CHARLES COUNTY, Md. – The nation’s top collegiate bass-fishing anglers are competing in the YETI FLW College Fishing national championship on the Potomac River, which started Tuesday.
Caiden Sinclair and Hunter Gibson, both from Hoover, are competing for the University of Alabama. On Tuesday’s first day, the team of Gibson and Sinclair caught five fish for a 12.8-pound total.
The team of Nolan Minor and Thomas Raines of West Virginia lead the tournament with a first-day catch of five fish for 18.5 pounds.
Sinclair and Gibson are among 155 teams in the event. Anglers are e competing for a prize package that includes a new Ranger Z175 boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury or Evinrude outboard and an automatic qualification for both team members to compete at the 2019 FLW Cup in August at Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
The event will be streamed live on the FLW Live on-the-water program airing Wednesday on FLWFishing.com, the FLW YouTube channel and the FLW Facebook page.
The national championships has 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 are 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.”
