The WVC Bass Warriors recently had three teams travel to Lake Guntersville for a Major League Fishing Abu Garcia College Southeastern Conference event on Lake Guntersville in Guntersville, Alabama. Drew Fromm and Hunter Capehart, Isaac Irvin and Mason Gross, and Lane Bradley and Holden Kauble spent three days of preparation on Lake Guntersville for a one-day tournament held on Friday, March 4th. The weather pattern for the week was pretty consistent with temperatures being in the low 40s of a morning, rising to low to mid 70s by early afternoon. Friday was no different, and with temperatures being the warmest of the week, the tournament was setting up to be a good one for many five-fish-limits and big weights.
Two-hundred nineteen boats launched from Lake Guntersville State Park at 6:30 a.m. with an eight-hour window to try to catch five keeper bass measuring fifteen inches or more. Freshman Lane Bradley and sophomore Holden Kauble were the first to weigh-in for the WVC Bass Warriors. The duo had two keepers a large portion of their day but kept at it and filled their limit in the final two hours of the day. Bradley and Kauble had five keepers that weighed 16 lbs. 14 oz. good for a 34th place finish. When asked about their week, Kauble replied, "We had a pretty slow practice but the first fish we caught in the tournament was a five pounder and that got the ball rolling. We caught another keeper shortly after that but then went without a bite for a couple of hours. We finished out our limit fishing a contour change." The second team to weigh-in for the WVC Bass Warriors was freshmen angler's Isaac Irvin and Mason Gross. Irvin and Gross caught a five fish limit that weighed an astounding 20 lbs. 1 oz. That weight was good enough for a 10th place finish out the of the 219 boats in the tournament and qualified Irvin and Gross for the 2023 Major League Fishing College National Championship. Qualification for the championship in each event requires a finish in the top 10% which for this event, was the top 21 teams. When asked about their week, Irvin replied, "We had a good practice and caught multiple nice fish throughout the week. We had three spots that we felt we could catch fish on. We started tournament morning on our offshore spot and caught a limit of spotted bass for about 13 lbs. We went to our second spot and culled a couple of those out with a 3 lb. and 4 lb. largemouth. We ran our third spot and had no luck. Hoping to upgrade some, we went back to our original spot and culled our other three spots out with a 6 lb. largemouth and two more close to 3 lbs. each. Two of those culls were on the last two casts of the tournament at 3:19 p.m. with our time due back in being 3:30 p.m." Gross added, "While most were going shallow due to warming water temps, we opted to stay out deeper as the water temperature and water clarity was still right for that pre-spawn offshore bite. That's what we stuck to and it ended up being a great decision because most of those fish were not being pressured like bridge fish or things like that." Irvin and Gross are the second team in the short history of WVC Bass to punch their ticket for the MLF National Championship and the first for the 2022 season. The final team to weigh in for the WVC Bass team was Drew Fromm and Hunter Capehart. Fromm and Capehart had one keeper that weighed 1 lb. 13 oz. which finished them 183rd out of the 219 boat field. Capehart commented, "We had a tough week of practice and could not find the right fish. It was still a good experience learning more about how to fish offshore." Fromm echoed some of Capehart's comments, "We were mostly offshore fishing in practice, did a lot of running around but could never get on anything good. We caught a six and half pounder in practice on a jerkbait on the famous Hank Cherry bridge and thought we might be able to catch a kicker there in the tournament. We found a roadbed in the tournament near another bridge and caught a couple of fish, one a keeper and the other a little short. An older couple rolled into our area and asked if it was okay to fish in that area and we said that was fine. They pulled out their bucket of 6" live gizzard shad and within five minutes they were hooked up, their first one was over 10 lbs. Hunter and I stood there in shock knowing that there likely more big fish like that down there. We tried to imitate what they were throwing but failed to catch any of that size. The couple caught another one near 9 lbs., two that were likely 5 lbs. and a couple of 4 pounders. The couple laughed and said it was not the first time they had done this in that area. It was normal for them to catch a 10 pounder. And that is how our Guntersville experience was."
Coach Gill was unable to attend this event but had some remarks about the event. "First off, this was an out-of-conference event for us and was not one we were able to count for school-of-the-year points. As a result, the anglers that went, went self-funded with no goal in mind other than getting qualified for the MLF National Championship. It excites me that our anglers desire to get more experience and are willing to sacrifice additional funds of their own to gain this experience and take a chance at getting qualified which will help us for the school-of-the-year race next season. It is extremely difficult to get qualified for a national championship as you have to finish in the top 10% of an event and there are many good, very good anglers on the collegiate bass series. To say that I am excited for Isaac and Mason is an understatement. I was really pulling for Lane and Holden when they weighed in as Holden finished 34th last year at Guntersville with Hunter Michl weighing in 13 lbs. 1 oz. I thought 16 lbs. 14 oz. was going to be good enough to get qualified comparing to last year's results but the big bags just kept coming in and found Kauble and Bradley on the outside looking in…once again in 34th place. When you look at it, last year's finish for Kauble and Michl was top 20% and this year was top 15% for Kauble and Bradley. Guntersville has got to be one of Holden's favorite lakes to fish with finishes like that. Holden is a great co-angler and one of the nicest guys on the team; I keep hoping that things will come together for him soon for that natty qualification. Bradley is just in his freshman season and I am confident that he will see a national championship at some point in his time with Wabash Valley College."
Seth Slanker and Jackson Swisher of Florida Gateway College eclipsed the field catching 29 lbs. 12 oz. for the win. The next closest team was Cabe Mackey and Nathan Smith of Catawba Valley Community College with 24 lbs. 14 oz. Rounding out the top three was James Broderick and James Ikerd of Mississippi State University with 23 lbs. 12 oz.
The Bass Pro Shops Big Bass Bash scheduled for this weekend was postponed due to inclement weather so the next event up for the Wabash Valley College Bass Warriors will be the second stop on the Strike King Bassmaster College Series at Lake Norman near Cornelius, North Carolina, March 25-26.
Isaac Irvin and Mason Gross with five keepers weighing 20 lbs. 1 oz. good for 10th place out of 219 boats.
Irvin and Gross with their 10th place finish trophy and a qualification to the 2023 MLF College National Championship.
The one-two punch for Irvin and Gross.
Holden Kauble and Lane Bradley had five keepers for 16 lbs. 14 oz. and a 34th place finish.
Drew Fromm and Hunter Capehart had one keeper for 1 lb. 13 oz. and finished 183rd out of 219 boats.