Lake Erie to host college fishing tournament
The YETI FLW college fishing season will continue Sept. 8 with the College Fishing on Lake Erie tournament in Sandisky, Ohio.
The tournament is the third and final regular-season event for college anglers in the Northern Conference and will award a top prize of a $2,000 club scholarship and an invitation to compete in the 2019 College Fishing National Championship to the winners.
“It’s been an extraordinary summer fishing on Lake Erie and I think the college anglers are going to have a blast in this tournament,” said Cory Johnston, a two-time Forrest Wood Cup qualifier. “Erie is so fun because of the sheer number of fish that you can catch. I don’t expect largemouth to be a factor at all, but the smallmouth are plentiful and they’re big.”
Johnston said that the majority of anglers would be targeting deep isolated rocks with tubes, drop-shot rigs and ned rigs.
“The hardest part is finding the right isolated rock piles with the right sized fish,” Johnston said. “They’re going to really need to be comfortable with their electronics – fishing deep and video-gaming them up. Good electronics will be key.”
Johnston said that he expects the winning team to bring 23 to 25 pounds to the scale.
“We’re going to see multiple limits weighing more than 20 pounds,” Johnston said.
Competitors will take off from Shelby Street Public Boat Launch at 7 a.m. Sept. 8. Weigh-in will be held at the Boat Launch beginning at 3 p.m. Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public.
Schools currently registered to compete in the Lake Erie tournament include: California University of Pennsylvania with two teams: Colton Higgins and Jakob Bissett, both of Waynesburg; and Nick Fulks of Canonsburg and David Blaker of Rices Landing.
Others schools already entered are Franklin & Marshall, Kent State, Kutztown, Marshall, Ohio State, Penn State, Slippery Rock, Pitt, Rio Grande and Virginia Highlands Community College.