Bainbridge set to host Yeti FLW College Fishing Event this weekend

Published 3:36 pm Friday, February 9, 2018

YETI FLW College Fishing will continue the season with an event Feb. 10 on Lake Seminole presented by Bass Pro Shops. The tournament, hosted by the Bainbridge Convention and Visitors Bureau, is the first of three regular-season events for anglers in the Southeastern Conference, and will feature a top prize of a $2,000 club scholarship and an invitation to compete in the 2019 College Fishing National Championship.

“This is going to be a great tournament,” said FLW Tour pro Buddy Gross of Chickamauga, Georgia, who won the Costa FLW Series event on Lake Seminole in 2017. “The bass are prespawn right now and there are a lot of fish fattened up. The lake is on fire – last weekend it took 32 pounds to win a local tournament – and they’re hitting it at just the right time. They’re going to be able to fish how they’d like and catch them in a lot of different ways.

“I think it’ll likely be a grass deal and the fish will be set up in a lot of pre-spawn areas,” Gross continued. “The bass on Seminole use sand to bed, so I’d be looking for grassy flats and humps near sandy bottoms. I think there will be a big Rat-L-Trap bite, and a flipping bite in the hydrilla. Senkos and swimbaits will produce as well. Teams are going to be able to spread out.”

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Gross offered words of advice for college anglers who may be visiting the lake for the first time – be careful.

“Lake Seminole has a lot of standing timber, so it is important that the college anglers take their time and make sure that they are being cautious when driving around the lake,” Gross said. “Look for areas near Spring Creek – there are a lot of little arms and pockets where you can get back to little ponds that offer a lot of opportunity. I think we’ll likely see a winning limit in the mid-20s.”

Competitors will take off from the Bainbridge Earle May Boat Basin, located at 100 Boat Basin Circle in Bainbridge, Georgia, at 7:30 a.m. EST Saturday. Weigh-in will be held at the boat basin beginning at 3 p.m. Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public.

Schools are allowed to register up until the morning of the tournament. Entries may be made either by phone or at CollegeFishing.com .

YETI FLW College Fishing teams compete in three 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 20 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2019 FLW College Fishing National Championship. Additional teams will qualify for the National Championship if the field size in regular-season events exceeds 100 boats.

The 2019 FLW College Fishing National Championship will take place May 30-June 1 on the Red River in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission & Red River Waterway Commission.

YETI FLW College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a college fishing club that is recognized by their school.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow YETI FLW College Fishing on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube andSnapchat.