthy grass,” Arens said. “The grass is not as good as it was last year. There is not as much milfoil as there used to be so a lot of fish are gravitating towards hard cover like rocks and docks. Last year the grass was a lot healthier. Now it seems like there is more eel grass and it’s hard to find the milfoil patches.”
After a couple of days of practice on the bay and its arms, Arens said the bass appear to be a little confused.
“It’s not like it was last summer, that’s for sure,” he said. “The quantity is not there. There have always been some good ones, but it’s a lot harder to find fish than it was last year. Last year you could pull up on an area and catch fish; this year you you can pull up on six areas and draw a blank.”
The Arens brothers have found some promising spots, mostly back in the creeks, not out on the flats in the bay, he said.
“It’s almost like it was three or four weeks ago when the Elite Series was here and the weights were down severely. No one really fished out there. You might get one or two out on the flats in the early morning, but it was the arms that were producing the best.”
Arens said in their previous practices they found the most success with black and blue spinnerbait combos, chatter baits, a drop-shot and a paddletail swimbait in a near chartreuse shad color.
“Hopefully, we will go Friday and get in some practice fishing. We’ve had classes all week, so hopefully that last day of practice will help us keep things together,” said Arens who said they will spend Friday looking for backup areas.
The brothers started fishing competitively in their high school fishing club, making the Junior Bassmasters twice, but their collegiate fishing careers were on hold while they played baseball for Shenandoah – Thomas, a biology major, in the outfield, and Billy, a criminal justice major, at shortstop.
“My brother holds all the accolades,” Thomas said. “He was All Old Dominion Conference, Regional All-Academic and Division 3 All American at shortstop. Once our eligibility was up we got back into fishing.”
Forty-five college teams qualified for the Northern Division Championship, competing for a top award of $4,000 and a berth in the 2016 FLW College Fishing National championship.
TRAIL: FLW College Fishing Northern Conference Championship
Sep 12-13, 2015
Chesapeake Bay
Anchor Marina
