The Oltorik brothers – Thomas III and James — started the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Southern Regional on the St. John’s River with a Day 1 weight of 15-9, which landed them in second place at the end of the opening round.
Things only went up from there for the Daytona State College anglers, as they took the lead on Day 2 and kept it on Day 3, winning the event by one pound even with 42-6.
“I’m absolutely speechless,” said Thomas Oltorik III.
“Today was an amazing day. We had a lot of little fish biting all day long. I was just sitting there praying to God, ‘just one big one.’ And then right there at the end ‘kaboom’, she ate it.”
“I set the hook and put it in the boat.”
That big one weighed about seven pounds and definitely made the difference for Daytona State, who bested Clemson runner-ups Baylor Ronemus and Cole Tinsley by one pound.
The final day of fishing started much like Day 2 had for Daytona State. After about 15 minutes on their starting spot in Crescent Lake, Thomas and James knew that it was time to make the decision whether to run.
The wind was blowing a sustained 15 miles-per-hour and their offshore spot was almost impossible to fish thoroughly. They chose to strap everything down and make the 3-hour run south past Lake George.
Heading south paid off; they caught their entire final round weight of 13-4.
Baylor Ronemus and Cole Tinsley of Clemson University finished second on the St. Johns, besting Auburn’s CJ Knight and Tim Ward by one ounce.
Cody Spears and Justin Mahon of Florida State University finished fourth, while Austin Littrell and Ben Wall of Auburn University brought in the biggest bag of the final day – weighing in at 18-8 — to round out the Top 5.
The Carhartt Big Bass, awarded for the largest fish weighed in across all three days of competition, went to Nathan Felker and Joe Bates of Georgia Southern for their 10-7 monster from Day 2.
The Nitro Bass Pro Big Bag award went to Cody Spears and Justin Mahon of Florida State, whose Day 2 bag of 19-15 was the largest single-day stringer of the tournament.
A total of eighteen teams qualified for the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship, which will be held later this summer.