Published June 3, 2019
Jacob Andrews and Luke O'Neal
The tournament is Tuesday, June 4 through Thursday, June 6. Andrews and O’Neal headed
to the Potomac River in late May to plan their strategy, as one of 155 teams angling
for collegiate champs. The ULM team is hoping to return with the title garnered in
2018 by Hunter Freeman and Thomas Soileau.
“Me and Luke qualified for the national championship last year on Lake Texoma. We
finished in fourth place,” said Andrews, of Monroe. “We’re super excited about the
national championship, being the defending national champs it’s kind of cool being
the only team there with a chance to repeat. I’m not sure what to expect up there
but it’s fishing and anything can happen. We’re going to fish to our capabilities
and hopefully bring home the title again.”
O’Neal, of Madisonville, also has his sights set on another championship.
“We’ve been looking forward to this tournament ever since we qualified,” he said.
“I’m excited to represent the university at a national level, and hoping to bring
home another championship for ULM.”
The team has their eye on the prize package too — a new Ranger Z175 boat with a 115-horsepower
Mercury or Evinrude outboard and an automatic qualification for both team members
to move on to compete against the best bass-anglers in the world at the 2019 FLW Cup,
this August at Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
For the first time in College Fishing history, the event will be streamed live on
the popular
FLW Live on-the-water program airing on Days Two and Three, Wednesday, June 5, and Thursday,
June 6. FLW Live features live action from the boats of the tournament’s top anglers
each day. Host Travis Moran will be joined by FLW Tour pro and former college angler
Miles Burghoff to break down the extended action each day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The
on-the-water broadcast will be live streamed on
FLWFishing.com, the FLW YouTube channel and the FLW Facebook page.
The 2019 YETI FLW College Fishing National Championship at the Potomac River presented
by Lowrance will be comprised of the top qualifying teams from 15 regular-season tournaments
from around the country, along with the top 20 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing
Open. A field of 155 teams representing 92 different colleges and universities will
be participating.
“Every year the FLW College Fishing National Championship seems to get a little bigger
and a little better and this year is no exception,” said Kevin Hunt, FLW College Fishing
Director of Tournament Operations. “We’ve got some of the top college teams from across
the country competing in this tournament and with the expanded live coverage, they
are more than ready to show off their skills at one of the best, most unique fisheries
in the world.”
The FLW College Fishing National Championship anglers will take off each day, June
4-6, from Smallwood State Park, located at 2750 Sweden Point Road in Marbury, at 7
a.m. EDT. All weigh-ins will be held at the State Park, beginning at 3 p.m. Takeoffs
and weigh-ins are free and open to the public. The tournament is hosted by the Charles
County Board of Commissioners and Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism.
Television coverage of the event will premiere in the fall of 2019. The Emmy-nominated
"FLW" television show airs each Saturday night at 7 p.m. EST and is broadcast to more
than 63 million cable, satellite and telecommunications households in the U.S., Canada
and the Caribbean on the World Fishing Network (WFN), the leading entertainment destination
and digital resource for anglers throughout North America. FLW television is also
distributed internationally to FLW partner countries, including Canada, China, Italy,
Korea, Mexico, Namibia, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and Zimbabwe.
For complete details and updated information visit
FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the sport’s top anglers
on the FLW Tour on FLW’s social media outlets at
Facebook,
Twitter,
Instagram and
YouTube.
