LSCO, area sponsors and everyone associated with the college’s bass fishing team have to be excited about the performance of two of their own in last weekend’s Bassmaster National Collegiate Championship held in Florida! Brett Fregia and Jack Tindel qualified for the prestigious event earlier

in the year and left Orange last week convinced that they could hold their own with the best college anglers in the nation. When all was said and done, they had done far better than simply proving they could compete at that level. The initial challenge required posting enough weight the first two days

to even earn a spot in the top 12 and fish on Championship Saturday. Impressive twenty pound stringers both days not only earned them a spot in the elite grouping, but vaulted them into second place as well. Having been within reach of a win with a round remaining in a few pro events years ago, I can assure you that more strategizing than sleeping took place Friday night!

Unlike any other sport, regardless of your own skill level and in spite of the best of game plans, you are still dependent on the cooperation of a fish that you cannot even see getting you across the finish line. Will the bass you have been fishing for two days hold up? Will the weather or fishing pressure bother them? Where do you go if the bite dries up? Those are just a few of the questions you are mulling over in the midst of trying to squeeze in a few hours of sleep. I haven’t talked with either of the young men since returning to Orange, but I have to believe that their main objective was holding off the teams behind them and finishing in the Top Four. The leading team did not have an insurmountable lead going into Championship Saturday, but their consistency indicated that it would require not only a great day of fishing, but a little luck as well to overtake them. The remaining eleven teams, however, were packed within a few pounds of one another and each of them had a realistic shot at the three remaining spots in the Top Four. As it turned out, seven of those teams posted their lowest weights of the tournament the final day. Fregia and Tindel limited, but were unable to locate the quality fish they had been on and slipped into ninth place. Make no mistake about it…….they did a helluva job of not only

fishing, but representing LSCO and the community as well! I predicted in last week’s column that the duo may well surprise the elite field of college anglers and I could not be prouder of their Top

Twelve finish. The Florida venue set up very well for two young men raised on marsh fishing that were also armed with the mental discipline required to focus on the job at hand. Sharing their own experiences with their team mates will only make the LSCO team even more formidable in the future. That was undoubtedly a week that Fregia and Tindel will remember forever!

I was talking with two local anglers last weekend at the ALS walk honoring Tony Dallas and both said that they had done well recently targeting bass holding a little deeper in the Neches River. Both are

basically marsh fishermen, but that program is off-limits throughout duck season. As it turned out, “deep” had a broad definition. One was catching fish on a five-inch worm at depths of 8 to 12 feet while the other young man was catching his fish on a small spoon and Carolina rig in 16 to 18 feet

of water. Both said they were just trying to find clearer water and locating the deeper fish had more to do with luck than skill.

They asked me not to share their names, but both had pictures on their phones to support their stories. The deepest bite had not only produced bass up to four pounds, but some huge gaspergou as well. I think that would indicate that he is adding a scent to his plastics. The white perch have apparently not slowed down much on Toledo Bend either. Gerald Thompson said that his clients limited on very solid

crappie four days in a row last week!