College anglers tackle Hurricane Lake

Day Three of the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship moved to Arkansas' Hurricane Lake.

Zack Birge and Blake Flurry, the leading team from Oklahoma State, started Day Three in the back of a small feeder creek. 

Birge was the first of the teammates to hook up with a fish.

Flurry waits with the net.

The fish tries to avoid the net at the boat.

Flurry gets the net safely under the bass.

The fish is lifted aboard, and the Oklahoma State team is off to a quick start.

The teammates give one another a quick fist bump for a job well done by both.

Birge takes charge of the netted fish, while Flurry gets back to work.

Birge removes the hooks from the team’s first fish of the day.

Flurry hooks up with a fish on a topwater bait.

The fish is secured by only one hook, but Birge has the net in perfect position to land the fish.

The team’s second fish is safely in the net.

The early morning bite was on, and Birge and Flurry were back to fishing.

Flurry sweeps his rod to set the hook on another bass.

The fish attempts to jump, but Flurry dips his rod to drive the bass back into the water.

Another quality bass comes into the boat for Oklahoma State.

Flurry moves to the back of the boat to place the fish in the livewell.

The team hits a slight bump in the road to a National Championship, as a bass comes unbuttoned from hooks on Flurry’s topwater bait.

The speeding bait flies in the direction of the team’s cameraman Wes Miller.

Flurry looks on in shock, and Birge screams a warning but it was too late. Miller is struck by the bait.

Miller reacts to the bait striking him.

Flurry takes a sheepish look in the direction of Miller, while Birge moves in for a close inspection.

Luckily for all involved, the hooks had buried in Miller’s headset.

Birge removes the hooks as Miller looks on in relief.

With hooks removed from all the bass and cameramen in the boat, the team gets back to work.

As the team approaches a grassy point, Birge decides to make a bait change and fires a cast with a buzzbait.

The bait change pays quick dividends as Flurry nets another bass for Birge.

Birge places the fish in the livewell.

Flurry swings fish number five into the boat. The team from Oklahoma State now has a limit of fish.

The team from the University of Arkansas, Mook Miller and Kyle Billingsley, started the day in 5th place with 14 pounds, 8 ounces.

The 4th place team from Auburn University, Matt and Jordan Lee, was catching fish early on Hurricane Lake.

Jordan Lee battles a bass while his brother, Matt, waits with the net.

With a quick sweep, Matt Lee secures the bass into the net.

The Auburn team fishes a point in front of the many large homes on Hurricane Lake.

The brothers work together to boat a quality fish.

Jordan Lee gives the camera a better look at one of the team’s best fish of the day.

The Lee brothers were flipping drop baits into grass mats, and it was paying off for them early on Day Three.

Matt Lee reaches to net a fish in the grass.

The 2nd place team from the University of Alabama, Dustin Connell and Logan Johnson, started the morning 4 pounds behind the team from Oklahoma State.

Connell boats a fish with an assist from Johnson.

Connell tries to decide if the bass will help improve the weight of the team’s early limit of bass.

Connell and Johnson decide to use their culling beam to compare their two smallest fish.

Murray State’s team of Justin Graben and Vincent Campisano is tied with the University of Alabama for 2nd place going into the final day of fishing.

Campisano reaches for a bass caught by Graben.

Graben hooks the team’s largest bass of the day, and the fish surges under the boat.

The team was shocked when the fish suddenly frees the hooks.

Disappointed, the team gets back to fishing.

The team from Auburn battles another fish.

The team was catching several fish but having a difficult time improving the weight they had in the livewell.

The teams from Auburn and Arkansas stop fishing briefly to compare their day of fishing.

Jordan Lee boats another bass for the Auburn team.

Lee carefully releases the bass into Hurricane Lake.

Mook Miller and Kyle Billingsley maneuver to get a fish into the net.

After the fish was safely in the boat, Billingsley places it in the team’s livewell.

Cameraman Justin Darling focuses on the team from Auburn.

The team from the University of Arkansas, Mook Miller and Kyle Billingsley.