By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Paul Clark and Brett Preuett wanted badly to leave a legacy for those that come after them as members of the fishing team at the University of Louisiana-Monroe.

The soon-to-be graduates who've been fishing together for 3 years went above and beyond in that regard.

After digging themselves a bit of a hole on day 1 of the FLW College Fishing Championship at Beaver Lake last week, they rallied on day 2 to qualify for the finals and then clinched the victory with a four-fish stringer that weighed 12-04. Their 3-day total of 40-03 gave them a 9-ounce victory over the University of North Carolina-Charlotte team of Shane Lehew and Adam Waters.

For the win, they earned a $30,000 prize package for their team as well as berths in the Forrest Wood Cup in August, which incidentally is slated to be held in their back yard at the Red River.

"This is a dream come true," said Clark, a construction management major who's been the team president for 2 years. "We've been waiting on this chance. We're both graduating and it feels good because we're not leaving the team high and dry. We're leaving them as national champions with a good bit of money.

"We were so stressed (on the final day). We felt a lot of pressure. We only had three weigh fish at 2 o'clock. We caught a 5-pounder late, but we knew we needed a fifth fish. We knew four wouldn't be enough. We've fished hard before, but we fished so hard today. My hands were bleeding. We fished our hearts out. We thought we shot ourselves in the foot not having five."

Here's how they did it.

Practice

Neither Clark nor Preuett were able to get an advanced look at Beaver before it went off limits and the first day of official practice was marred by a bad storm that forced everyone off the water by 2 p.m. In total, they got about 6 hours of practice on a lake they'd never seen before.

What helped a bit was that the event came on the heels of the Beaver Lake FLW Tour so the competitors had a general feel for what would work. An umbrella rig was among their tactics as they noticed a good number of fish were staging deeper than they had expected.

"We found some things that we caught a couple fish off of," Clark said. "We made a game plan and stuck to it."

Fishing the deep, mostly clear water of a lake nestled in the Ozark Mountains did take Clark and Preuett out of their comfort zone as both are used to the shallow, muddy water of Louisiana.

"It wasn't our style," said Preuett, a management major who plans to pursue a master's degree in business. "We like to flip grass and cypress trees. We were a little out of our element, but we've learned to adjust before. We'd heard about people catching them on the Alabama Rig and we knew that'd be one our of weapons before we even got there."

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 10-09
> Day 2: 5, 17-06
> Day 3: 4, 12-04
> Total = 14, 40-03

The water had muddied up in the areas they fished on day 1, so they transitioned from the umbrella rig to Wiggle Warts to bag 10-09 that had them in 15th place in the 25-team field.

"They seemed to want the rig early and after lunch time," Preuett said.

The dingy water cleared up for day 2 and on their first pass through the area they fished the previous day, they boxed a 3-pound smallmouth. It was the start of good things to come.

Their umbrella rig bite tailed off, prompting Clark to pick up a crankbait again. Preuett, however, kept casting the rig and caught a 7-04 that anchored their 17-06 stringer for the day.

"That got us going," Clark said. "It got the fish fired up for a little bit and we were able to fill out our limit. We were happy with the great start, but it let us relax and we put our heads down and went fishing trying to cull."

Their day-2 rally earned them a spot in the five-team finals and they entered day 3 in 3rd place just 9 ounces behind the University of Alabama.

Early on the final day, they realized a lot of fish had started to move further back in the creek arms, which would explain why their umbrella rig bite didn't fire up.

"Right off the bat, we went down the same bank where we caught the big one and caught a 3-pounder, but that was it," Clark said. "We struggled. We had three fish by 9 a.m. and then couldn't get anything going until 11:30."

That's when Clark picked up a shaky-head and they realized the fish had moved to the backs of the creeks. Their catch rate increased from there, but the fish were all about a half-inch shy of the 15-inch minimum.



Then came the key bite of the day and the tournament – a 5-pounder Clark enticed with a shaky-head that gave them four fish, which ultimately gave them the weight they needed.

Pattern Notes

> Clark and Preuett targeted steep, rocky banks with standing timber.

"The water needed to be a little dingy," Preuett said. "We just ran around and found multiple spots with those qualities."

Winning Gear Notes

> Umbrella rig gear: 7'6" heavy-action Duce inshore casting rod, Abu Garcia Revo MGX casting reel (7.9:1 ratio), 20-pound Seaguar Red Label fluorocarbon line, YUM Flash Mob Jr. umbrella rig, Reaction Innovations Little Dipper swimbaits (white trash), 3.8-inch Keitech Swing Impact FAT swimbait (sight flash and rainbow shad). 3-inch Creme Spoiler Swimbait (pearl).

> They dipped the tails of the swimbaits in JJ's Magic Dye. "Four out of five times, they would eat it," Clark said.

> Jig gear: 7' mag-heavy Dobyns Champion Extreme Series casting rod (Brett), 7'3" heavy-action Falcon BuCoo casting rod (Paul), Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reels (8.0:1 ratio), same line, 3/8- and 5/8-oz. Umper Bumper jig (green-pumpkin), Zoom Ultravibe Speed Craw trailer (green-pumpkin).

> Cranking gear: 7' medium-action Duckett Fishing crankbait rods, Abu Garcia Revo Winch casting reels (5.4:1 ratio), 12-pound Seaguar Red Label fluorocarbon line, Storm Wiggle Wart (phantom brown craw).

> The 5-pounder on day 3 fell for a Zoom Ultra Vibe Craw rigged on a shakey-head.

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – "Just determination," Clark said. "The conditions changed every day and we had the determination and motivation to grind it out and figure them out. We wanted it bad."

> Performance edge – "Our Ranger boat got us from place to place and the Abu Garcia reels worked great," Preuett said.

Notable

> Both Clark and Preuett are thrilled to get a chance to fish the Cup. Clark will fish on the pro side while Preuett will compete as a co-angler. The fact that it's basically at home only adds to the excitement. They both estimate temperatures will be around 100, but will feel more like 120 on the Red with the mid-August humidity.

"We feel confident we can do well," Clark said. "It's not a foreign body of water to us."

Final Standings

> Field size: 25 boats

1. U. Of Louisiana-Monroe -- Paul Clark & Brett Preuett -- 10-09 (5) -- 17-06 (5) -- 12-04 (4) -- 40-03 (14) -- $3,000 + Boat

2. UNC-Charlotte -- Shane Lehew & Adam Waters -- 15-10 (5) -- 10-11 (5) -- 13-05 (5) -- 39-10 (15) -- $6,000

3. Auburn University -- Jordan Lee & Shane Powell -- 16-00 (5) -- 10-05 (5) -- 7-14 (4) -- 34-03 (14) -- $3,000

4. University Of Alabama -- Logan Johnson & Dustin Connell -- 18-08 (5) -- 10-00 (5) -- 4-07 (3) -- 32-15 (13) -- $3,000

5. Angelo State -- Ethan George & Josh Seale -- 12-03 (5) -- 15-14 (5) -- 4-08 (4) -- 32-09 (14) -- $3,000

The following teams did not make the cut and did not fish on day 3.

6. Fairmont State University -- Ryan Radcliff & Wil Dieffenbauch -- 11-11 (5) -- 13-03 (5) -- 24-14 (10)

7. Stephen F. Austin -- Robert Platt & Kyle Turner -- 10-14 (5) -- 13-04 (5) -- 24-02 (10)

8. Indian River State College -- Mike Cornell & Kyle Monti -- 14-04 (5) -- 9-12 (5) -- 24-00 (10)

9. Purdue University -- Nicholas Schuetz & Elliott Myers -- 12-14 (5) -- 10-05 (5) -- 23-03 (10)

10. University of Central Florida -- Casey O'Donnell & Miles Burghoff -- 12-13 (5) -- 10-03 (5) -- 23-00 (10)

11. Georgetown College -- Nick Huff & Mike Huff -- 13-02 (5) -- 9-06 (5) -- 22-08 (10)

12. Cal State-Long Beach -- Alex Cox & Justin Gangel -- 13-06 (5) -- 8-04 (5) -- 21-10 (10)

13. Virginia Tech -- David Bryant & Jody White -- 11-09 (5) -- 9-04 (4) -- 20-13 (9)

14. Eastern Kentucky -- John Smith & Kyle Raymer -- 6-15 (5) -- 13-10 (5) -- 20-09 (10)

15. Ramapo College -- Joseph Zapf & Jeffrey Voss -- 10-01 (5) -- 8-10 (4) -- 18-11 (9)

16. Lamar University -- Danny Iles & Justin Royal -- 9-13 (5) -- 8-14 (5) -- 18-11 (10)

17. UC-Santa Cruz -- Chris Rhoden & Sam Sayad -- 9-07 (5) -- 8-05 (3) -- 17-12 (8)

18. SUNY Plattsburgh -- Chris Benninger & Richard Lee -- 9-03 (5) -- 7-14 (3) -- 17-01 (8)

19. LSU-Shreveport -- Joe Landry & Gavin Havard -- 5-07 (3) -- 10-04 (5) -- 15-11 (8)

20. Indiana University -- Dustin Vaal & Steven Bressler -- 13-00 (5) -- 1-12 (2) -- 14-12 (7)

21. Winona State University -- Sam Schollmeier & Cade Laufenberg -- 12-05 (5) -- 1-06 (1) -- 13-11 (6)

22. Oregon State University -- Zach Macdonald & William Sparks -- 5-07 (4) -- 8-00 (4) -- 13-07 (8)

23. Arizona State University -- Jason Karseboom & Bobby Fletcher -- 4-09 (5) -- 8-07 (5) -- 13-00 (10)

24. Virginia Tech -- Andrew Jackson & Patrick Snellings -- 1-00 (1) -- 9-08 (5) -- 10-08 (6)

25. Chico State -- Nicholas Carrico & Tony Dayton -- 5-11 (3) -- 4-12 (3) -- 10-07 (6)

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