Thursday, October 28, through Saturday, October 30, SFA will host the FLW College Fishing Festival and Texas Regional Championship. SFA Bass Club members Blaze Platt and Ryan Watkins will join 19 other qualifying collegiate teams competing for the regional champion title, including teams from Texas A&M, Baylor, the University of Oklahoma and North Texas.
In order to qualify for the regional tournament, a team had to place in the top five in one of four events last spring. Platt and Watkins qualified twice.
Thursday and Friday at 7:30 a.m. the first and second rounds of fishing will begin at Lake Sam Rayburn aka “Big Sam.” The festival will begin at 2 p.m. at the Ag Pond when the boys bring back their fish for the weigh-in. Each partner can enter three fish, the bigger the better. A live recording of the weigh-in will be broadcast on flwlive.com. The competition will then switch gears to a celebration at Lumberjack Alley with games and prizes. Attendance for both the weigh-in and festival are free to the public.
Saturday will mark the final round of fishing with the top five teams left in the competition. While the teams are still fishing, the festival will continue at Lumberjack Ally before the SFA Homecoming football game against Texas State. From 11 a.m. to 2 pm. there will be free t-shirts, tailgate games, Sports Zone Contests, the National Guard Warrior Challenge and live music from the Darby Ledbetter band. At 5 p.m. will be the final weigh-in at the Ag Pond and there will be free pizza for spectators.
First place will advance to nationals as well as win a new boat and scholarship money.
Watkins feels confident rather than nervous going into Thursday’s competition at his home lake. “The way I look at it I’ll either be the zero or the hero. It’s like how in baseball you can either swing for a base hit or a home run. The techniques and equipment we’re going to be using are primarily to catch big fish,” he said.
Watkins explained how he would rather take a chance on catching less fish, and in doing so hopefully catch a few big ones that will get him the win. For him, it’s all about quality over quantity.
“It’s more than luck,” said Bass Club Treasure, Zach Brown. “It’s all about consistency and knowing where to fish and when to fish.”
The fishermen were allowed to start scoping out the lake Wednesday, October 27 (one day prior to competition). This will help the competitors locate fish and help them predict where the fish might move pending weather changes.
Watkins says he will definitely take advantage of the water being open before competition.
SFA Bass Club began in 1994, and nationally ranked in the top ten for the past four years.
YOUR inside connection to Campus Rec- Steph
No comments:
Post a Comment