LITTLE ROCK — Zack Birge and Blake Flurry caught four bass weighing 4 pounds, 4 ounces at Lake Maumelle on Thursday to give Oklahoma State a 4-pound lead after the second round of the Bassmaster College Series National Championships.
Oklahoma State finished the second round with a two-day total of 21 pounds, 8 ounces. The Alabama team of Dustin Connell and Logan Johnson finished tied for second place (9-4/17-8) with the Murray State team of Justin Graben and Vincent Campisano. In fourth place was the Auburn team of Jordan Lee and Matt Lee (8-11/16-10).
The Arkansas team of Mook Miller and Kyle Billingsley qualified for the final round by catching five bass weighing 9-2 for a twoday total of 14-8.
The championship round will start today at 6:10 a.m. at Hurricane Lake in Benton. The team with the heaviest combined three-day weight will win the national championship.
After a big first round on the Arkansas River, Birge and Flurry caught just enough to maintain the nearly 4-pound cushion they had over second place. Flurry said they should have done better.
“It was a grind out there,” Flurry said. “We had No. 5 on several times and couldn’t land him, so we only came in with four.”
Flurry said they caught their first three fish early on a Rebel Pop R, a topwater lure. They caught their fourth fish at about 10 a.m. in deep water with a Robo worm on a drop shot. That fish bit at a depth of about 22 feet.
Mook and Billingsley started the day in 15th place, but they got the final slot in the championship round by fishing in shallow water. Alabama was the only team in the top five that had a better day.
“I never thought I’d say it, but we had to get as shallow as we could on Lake Maumelle,” Billingsley said. “I’m usually out there with a drop shot in 25 feet of water. Today, I was fishing in less than an inch of water all day long. It didn’t matter. They were there.”
Billingsley said bass bit topwater lures all day. They used Zara Spooks and plastic frogs.
“It was just a matter of waiting for the right group,” Billingsley said. “We’d see them before we caught them. We spooked them out of the grass and watched to see which direction they’d go. We cast in front of them, and they turned on it immediately. It was cool.”
Miller said their two biggest fish weighed about 3 pounds. Comparable size fish were with them.
“We caught them in an inch and a half of water,” Miller said, “but they came with four or five that big or bigger. If we could have got them to bite, we’d have been set.”
The Alabama team used a combination of deep and shallow tactics to score 2 ounces better than Arkansas. Johnson said he and Connell didn’t have success in shallow water early, so they went deep with a drop shot and caught their best fish at about 22 feet.
“We pulled back up shallow around lunchtime and caught our second-best fish in about a foot of water,” Johnson said
Johnson also said they used Zara Spooks and Pop Rs on top and a Strike King trick worm on the drop shot. They fished near Jolly Rogers Marina.
Boat troubles have plagued Murray State for the entire tournament. They finally caught up with the team Thursday, but Graben and Campisano still managed to catch enough to take them to another day.
Auburn has been the most consistent team, averaging about 8 pounds per day, but it took 4-15 to save the Tigers on Thursday. That was the biggest fish of the round, and they caught it on a drop shot with a Robo worm.
“It was a tough day,” Jordan Lee said. “We had one deep little place we started on. We hit one little school and caught one that was a pound and a half, that big one and another keeper. Then it slowed down.”
He said those fish were on the bottom, and they caught them by casting the drop shot like a shaky head.
“We caught some on the graph [suspended fish], but they were little spots,” Lee said. “We caught the big ones casting.”
The Henderson State team of Matt Harper and Will Reeder finished the day in ninth place with a two-day total of 11-2. The UALR team of Trent Gephardt and Jeremy Hall tied for 17th place with 8-7. Gephardt, who was fishing in his final collegiate tournament, was part of UALR’s 2008 national championship team.
The Arkansas Tech team of Jordan Mullenix and Evan Smith finished 22nd (6-13).
Sports, Pages 21 on 07/27/2012