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Zaldain Wins a Toyota Tundra on His Wife’s Birthday
Bassmaster Elite Series pro Matt Herren of Alabama won the 2016 Toyota Texas Bass Classic on Lake Ray Roberts and was quick to thank his wife for her unwavering support as he held the crystal trophy, and a check for $100,000.
But, Chris Zaldain may have supplied the best birthday present ever received by a pro angler’s wife by winning a brand new Toyota Tundra on the very day of his wife Trait’s 29th birthday Sunday, the final day of this year’s Toyota Texas Fest event.
The story gets better – Zaldain, a California native, caught the 7-pound beast on a jig from an isolated willow tree in a specific portion of the lake his wife Trait grew up fishing with her dad.
Trait is an avid tournament angler, fishes the Bassmaster Central and Northern Opens, and learned to fish with her dad Larry on Ray Roberts. “Chris caught that 7-pounder in an area of the lake that dad and I have fished many times,” says Trait.
“It’s my birthday, but this new Tundra is for Chris,” says Trait in heartfelt fashion.
“Chris is towing his boat all over the country with a Ford diesel that has 302,000 miles on it, he needs a new truck, but being newlyweds and all, we just haven’t had a lot of extra money to go buy the new Toyota we’ve been talking about wanting for months,” says Trait.
“The first vehicle I ever had in my life was a Toyota 4Runner, and that was the best vehicle I have ever owned,” says Trait. “That’s a big reason we’ve been talking about buying a Toyota, I know how reliable they are, not to mention all that they do for the sport we both make a living from,” she added.
Mullins Earns First Win At Southern Open On Douglas Lake
David Mullins of Mount Carmel, Tenn., wins the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Southern Open #3 held on Douglas Lake out of Dandridge, Tenn. Mullins brought 19 pounds, 5 ounces to Saturday’s weigh-in, giving him a three-day total of 62-12.
Photo by Seigo Saito/Bassmaster
DANDRIDGE, Tenn. — After consecutive runner-up finishes at Douglas Lake, David Mullins now knows what it feels like to be a champion. Mullins stayed in first place all three days to win the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Southern Open.
Mullins had a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 5 ounces, Saturday to give him a three-day total of 62-12. Scott Canterbury of Springville, Ala., was second with 56-10, and Britt Myers of Lake Wylie, S.C., finished third with 52-2.
Mullins, who competes on the Bassmaster Elite Series, lives in Mount Carmel, Tenn., and has extensive knowledge of Douglas Lake. He finished second in Bassmaster Open tournaments here in 2013 and 2014 before taking the title Saturday.
“It’s a little bit of sweet redemption,” Mullins said. “I didn’t lose the last two. Somebody just caught ’em better than me. It feels good to come out on top.”
Mullins took the lead Thursday with 21-5, and built his margin to more than 7 pounds by weighing in 22-2 on Friday. Canterbury was the only angler in the Top 12 who managed a 20-pound bag Saturday. His five-bass limit weighed 21-7, but that still left Mullins with a 6-pound margin of victory.
“Every time I have a good finish here, I never catch ’em off the same place two days in a row,” Mullins said. “I think that’s the biggest key to fishing Douglas Lake — having enough places where you know they live, so you can keep moving and have a good rotation. The places I fished today, I haven’t fished all week. I just ran history.”
In recent years, there have been two constant factors in a winning formula at Douglas: concentrating on deep schools of bass and catching more than 20 pounds per day. Mullins followed that pattern. His shallowest bass came in 8- to 12-foot depths and his deepest came from almost 30 feet.
Mullins’ primary lures were Strike King 10XD and 6XD crankbaits in Tennessee shad and green gizzard shad colors. He also caught a key bass Saturday on a Scottsboro Tackle Company 6-inch swimbait in a shad pattern that was specially made for Mullins at Douglas.
“I picked it up this morning and caught one on my first cast,” he said. “I didn’t have a fish until about 9:15. And that one was one of my best of the day.”
Mullins didn’t fish the other two Southern Opens, so he will not receive an automatic qualifying spot in the 2017 GEICO Bassmaster Classic.
“We’ve been going so hard on the Elite Series, I’m tired as it is,” he said. “Scheduling and the extra money it was going to cost to fish those other two Opens is why I didn’t do it. But I’m not even thinking about that now. I don’t regret it one bit.”
For the victory, Mullins won a package valued at $45,000, which includes a Skeeter ZX200 boat and, Yamaha VF200LA outboard motor, Minn Kota Fortrex trolling motor and a pair of Lowrance HDS 7 graphing units.
Matt Justice of Fair Play, S.C., won the co-angler division with a three-day total of 29-6. Don Bible II of Knoxville, Tenn., finished second with 26-13, and Rodney Tapp of Inman, S.C., was third with 26-7.
Justice is a 22-year-old recent graduate of Greenville Technical College. He lives on Lake Hartwell. Justice wants to fish professionally, and he said Saturday’s victory will enable him to do that next year. The co-angler prize, valued at $30,000, includes a Triton 179 TrX boat powered by a Mercury 115 ELPT outboard motor, outfitted with Triton standard equipment.
Elite Series angler Brandon Card, who finished seventh on the pro side, was Justice’s partner Saturday.
“Brandon was completely selfless,” Justice said. “He’s as nice as they come. When he found out I was in contention, he was like, ‘Throw right here at this waypoint. Throw right there where I just cast.’ As a co-angler, you don’t hear that a lot. He’s the reason I won, I think.”
Justice used a variety of baits over the course of the three days, but he said a Strike King 8XD crankbait in green gizzard shad produced most of his weight.
“I’d burn it as fast as I could,” Justice said. “I was using a reel with an 8.3:1 gear ratio. I think that made the difference in being able to reel it faster than anybody through a school and get a reaction bite.”
Wiggins earned the $750 Phoenix Boats Big Bass Award on the pro side for his 6-15 largemouth caught on Friday. Ledell Wade Jr., Clarksville, Tenn., weighed in an 5-9 bass to earn the $250 Phoenix Boats Big Bass Award on the co-angler side.
Mullins received the Livingston Lures Leader Award of $250 for finishing as the top pro on Day 2. Finishing as the Day 2 leader on the co-angler side, Rodney Tapp of Inman, S.C., received a Livingston Lures gift pack worth $250.
Myers of Lake Wylie, S.C., also earner the A.R.E. Top Angler Award of $500 for being the highest-finishing angler using A.R.E. products.
Canterbury of Springville, Ala., earned the Power-Pole Captain’s Cash award of $500.
2016 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Opens Series Title Sponsor: Bass Pro Shops
2016 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Opens Series Platinum Sponsor: Toyota
2016 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Opens Series Premier Sponsors: Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Skeeter Boats, Triton Boats, Yamaha, Berkley, GoPro, Huk, Humminbird
2016 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Opens Series Supporting Sponsors: Lowrance, Power-Pole, Rapala, Shell Rotella, Shimano, A.R.E. Truck Caps, Carhartt, Dick Cepek Tires & Wheels, Livingston Lures
About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S. is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 500,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), television show (The Bassmasters on ESPN2), social media programs and events. For more than 45 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.
The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series, B.A.S.S. Nation, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Costa Bassmaster High School Series, Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro.
Penn State Leads Wire-To-Wire To Take Title On James River
Sean Cummins (left) and Maurice Hudson of Penn State University win the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Eastern Regional presented by Bass Pro Shops on the James River out of Richmond, Va., with a three-day total weight of 42 pounds, 14 ounces.
Photo by Ronnie Moore/Bassmaster
RICHMOND, Va. — Maurice Hudson and Sean Cummins of Penn State University lead wire-to-wire to win the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Eastern Regional presented by Bass Pro Shops on the James River with a four-day total of 42 pounds, 14 ounces.
The Nittany Lions teammates only brought four fish to the scales for the second consecutive day, and it was enough to overcome a hard charging Ohio State.
“After Thursday, we thought we had something figured out,” Hudson said. “Then we found out we had a cameraman and media coverage following us around, and we got nervous. We were a little camera shy and didn’t fish clean (flawlessly) at all. Coming in with four fish today had us worried.”
The duo relied heavily on a crankbait bite and ran the changing tides to stay around the quality fish they needed to do well. Hudson, who fishes the Potomac River and Upper Chesapeake Bay, knows how the tides change and the impact they have on the fish so timing was the most critical thing in this event.
“Running with the tide is key,” Hudson said. “Once you figure out a pattern, you have to stick with it on that specific tide. We knew our key bites would come an hour later every day, so we had to stay patient and not fish a spot too early.”
Throughout the transition of the tide they would throw crankbaits that varied in depth. When it was high tide, they could catch fish on deeper-running crankbaits, but with less water on their cover at low tide, they could lean on a shallow squarebill bite. They also added important bass on a jig over the last two days.
Hudson and Cummins rotated multiple main river spots throughout the event and think their bite wasn’t affected by the changing weather, which threw three different conditions at the teams this week.
The Ohio State team of Jacob Miller and Kyle Waller stayed consistent over the three-day event and cashed in with a second-place finish for the week. They weighed a final-day limit of 14-2 and pushed their total to 42-5, just 9 ounces behind Hudson and Cummins.
Miller and Waller had two key areas and patterns they could rely on throughout the tournament. Every morning the duo ran down river and fished a stretch of cypress trees adjacent to a spawning pocket to fill their limit. After catching numerous keepers, they would run a grass pattern in the Chickahominy River when the tide started to get low.
“We didn’t plan on our spots holding up as well as they did this week,” Miller said. “We would lay off of our cypress trees after getting a limit, so we could conserve it throughout the tournament because we would catch a limit in the first 15 minutes of our day.”
Their one-two punch helped them stay around the 13 to 14-pound range each day, but on the final day, they couldn’t get that big bite they so desperately needed.
The rest of the Top 5 rounded out with Carson Orellana of Strayer Univeristy in third, Tyler Woolcott and Cody Wilson of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in fourth and Sam Glenn and Cameron Baker of UNC Charlotte in fifth.
The Top 13 teams after the final weigh-in earned a berth to the 2016 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship on Green River Lake in Campbellsville, Ky., on July 28-30.
Hudson and Cummins were also awarded the Bass Pro Shops Nitro Big Bag Award after catching 17-2 on Thursday. They also won the Livingston Lures Day 2 leader award.
Jay Emmert and Logan Brewster of the University of Tennessee won the Carhartt Big Bass Award after hauling in a 7-pound, 8-ounce largemouth on the first day of the competition.
2016 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Title Sponsor: Carhartt
2016 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Presenting Sponsor: Bass Pro Shops
2016 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Platinum Sponsor: Toyota
2016 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Premier Sponsors: Skeeter Boats, Triton Boats, Yamaha, Berkley, GoPro, Huk, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats
2016 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Supporting Sponsors: Rapala, Shell Rotella, Shimano, ABU Garcia, A.R.E. Truck Caps, Costa, Dick Cepek Tires & Wheels, Livingston Lures, Lowrance, Power-Pole
About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S. is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 500,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), television show (The Bassmasters on ESPN2), social media programs and events. For more than 45 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.
The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series, B.A.S.S. Nation, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Costa Bassmaster High School Series, Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro.
Chico State University Wins FLW Event on California Delta
BETHEL ISLAND, Calif. (May 21, 2016) – The Chico State University duo of Sean Huber and Travis Strain, both of Chico, California, won the FLW College Fishing Western Conference event on the California Delta Saturday with five bass weighing 16 pounds, 3 ounces. The victory earned the club $2,000 and qualified the team for the 2017 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
“We had already qualified for the National Championship earlier this season at Clear Lake, so we came into this event just fishing for fun,” said Huber, a junior majoring in construction management. “To win is a really pleasant surprise. Even when Travis and I were standing in the weigh-in line we had no idea that we had enough to win.”
“This is our first season fishing FLW College Fishing and it has been a blast,” said Strain, also a junior majoring in construction management. “We had some trolling motor problems earlier this week and we weren’t really able to get in any time to practice so we decided to just go out and fish anything that looked good.”
The Chico State duo said that they managed 8 keeper bass throughout the day, throwing weedless soft-plastics near tules in the Piper Slough area. They caught fish on three baits – an unnamed 7-inch green-pumpkin stick bait, a Missile Baits D Bomb and a green-pumpkin Z-Man ChatterBait paired with a 3-inch Keitech swimbait.
“We tried to keep it pretty simple today,” Strain said. “A lot of other teams were trying to punch, but we knew that we could catch a solid limit with the soft plastics. We were not around many other boats at all, and I think doing something a little different was the key.”
The top 10 teams that advanced to the 2017 College Fishing National Championship are:
1st: California State University-Chico – Sean Huber and Travis Strain, both of Chico, Calif., five bass, 16-3, $2,000
2nd: California Polytechnic State University – Christopher LeClair, Santa Clarita, Calif., and Clayton Lauchland, Lodi, Calif., five bass, 16-3, $1,000
3rd: University of California-Merced – Gregory Dooman, Merced, Calif., and Adan Arroyo, Napa, Calif., five bass, 15-7, $500
4th: California State University-East Bay – Junjie Wang, Castro Valley, Calif., and Yuan Liu, Hayward, Calif, five bass, 14-3, $500
5th: Oregon State University – Zach MacDonald, Willits, Calif., and Zach Martinez, Linden, Calif., five bass, 13-12, $500
6th: Humboldt State University – Tristan Merlaud, Arcata, Calif., and Rudy Directo, Alpine, Calif., five bass, 13-12
7th: Southwestern Oregon Community College – Christian Somerville, Allegany, Ore., and Shawn Cook, North Bend, Ore., five bass, 13-6
8th: Sonoma State University – Tyler Owens, Orange, Calif., and Jake Davidson, Sebastopol, Calif., five bass, 13-3
9th: Northern Arizona University – Gunnar Stanton, Boulder City, Nev., and Gunner Campbell, Winchester, Calif., five bass, 12-8
10th: University of Oregon – Jacob Wall, Jacksonville, Ore., and Dalton Taylor, Eugene, Ore., five bass, 11-15
Complete results will be posted at FLWFishing.com.
This FLW College Fishing Western Conference event was hosted by Russo’s Marina and Sugar Barge RV Resort and was the third and final regular-season qualifying tournament in the Western conference. The next event for Western Conference anglers will be the FLW College Fishing National Championship, held early next spring on a lake yet to be announced.
FLW College Fishing teams compete in 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 15 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2017 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
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.
For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow College Fishing on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing. Visit CollegeFishing.com to sign up or to start a club at your school.
About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2016 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 235 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico and South Korea. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. For more information visit FLWFishing.com and follow FLW at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Periscope: @FLWFishing.
University of North Alabama Wins on Lake Guntersville
GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. (May 21, 2016) – The University of North Alabama duo of Lake Blasingame of Killen, Alabama, and Triston Crowder of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, won the FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference tournament on Lake Guntersville Saturday with five bass weighing 27 pounds, 6 ounces. The victory earned the club $2,000 and qualified the team for the 2017 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
“We had a pretty slow morning, but we found a school that was ready to eat and we got them fired up,” said Blasingame, a freshman. “Right around 11 a.m. we found them eating on a ledge and we must have caught around 40 fish. We cleaned up.”
“The key for us ended up being leaving fish that weren’t interested in eating,” said Crowder, a freshman majoring in business and marketing. “We found quite a few schools, but they just weren’t firing and we kept leaving them and moving to the next one. The school where we caught our fish wasn’t the biggest, but the fish were ready to eat.”
The duo said they caught an estimated 50 to 60 bass throughout the day, but the hour-long flurry at 11 a.m. was the highlight. They said they threw just two baits throughout the day – a ¾-ounce green-pumpkin Johnston’s Lures football-head jig with a Strike King Rage Craw and a 99 Problems-colored True Bass Big Head 7.5 swimbait.
“We would get the school fired up on the jig and then follow it up with the swimbait,” Blasingame said. “The fish were about 15 feet deep. We put our Lowrance graphs to work this week and had quite a few schools marked, but this one was the only one that fired for us.”
“Lake and I work very well together and fish great as a team,” Crowder said. “We are always encouraging each other and we never complain, even when fishing is tough. Today was just an awesome day to be on the water.”
The top 10 teams that advanced to the 2017 College Fishing National Championship are:
1st: University of North Alabama – Lake Blasingame, Killen, Ala., and Triston Crowder, Lawrenceburg, Tenn., five bass, 27-6, $2,000
2nd: Columbus State University – Michael Chambliss, Cataula, Ga., and Turner Carlisle, Fortson, Ga., five bass, 22-11, $1,000
3rd: Mississippi State University – Joseph Marty, Starkville, Miss., and Kyle Alford, Brandon, Miss., five bass, 22-10, $500
4th: University of North Alabama – Hunter Haney, Town Creek, Ala., and Andrew Tate, Florence, Ala., five bass, 22-4, $500
4th: University of South Carolina – Shawn Callahan and Tom Brewbaker, both of Columbia, S.C., five bass, 22-4, $500
6th: Middle Georgia State College – Spencer Sato, Warner Robins, Ga., and Mark Denney, Bonaire, Ga., five bass, 21-13
7th: Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College – Taylor Thompson, Kennesaw, Ga., and Blake Yarbrough, Fitzgerald, Ga., five bass, 21-8
8th: University of South Carolina – Patrick Walters, Summerville, S.C., and Gettys Brannon, Gaffney, S.C., five bass, 21-4
9th: University of Alabama-Birmingham – Jacob Burns, Morris, Ala., and Chris Hiott, Trussville, Ala., five bass, 20-15
10th: Auburn University – Mitchell Jennings, Auburn, Ala., and Christopher Knight, Jr., Sylacauga, Ala., five bass, 20-13
Complete results will be posted at FLWFishing.com.
This FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference event was hosted by the Marshall County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and was the second of three regular-season qualifying tournament in the Southeastern conference. The next event for Southeastern Conference anglers will be held September 24 at Lake Chickamauga in Dayton, Tennessee.
FLW College Fishing teams compete in 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 15 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2017 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
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.
For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow College Fishing on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing. Visit CollegeFishing.com to sign up or to start a club at your school.
About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2016 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 235 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico and South Korea. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. For more information visit FLWFishing.com and follow FLW at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Periscope: @FLWFishing.