Wallace State Earns Bassmaster College Series Wild Card Title

Joshua Butts and Reid Conner, of Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama, took the title of the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Wild Card presented by Bass Pro Shops at Lay Lake with a three-day total of 40 pounds, 11 ounces.

Although the final day presented numerous changes and obstacles, Butts and Conner started Saturday with a bang and rode the slight uptick in momentum to the Wild Card victory. From Beeswax Landing, the duo ran 25 minutes up the Coosa River, and it didn’t take long to get the day rolling. Conner’s first cast resulted in the team’s kicker fish, a hefty spotted bass, which anchored their 10-13 to win the title.

“I think the feeding window was getting earlier every day because of the change in the moon phase,” Butts said. “They didn’t feed on this spot until 8 a.m. on Thursday, then it was 6 a.m. on Friday.”

Butts and Conner only landed three fish off their main spot, two of which were barely keepers. After bouncing around some current breaks up the Coosa River, they landed a limit and slowly culled throughout the day.

“We had used a big crankbait all week to land our good fish, but today we had to use a jig and shaky head heavily,” Conner and Butts said. “There were some big boulders that the fish were hanging behind as the water pushed past it. We would get hung up often, but we knew that’s where the fish were.”

Butts has now taken home two Carhartt Bassmaster College Series victories, the other being on Lake Barkley, Ky. in 2015. Both events were the Wild Card “last chance” format to get to the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship.

Luke Gillund and Robby Troje of Bemidji State University almost chased down the eventual champions as they brought the biggest bag of the final day to the scales. With 14-1 on Saturday Gillund, and Troje vaulted from 10th to second when the scales closed.

This duo had an immense amount of pressure on their shoulders as the national championship is in their school’s city later this summer. The Bemidji Chain of Lakes in Minnesota will host the 2017 national championship. Gillund and Troje earned the Bassmaster Big Bass Award of the event, with a 6-13 largemouth caught on a shaky head.

The Top 18 teams are now qualified for the August 7-12 national championship on Bemidji Lake in Minnesota.