“Last year, right at the beginning of January, they were already moving up to bed. We had some warm weather, but now we’ve had this cold weather and that is starting to slow them down. We are about two weeks behind last year, even though this tournament is two weeks later.”

Walters, who has had a chance to keep tabs on the fish for several days since fishing a tournament three earlier this month, said it appears the fish are finally starting to stage up and are in the pre-spawn phase.

“There will be some random spawning fish, but it will be slim pickings to find those spawning fish. My strategy will be to look strictly for pre-spawn fish. The pre-spawn fish are always the heavier fish,” he said.

Walters, who will team with Gettys Brannon, his teammate when the pair won the FLW College Fishing Championship on Lake Murray last April, said the fish will be moving close to aquatic grass.

“They will be pushing up in the grass in the main river channel. They will be moving up in Crescent Lake and Lake George, like always, but they will be up in the grass and on cypress trees in the main river,” he said.

“My main goal is to catch them flipping. I love to flip. It’s my favorite way to fish and if a cold front comes through it is about the only way you can catch the big ones. If we can’t catch them flipping we will try to find a casting bite. We’ll back off the grass and try to find a staging area where you can cast and catch bass on a Texas rig or maybe topwater and spinnerbaits.”

Walters and Brannon split up their team last year after winning the national championship in order to fish with other members of the USC bass fishing club and share their experience, but they are back together this year, he said.

“We did not repeat for the FLW Championship so we figured we’d fish the FLW College tournaments again this year and see if we can get something going again.”

But, he noted that does not mean the South Carolina college team depends just on him and Brannon.

“We’ve got these other teams and they are in all different stages of experience. Some are good now and some are in the beginning stages and learning. That is what is really good. We’ve got guys fishing their first tournament and they will be able to progress through the years. They are the ones who will eventually take over the club.”

FLW College Fishing teams compete in regular-season qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top ten teams from each division’s three regular-season tournaments and the top 15 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2017 FLW College Fishing National Championship.

 

FLW College Fishing Series Southeastern Conference

Sat, Jan 30, 2016

Crescent Lake

Bull Creek Fish Camp

www.flwfishing.com