OSU anglers Blake Flurry, left, and Zack Birge hold the Day One bag that helped them land the college national championship at Little Rock, Ark. Wednesday.
COURTESY BASS/James Overstreet
Oklahoma State University anglers Zack Birge and Blake Flurry are the 2012 Carhartt College Series National Champions.
They will bring home top college bragging rights, a $5,000 check for the OSU bass club and each will fish this weekend for a chance to compete in the 2013 Bassmaster Classic at Grand Lake.
“It’d be great to fish that tournament in our home state,” Flurry said at Friday’s weigh in. “Grand Lake is pretty much home waters for me and Zack.”
Birge said the win was “just kind of a dream.”
“Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, to beat those guys you’ve accomplished something,” he said.
A magical few minutes the first morning of a tough tournament Day One on the Arkansas River out of Little Rock, Ark. Wednesday catapulted Birge and Flurry into a lead they never relinquished.
With 17-4 their first day they were more than 4 ½ pounds ahead of their nearest competitors, a lead they maintained through Thursday on Lake Maumelle, when they landed a four-fish bag totaling only 4 pounds 4 ounces.
Friday the top five teams faced off on Hurricane Lake, a 326-acre private reservoir near Benton.
While OSU had a 4-pound advantage over their nearest competitor, only 7 pounds covered the gap from first place to fifth with teams from Auburn Univeristy, Murray State University, University of Alabama and University of Arkansas in the showdown. With large catches possible on the lake, the OSU team had to do well Friday to win.
Fishing shallow and surface with frogs and Zara Spooks the anglers brought in 16 pounds, 5 ounces to best Auburn by 2 pounds 12 ounces and take the win.
Both anglers are going into their senior year at OSU. Birge is majoring in wind turbine technology and Flurry is a crop soil science major.
Saturday members of the top four teams will be seeded individually to compete in a two-day bracket-format tournament.
BASS will put the young anglers in tournament-ready boats provided by Triton and Skeeter to fish 960-acre Beaverfork Lake in Conway, Ark. The angler who is on top at the end of the day Sunday will have earned a berth in the 2013 Bassmaster Classic.
Internet viewers can watch the weigh-ins live by going to tulsaworld.com/bassmaster or by clicking
HERE.
