Alan McGuckin – Dynamic Sponsorships
For the third straight autumn, Quantum rods and reels hosted yet another prize rich, no entry fee tournament for high school and college anglers at Grand Lake. And when the scales stopped spinning, previously proven talent rose to the very top of the leaderboard among the 101 impressive teams in attendance.
Former Oklahoma Junior B.A.S.S. Nation champion, Kollin Crawford won the high school division single handedly. He had no team partner, but was captained by his dad Lance, a very avid and accomplished tournament angler.
Flying solo, the young Crawford, from a tiny town north of Broken Bow, OK, caught his biggest fish shallow around wood habitat on a double willow spinnerbait, and complimented it by dragging a Biffle Bug a bit deeper to win the high school division with 11.33.
Top sticks prevailed on the college side too. Highly accomplished Trevor McKinney and Blake Jackson of reputable McKendree University, made the six-hour trip home from Grand Lake to Illinois loaded down with prizes from their 15 pound 6 ounce domination. Their win was driven largely by casting Chatterbaits and D & L jigs around docks in the back of pockets.
“We love this event, we’ve fished it all three years, but we didn’t like finishing second the last two years,” grinned McKinney, a senior who is student teaching. “We had a great tournament this past week at Lake of the Ozarks, and we rode that momentum into this Quantum event to finally get the win.”
Top talents like Crawford, McKinney and Jackson continue to support Quantum each autumn at this event not only because there is no entry fee and it’s very well coordinated, but also because the prizes are astonishing, and top pro Matt Lee does a great job emceeing and interacting with the student anglers.
Plus, they benefit greatly from the generosity of premium brands like Carhartt, Costa, Gene Larew, Lure Lock, Lowrance, Pelican, Seaguar, and of course, Quantum, who collectively already look forward to a successful 4th annual event next year.
