On June 4-6 2019, 148 college teams competed on the Potomac River in the FLW College Fishing National Championship. The tournament was launched from Smallwood State Park in Marbury, MD. To qualify for this
event, the teams had to place in the top 10 in one of the regional qualifying events or in the top 25 at the college FLW open on Kentucky Lake. The FLW BFL tournament trail took on this fishery for the BFL All American
tournament just days before this college event, yielding surprisingly lower weights than the younger anglers to follow. Day one of the tournament brought clear skies and little wind. The West Virginia University team of
Nolan Minor and Thomas Raines took the day one lead with a 18lb 5oz bag of largemouth. The pair caught most of their fish flipping a Texas rigged Zoom Baits baby brush hog in junebug pattern paired with a 1/4oz tungsten
weight on a 4/0 VMC flippin hook along with a Zoom Baits trick worm in redbug pattern paired with a 1/8oz shakey head to fill a limit early on. Their kicker fish of the day was a 6lber that came out of Broad Creek on flooded
brush using a green pumpkin 3/8oz Z-Man Jackhammer Chatterbait. On day two the skies darkened and the wind picked up, making the bite in the grass heat up for the Murray State team of Adam Puckett and Blake Albertson. The duo brought 18lbs 14oz to the scales on day two to take over the lead, which they would eventually hold on to on the final day, edging out the Bethel University team of Tristan McCormick and Dakota Pierce by just 3oz with a three day total of 51lbs 3oz. The winning pair used a Reaction Innovations spicy beaver to flip flooded brush on a high tide. The
two stated that there were two bite windows of about 30 minutes each day before and after the high tide, the water had to be moving for the pair to get a bite. They also added to their catch with a 1/2oz Z-man Jackhammer Chatterbait in white/chartreuse. The two took home the grand prize of a brand new Ranger Z175 with a 115hp Evinrude outboard and an entry into the FLW cup where each angler is guaranteed $10,000 with the chance of
winning up to $300,000.
