National Championship

Recently I competed in the National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship on Ft. Loudoun lake in Knoxville, TN- one of the biggest bass fishing tournaments of my entire career. With a first prize of $100,000, it was not something my partner Kevin and I were going to take lightly. Representing North Carolina State University's fishing team, we spent a large portion of the month prior to the event on the lake practicing and learning the lake. Thanks to some thorough homework, we were able to find some excellent areas that we really felt good about. We were catching fish on Strike King Flat Shad crankbaits in Chartruese/Black back using Hi-Seas Grand Slam 12lb monofilament. 


Come the first day of the tournament, one of our key areas was ruined by cold water runoff, but we were able to use a few of our backup spots to catch enough fish to put us in 7th place after day one, two spots away from making the top 5 cut which was made after day 2. Going in to Day two, with the same conditions, we hit the same areas that we caught our fish in the day before. Unfortunately, for some reason, the fish were just not eating right. We were able to hook up with several fish, but they quickly shook off- they were not eating it right. We tried other areas, adjusted the lure and color selection, but we could not buy a keeper bite! Unfortunately we were not able to put things together on day two, and did not make the top 5 cut. 


On Monday, the final day, instead of moping around about our poor performance on the prior day, I volunteered to take two soldiers fishing. I took them to the same exact areas that I fished the day before, and we WHACKED them! Both of the soldiers caught the biggest bass of their life- and I personally had 14lbs on my best 5 fish. The funny thing about it was that the biggest bag brought in by the final day competitors was only 10lbs. Its sad that we were not able to catch them on Day 2 like we did on Day 3, but I cannot complain about having a great time with two soldiers that deserved a great day on the water!


-Ben Dziwulski, collegiate angler from NC State University