Lamar University teammates Brandon Simoneaux and Josh Bowie won the FLW College Fishing Southern Conference Invitational tournament on Sam Rayburn last October to advance to the 2015 College Fishing National Championship this spring on South Carolina’s Lake Murray. 

Now Simoneaux is hoping that same magic that propelled him and Bowie to the win then will carry over next week on Sam Rayburn again as he and new teammate Colby Ogden begin the journey towards a potential berth in the 2016 College Championship.

“Josh is graduating in May,” said Simoneaux, of Bridge City, Texas,a junior majoring in mechanical engineering. “But Colby and his partner, Quinton Evans, finished 6^th in the regional on Sam Rayburn in October. We have fished together for sun a few times and we fished a tournament in December and had the opportunity to to do really well.”

Simoneaux explained that in that tournament he and Ogden, of Kountze, Texas, were fishing heavy cover and knew the chances of fish getting hung up and getting off were high , but they did manage to boat four solid keepers both days.

“We fish together extremely well,” he said. “We both really want to do good and we both pretty much approach everything differently, so it works out really well.”

He noted that recent rains have raised the water level by a couple of feet in Sam Rayburn and fishing has been tough in practice as a result.

“The fish we had been catching we could not get to bite anymore, so we have to practice again this week and see if we can relocate them. We hope the water clears up some,” Simoneaux said. “The water is still pretty cold, too. It was in the mid 40s when I was up there last weekend.”

He said he and Ogden are picking up a fish “here and there,” and they are catching “one fish on this and one on that.”

“We will probably do a lot of junk fishing,” he said, “not necessarily banking on any particular kind of lure, but using an assortment of lures.”

While he is concentrating on Sam Rayburn this month, Simoneaux is already looking forward to the 2015 FLW College Fishing National Championship, which will be held April 16-18 at Lake Murray in Columbia, S.C., in conjunction with the University of South Carolina baseball team’s three-game series against Vanderbilt.

“Our region is proud to host the 2015 FLW College Fishing National Championship,” said Miriam Atria, President and CEO of the tournament host Capital City/Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism Board. “We look forward to welcoming college teams from across the nation to Lake Murray. The last time we hosted the FLW College Fishing National Championship in 2012 it provided national exposure for Columbia, Lake Murray and the University of South Carolina baseball program.”

The championship will feature the top 10 teams from each of the five 2014 FLW College Fishing Conference Championships for a total field of 50 boats. The winning team will receive a Ranger Z117 and advance to the 2015 Forrest Wood Cup in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

 

FLW College Fishing Series – Southern Conference

Sat, Jan 24, 2015

Sam Rayburn Reservoir

Umphrey Family Pavilion

www.flwoutdoors.com