Briggs Kennington and Patrick Williford, teammates representing Clemson University in the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Wild Card tournament on Lake Barkley this week, plan to just go fishing when competition begins Wednesday and see what happens.

“We’ve been here two and a half days practicing and we have found a lot of water, but not a lot of fish,” Kennington said after the final practice Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve fished our butts off, but we are struggling,” he added.

The problem, which may not be confined to the Clemson anglers, is that the fish apparently are scattered somewhere on their way to the ledges.

“The water is up, some locals say, by a foot of so from what it was last week from all the rain here. It poured here Monday, and the water is a little on the colder side from what we expected. It’s running 74-75 degrees, while back home the water temperature is up to around 81 degrees.”

All that rain, Kennington believes, pushed the bass out of their normal transition pattern.

“Some of the locals are saying they were catching a lot of fish in the brush last week. Now some of that brush is so flooded the fish have left.”

Kennington and Williford, both from Greensboro, N.C., tried to find fish on the ledges the last couple of days – to no avail. 

The weigh-ins this week will determine which teams will head on to the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops July 9-11 on Lake DuBay on the Wisconsin River. 

“I think this tournament is going to be one, either by somebody who finds a really good school of fish on the ledges or someone who finds some fish in transition areas going out to the ledges,” he said. “Tomorrow we are just going to go fishing and do what feels right,” he said. 

 

Bassmaster Carhartt College Wild Card

Jun 3-6, 2015

Lake Barkley

www.bassmaster.com