KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Committing to a long run and capitalizing on a late-day opportunity allowed Garrett Ring and Trace Antunes III of the University of Montevallo to start their season with a win at the Strike King Bassmaster College Series at Kissimmee Chain presented by Bass Pro Shops.
After placing sixth on Day 1 with a 20-pound limit, Ring and Antunes, both junior marketing majors, sacked up a final-round limit of 27-12. Tallying a two-day total of 47-12, they edged Day 1 leaders Scooter Ligon Jr. and Logan Fisher of Emmanuel College by a 1-pound, 2-ounce margin.
Taking in the magnitude of his team’s achievement, Ring said, “This feeling is so great. My heart was pumping 100 mph waiting for (Ligon and Fisher) to come up.”
Ring said he and his partner spent most of their time in Lake Kissimmee, the lowermost of the namesake chain. After spending one practice day each in lakes Toho, Cypress and Kissimmee, they determined that the latter held the best habitat and the warmest water.
“We had some offshore staging spots in 8 feet of water,” Antunes said. “There were some hydrilla patches and they were a lot greener than the other stuff we found.
“We had three areas and we just rotated in and out. One was pretty specific, it was one clump of grass, and the other two were bigger. That one specific spot was good for one big fish a day.”
Antunes said their Day 2 kicker came around noon after they heeded what he and his partner considered a divine intervention.
“We didn’t have anything until 11:30 today when we caught one keeper and then it was slow until noon,” Antunes said. “We went to this one area that we really hadn’t spent a lot of time in and saw one good bass in practice and we ended up catching it in the exact same spot.
“That was a gut feeling. We call it ‘God whispers’ that we needed to go check this spot. That fish was a giant, it was 8-12.”
The winners caught all of their fish on 6th Sense Provoke jerkbaits. They spotted several of their fish on forward facing sonar, but they also caught key fish blind casting to good looking spots within the grass.
Ring said he and Antunes had their limit at 1:30, but securing the win took the rest of the fishing day. As Ring recounted, two significant late-day culls pushed them into their winning weight.
“We were driving in and when we passed two of our teammates, Daylon Milam and James Duvose, on Lake Toho, they waved us over,” Antunes said. “They asked us what we had and I said, ‘We have 22 pounds but I don’t know if it’s enough.’
“They said, ‘Ya’ll need to fish around here, there’s some big ones here, so y’all can try to cull.’ We ended up catching one over 5 and one over 4 right there.”
Ligon and Fisher finished second with 46-10. After taking the Day 1 lead with 25-15, they turned in another solid performance with a limit that went 20-11.
Repeating the routine that delivered their first-round success, Ligon and Fisher spent all of their time on a single spot on the east side of Lake Toho.
“There was a ditch that ran through some sparse hydrilla and those fish were using it as a highway,” Ligon said. “This ditch had clear water and the fish were using it for pre- and postspawn movement.”
Ligon and Fisher caught all of their fish both days with a 7-inch minnow on a 1/8-ounce head. This oversized presentation tilted the odds in their favor.
“It just seemed to have more drawing power and it increased our chances of catching a bigger fish,” Ligon said. “We found some fish in practice with a Berkley Chop Block. We would get them to show themselves in some of the thicker clumps of grass and some of the bigger fish we caught were actually in those clumps.”
Ben Burns and Grant Pursifull of Stephen F. Austin State University finished third with 43-0. Their daily weights were 21-11 and 21-5.
Trent Gilmore and Cooper Moon of the University of Montevallo won the Phoenix Boats Big Bass award with a 9-13. On Day 2, Gilmore and Moon weighed the event’s heaviest bag — 29-5 — and finished eighth with 38-12.
