ANDERSON, S.C. — After a decent start, Garrett Smith and Andrew Blanton of Lander University saved the best for last by smashing a huge Day 3 limit and tallying a three-day total of 49 pounds to win the Strike King Bassmaster College National Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops at Lake Hartwell.
After placing 22nd with an opening weight of 12-6, Smith and Blanton added 16-1 on Day 2 and moved into third. Championship Saturday saw them weigh 20-9 — the event’s heaviest bag — and edge Day 2 leaders Parker Guy and Tyler Campbell of Emmanuel University by 1-3.
“Fishing on this level has been a dream of mine since I was a little boy, and Garrett and I have dedicated our lives to it,” Blanton said. “Being the first to win a National Championship for Lander is amazing. I’m so happy that we get to cherish it with all (our teammates) that were at the weigh in.
“The Lord has blessed me and (Smith) beyond measure. I can’t believe this. It’s great.”
Smith added: “This all came down to making good decisions and executing. We just want to thank our parents and our school for putting us in position to do this.”
While many of their competitors, including Guy and Campbell, targeted the bass that were following blueback herring on the main lake, Smith and Blanton took a dramatically different approach.
“We focused on the Tugaloo River and the Seneca River, because we wanted to fish shallow and chase fish that would be feeding on bream,” Smith said. “We spent all of our practice in those areas.
“We chose to go to the bank and fish the way we were most comfortable, because we felt it was almost impossible for us to go out there and beat the (more experienced) herring guys. So, we chose to go give ourselves a chance to win it our way.”
Blanton said he and his partner fished in 5 feet or less and saw most of their fish before they bit.
“We had to be around steeper pockets more so than just flat pockets,” he said. “That was weird for us because we fish here a good bit in the summer and we usually fish flatter pockets and flatter banks for shallow cruisers and bream eaters.
“This week, the water continued to drop, so we had to fish in steeper pockets and a lot of them had bream beds. The key for us is the areas we were fishing — whether we were throwing at the bream beds or not — had to have a big population of bream.”
Smith, who’s pursuing a master’s degree in business administration, and Blanton, a junior majoring in business, fished reaction and finesse baits.
“We caught 90% of our fish on a buzzbait, but we also threw a wacky rig and we caught a key Day 1 fish on a prop bait,” Blanton said. “We beat the bank all week. We had a great time today.”
The winners caught about 15 keepers on Day 3, including a 6-1. Biting a wacky rig around 1:30, that fish gave them the cull that pushed them over the edge — but not without a double dose of drama.
“Today was one of those days when everything just went right,” Blanton said. “Once we got that big one in the boat, I felt like it was our time, because you don’t have things happen like what happened today unless it’s your time.
“As soon as Garrett hooked that big one, it wrapped him up in a brushpile under a dock twice. It came out and jumped a bunch. Any other day, I feel like we wouldn’t have gotten that fish in the boat, but we were able to get it to come out of that brushpile and catch it.”
Smith and Blanton earned the $5,000 first-place cash prize, along with $10,000 in Minn Kota/Humminbird merchandise. Also, the winners advance to the Bassmaster College Classic Bracket presented by Lew’s. This head-to-head style competition will send the winner to the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors March 21-23 on Texas’ Lake Ray Roberts.
Guy and Campbell finished second with 47-13. Their daily weights were 16-6, 15-2 and 16-5.
Sticking with the game plan that produced all week, Campbell and Guy committed themselves to a run-and-gun strategy that took them all over the lake. With the lake in drought condition and current generation minimal until later in the afternoon, the morning bite proved most productive.Targeting brushpiles and cane piles in 15 to 30 feet, Campbell and Guy hit approximately 300 spots. Guy and Campbell caught their fish on a variety of topwater presentations, including a Berkley Krej waking bait and unweighted Texas-rigged Zoom Super Flukes.
Campbell, who guides on Hartwell, said he wouldn’t change anything about his team’s decision. He also said the final field of 12 teams proved advantageous.
“No regrets about the week; everything went perfectly, execution was good and they bit better today than they have all week due to less pressure on the lake,” Campbell said. “The only thing I didn’t account for was somebody catching 20 1/2 pounds.”
Lane Clark and Tallis Morrison of Erskine College placed third with 45-3. They caught limits of 13-11, 15-1 and 16-7.
Clark said he and Morrison fished the lake’s lower end, where they expected to find Hartwell’s bigger fish, along with the largest population of blueback herring. They fished cane piles, brushpiles and timber in depths of 20 to 70 feet.
“We caught our fish on chartreuse and white Zoom Super Flukes and buzzbaits,” Clark said. “We were running and gunning and putting our bait in front of as many fish as possible.”
Dylan Akins and Chase Carey of Emmanuel University won the Strike King Bassmaster College Series Team of the Year honors. Finishing fifth in the tournament, Akins and Carey received $2,500 cash, $5,000 of Minn Kota/Humminbird merchandise and a spot in the Bassmaster College Classic Bracket presented by Lew’s.
Smith and Blanton won big bass honors for Day 3 with their 6-1.
The tournament was hosted by Visit Anderson.
