A little late, but figured I'd share!

I fish for the University of Oregon bass team. Last weekend was the last of four tournaments for the FLW College Fishing Western division. These tournaments have a limit of 40 teams. The top 5 qualify for the regional tournament in september. The prizes go 10k, 5k, 4k, 3k, 2k. We fish on the same day the top 10 pros from the Stren Series fish, which can make can make the bite tough after a week of pressure. Limits of 6 fish per team, but each angler can only keep 3 fish, so one angler can not weigh in the whole limit.

The first three tournaments were on Clear Lake, Lake Roosevelt, Lake Oroville and last weekend, the Delta.

I started drop shotting early this year and put it to good use, limiting every tournament. My first 2 tournaments, my partner was unable to get a limit and we missed the top five by a fish both times. 8th and 9th place. For the third tournament we switched it up, and I convinced my good friend to fish in his first tournament. We were able to weigh in a 6 fish limit, but once more we were 1lb out of the top 5 with a 12th place finish. By then I was getting extremely frustrated as we were easily the most consistent team through 3 tournaments.

I live 45 minutes from the Delta, but have only fished it a couple times from shore due to not knowing many bass anglers with a boat. We heard it had been fairly windy the last couple days before tournament day, and their stren pro weights had not been that impressive (for the delta). We setup a game plan for dealing with the wind and started out in a protected slough. My partner was able to get a fish on a senko while I gave the snagproof frog a try. After a couple hours we decided to head to discovery bay, which is extremely protected and contains a large number of private docks. We figured this would be a good place to concentrate on as we had little experience on the Delta, and discovery bay simulates a lake. We put the dropshot to use, found a pattern and proceeded to put fish in the boat. I had two fish shake me off, shook off the frustration, and switched to a lighter wire hook. My partner had 2 fish in the boat at this point, so I knew this one was on me. The first fish I brought into the boat was a 5lber and much better quality then we had been getting, I was stoked. By our 2 o'clock weigh in we had both culled several times. Idleing into the dock I felt the least confident with our sack than all the other tourneys because of the Delta's reputation. The dock talk told us 9 lbs was in the lead and over half the field had weighed in, so we were feeling good. We weighed in 6 fish for 12 lbs, which was good enough for 3rd place, until we were bumped to 4th by the last team which had a 10.5 and 6 lber, taking 1st with only 4 fish. It was super relieving to finally qualify for regionals, and I am already thinking about it. Our club had 3 teams qualify, so we have a good chance. The regionals will be on september 19th on the Delta and will be televised on versus.

Sorry for the long read if anyone bothers to read it. ! ;D

Here's a video of our weigh in.

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/a65443b7304bf6db803a507fa1ecff7f/video/4412716

I'm the large and in charge one in yellow. ;D

http://collegefishing.com/image.cfm?id=34258

Putting my first fish in the boat... ignore my "war chant"

http://www.collegefishing.com/_storage/collegefishing/video/final/14_29_4_1_2009/14_29_4_1_2009_1369_900002_RICHARDS_FRAZIER0002.MP4

Nice job Oregon!

I saw that Fresno State bagged an 11 lber, what's crazy is that they caught it all on tape, but the video messes up. Looks like it was a productive tournament.

Congratulations and great job!  I wish they would have had college fishing in my day.  Enjoy those days.

Nice job Oregon!

I saw that Fresno State bagged an 11 lber, what's crazy is that they caught it all on tape, but the video messes up. Looks like it was a productive tournament.

Yeah, too bad that video dosn't work. I was talking to the guy after the tourney. Said he caught them both on spinnerbaits off a bed!

Caught the 5 1/2-6 first then nailed the 10.5.

One boat ended up sinking on the way back to the weigh in, there were some big waves in the open water.

I saw a few of the college guys out there on the 28th, where'd you guys launch from?

I saw a few of the college guys out there on the 28th, where'd you guys launch from?

Russo's, how'd you do that day?