USC duo reel in No. 2 spot at FLW College Fishing National Championship

After the first two days of the FLW College Fishing National Championship held on Lake Murray, the USC duo of Patrick Walters and Gettys Brannon like their position.

The two South Carolina natives are in second place after a catch of 18 pounds, 11 ounces on Friday. That brings the two-day total to 36 pounds, 1 ounce – short of the 36 pounds, 6 ounces from leaders Travis Rulle and Caleb Eppler of Liberty University.

Walters and Brannon hauled in most of their fish by mid-morning and used a lot of the afternoon to plan strategy for the final round Saturday. The top 10 teams advanced to the final round with everyone within six pounds, two ounces of the leaders.

“By the end of the day, we tried to cover some new water for (Saturday) trying to anticipate what we think could happen,” Gaffney native Brannon said. “We’ll see how it goes. The key is going to be consistency. We’re not happy yet, so, hopefully, they’ll be biting (Saturday).”

Walters said they caught fish anywhere from 15 feet to 6 inches. The weather conditions played a factor. On Thursday, it was cool and overcast with high winds, while Friday was a more seasonable low 70’s and calm.

“The main thing is the wind,” the Summerville native said. “If we get wind, everybody is going to catch them. Sun helps, but the wind is main factor.”

Rulle and Eppler took advantage of the conditions on the opening day with 22 pounds, 2 ounces. They followed that up with 14 pounds, 4 ounces on Friday. They said they caught most of their fish in the morning anywhere between a foot and 10 feet of water.

“Without the wind, we had to make some adjustments,” Rulle said. “We had some additional boat pressure from the locals. Hopefully (Saturday), we can go out and do what we learned (Friday) with the no wind situation, and hopefully the locals will participate.”

A couple local fishermen were helpful for the Liberty team Friday. The Liberty pair wanted to fish a spot, and the two men gave way to the pair fishing for a national championship.

“One local boat really helped,” Eppler said. “They were fishing their own tournament, and they actually knew who we were and got out of a spot. So we want to send a special thank you to Sammy and Jessie.”

The biggest catch of Day 2 went to the Oregon State team of Chase Coachran and Ryan Sparks – 20 pounds, 8 ounces. That was good enough to move into third place with a two-day total of 36 pounds.

The South Carolina duo believes it’s going to take another day of over 17 pounds to walk away with the title. They’ve been over that mark both days and need another day of solid fishing on their home lake to take the prize.

“We did a lot of running and gunning,” Walters said. “We tried to hit as much as we could and hit the most active fish. We’re trying to find the most aggressive fish possible, and we feel if we make enough points and make enough casts, we’ll end up catching some fish.”

This story was originally published April 17, 2015 at 9:33 PM with the headline "USC duo reel in No. 2 spot at FLW College Fishing National Championship."