ENGLAND, Ark. — As soon as the weigh-in finished on Thursday, the top five teams in the Under Armour College Bass National Championship were whisked off to get a 30-minute look at the much-anticipated mystery lake.
It was a 45-minute drive into England and a couple gravel roads later, the teams pulled up to two ponds totaling somewhere around 25 acres. There were pink decoy ducks breaking the ponds into five different holes. They were forced to choose.
They chose their starting hole in order of their finish after two days on Lake Maumelle, and actually ended up choosing in order. Top qualifier Auburn chose hole No. 1 then it was Alabama, Faulkner, Texas A&M and Arkansas-Little Rock.
But without knowing what each pond held, or even how deep they might be, it was tough decision. Nearly eight hours of fishing later, the teams came off the water and assessed their selections, their day on the water and guessed where they might end up.
Auburn University, Richard Peek and Adam Murphree
What do you think of your hole selection?
Peek: We should have started in hole three. We thought the water was a lot deeper than it turned out to be [on the north pond].
Murphree: It turns out there's only 9 feet of water at the deepest point in either one of these ponds and that surprised us.
How was your day on the water?
Peek: Awful. When you're having a bad day and stuff starts breaking…
Murphree: We had to go through three different trolling motors.
Where do you think you'll finish?
Peek: Last.
Murphree: Dead last.
Actual finish: Fifth, 3 fish, 9.33 pounds
University of Alabama, Foster Bradley and Jeff Aul
What do you think of your hole selection?
Bradley: Bad choice. All the fish out of that hole were small.
Aul: He had a couple blow-ups in the morning, but there were more fish in the north pond. Holes one and two [south pond] produced best in the morning but worse overall, so it was kind of a give and take.
How was your day on the water?
Bradley: I guess mediocre. We missed some. He broke one off and I had one pull me down into a tree.
Where do you think you'll finish?
Bradley: Third or fourth.
Aul: Fifth.
Actual finish: Fourth, 5 fish, 14.50 pounds
Faulkner University, Kyle Tindol and Michael Eubanks
What do you think of your hole selection?
Eubanks: Not a good idea. Should have started in hole 4. We'd of caught a whole lot more fish. That's where he broke off an 8-pounder.
How was your day on the water?
Tindol: We caught a lot of fish and the quality was good, but we couldn't get that bigger bite. Like he said, I lost that 8-pounder and we lost about a five on another occasion. Those two fish would have turned things around, but we had a decent day.
Where do you think you'll finish?
Tindol: We ain't got enough to win.
Eubanks: Fifth. Maybe fourth.
Actual finish: Third, 5 fish, 17.22 pounds
Texas A & M, Andrew Shafer and Scott Edmonds
What do you think of your hole selection?
Edmonds: Good. Very good. That lake [North] obviously had the better fish in it. We started there and were able to get a limit, and we finished there and were able to get a kicker.
Shafer: We think it was the best that it could have worked out.
How was your day on the water?
Edmonds: I think it went very well. The only mistake that we made is we missed the same fish back-to-back and it was about a 4-pounder. That would have given us two more pounds and that might make the difference.
Where do you think you'll finish?
Edmonds: Hopefully first.
Shafer: Hopefully first.
Actual finish: Second, 5 fish, 17.40 pounds
Arkansas-Little Rock, Jeremy Reese and Trent Gephardt
What do you think of your hole selection?
Reese: We didn't have much as a selection, but coming in as a default, it turned out pretty well. We started on the good pond. We didn't have any keeper on the south.
How was your day on the water?
Reese: It started great, then it got slow, then got worse. It wasn't really until the last hour and a half that we started catching them.
Gephardt: A lot of fun.
Where do you think you'll finish?
Reese: It's going to be close. No worse than fifth.
Actual finish: First, 5 fish, 21.24 pounds
