College: Day 1 on Clinton

Go on the water with the collegiate anglers as they take on Day 1 of the 2016 Carhartt College Midwestern Regional.

With 93 boats on Clinton Lake in this weeks college event there were multiple occasions of sharing water on Day 1. This team gave way to the next team as they decided to head to their next location.

As the other team packed up to head out, the Wisconsin-Stevens Point team of Dan Scott and Dakota Lenske hooked up.

They fought it to the boat and hoped to boat their second keeper of the morning.

Scott lowers the net to the water and scoops up the fish as Lenske keeps pressure on the fish.

In the net and in the boat for Scott and Lenske.

Lenske proudly holds up number two for the team as they got a quick start to the morning.

They get back to work quickly.

Some early morning spray flies off of Scott’s reel…

…as a blue heron soars above.

The next group of boats we saw included an Illinois community college named Moraine Valley.

They went to work as Austin Chapman and Curtis Lilly of McKendree University drove by.

The Grand Valley State team of Brody Anderson and Justin Bruno peek around the corner.

Anderson hooked up in front of us…

…but it was obviously a non-keeper as it didn’t meet the 16-inch size limit.

Bruno continued to flip the shallow grass in front of him.

The Missouri State team of Tyler Ellis and Kyle Dougherty fish down a nearby bank.

They had an early 3-pounder in the livewell and was looking for more.

After seeing a couple boats leave an area they were eyeing, they pick up and move over to fish it before other teams come in.

They ended the day just outside of the Top 20 cut in 24th with 8-14.

I saw another team deep in a pocket behind some wooded cover.

They picked apart every piece of cover and thoroughly checked every spot.

A couple carp bust the surface as they were beginning to spawn.

The next team I found was Michigan State’s Danny Sprague and Tyler Andrews.

Sprague hooked up and immediately ran to the back of the boat as he thought he had a big fish.

He went all the way around the boat and went to land it in the front.

As it surfaces they realize it was just a catfish.

The University of Illinois was fishing in a secluded cove with some pristine cover nearby.

One of the numerous Wisconsin-Plattville was also in this cove.

For 93 boats on this 4,900-acre lake it didn’t seem crowded, until we came across one of the Clinton Lake bridges.

There we saw numerous teams, including Ryan Kirkpatrick and Austin Butler from Murray State. They had just finished their limit and came to fish around the bridge until they saw how crowded it was.