Georgia Wins the East

Written by

Rob Russow

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — This weekend, Ben Cleary and John Hickman from the University of Georgia fished together for the first time and managed to take the title from a strong field of local Alabama teams.

After catching 16.31 pounds on Day Two, the duo jumped from eighth place to first, leaving the Alabama River as East Super Regional champions.

“Being in the middle of Alabama, you probably have 10 schools within a few hours of the Alabama River,” Cleary said. “When you are fishing in Alabama, you are going up against the best of the best. Luckily, we were up for the task.”

Finishing in the runner-up position, in second place, was the team of Jonas Ertel and Kyle Raymer from Eastern Kentucky University with a two-day total of 27.25 pounds. The local team from Auburn University – Montgomery, Jacob Nummy and Larry Haag, caught the biggest bag of the day at 16.49 pounds and finished third with 26.99 pounds.

Rounding out the top five was Auburn University’s Jason Mitja and Shane Powell in fourth place with 26.38 pounds and the University of Alabama’s Warren Hoffman and Ben Weldon in fifth place with 25.65 pounds.

For Cleary and Hickman, a bad practice Friday quickly turned around on Day One, when they figured out that the falling water was pulling the fish out from the back of Cooters Pond and onto a stretch of riprap the team would work back and forth along for the majority of the tournament.

“That area was right next to a channel, the shad were there ready to spawn and all the fish have to go through that area to spawn in the back,” Cleary said. “Once we got on that riprap, we just milked it all day. It seemed like you would hit it five times and then the sixth time, you would catch four fish.”

Georgia fished an Ol’Nelle white and chartreuse spinnerbait with a white Zoom trailer on the back. While many of the other local anglers were also throwing spinnerbaits, Cleary and Hickman used a different style to entice bites.

“Everybody was fishing it too fast, sometimes burning it across the surface,” Cleary said. “You almost had to fish it like a work, very slow across the bottom. The shad were key in that area. They would follow the spinnerbait and we could see them. They were big shad, so we knew big bass were not far away.”

Hickman was fishing in his very first collegiate tournament, and wanted to thank his teammates, the school and everyone that helped out this week.

“Fortunately for me, Ben’s original partner couldn’t make it and I got to fish with him,” Hickman said. “I hope I don’t get spoiled with the way this week went. The dinner in Montgomery was great, with every piece of chicken you could want, and then we went on to win the tournament.”

The Day One leaders from Faulkner University, Kyle Tindol and John Nicks Galloway struggled on Day Two and with only 7.88 pounds, fell to 12^th place. In the in-state rivalry between Auburn and Alabama, Auburn came back on Day Two to get the upper hand, averaging 9.97 pounds per team each day compared to Alabama’s 9.17 pounds.

The next event for College Bass anglers will be the West Super Regional in Tyler, Texas, on Lake Tyler from April 24^th to 25^th. Coverage from all the events can be found on CollegeBass.com.

East Super Regional Day Two Results:

Place	Team	Angler	Angler	Total
1	Georgia	Ben Cleary	John Hickman	29.61
2	Eastern Kentucky	Kyle Raymer	Jonas Ertel	27.25
3	Auburn – Montgomery	Jacob Nummy	Larry Haag	26.99
4	Auburn	Jason Mitja	Shane Powell	26.38
5	Alabama	Warren Hoffman	Ben Weldon	25.65
6	Auburn	J.T. Murphy	Kiron Browning	25.22
7	Alabama	Dustin Connell	Nick Carlyle	25.07
8	LSU – Shreveport	Zach Caudle	Joe Landry	24.94
9	Louisiana – Lafayette	Cody McCrary	Jordy Veillion	24.54
10	Auburn	Jordan Lee	Paul Davis	23.81
11	UNC Charlotte	Eric Self	Tyler Beam	23.52
12	Faulkner	Kyle Tindol	John Nicks Galloway	22.95
13	Alabama	Dalton Wilson	Kyle Worsham	22.77
14	Auburn	Anthony Goggins	Nick Palerino	22.66
15	Tennessee – Knoxville	John Young	Bradley Cooper	22.07
16	LSU	Douglas McClung	Travis Laurent	21.82
17	Mississippi State	Kyle Smith	Ryan Therrell	19.79
18	Alabama – Birmingham	David Smith		19.59
19	North Alabama	Ryan Salzman	Logan Leonard	19.47
20	Tennessee Tech	Seth Davis	Ryan Maddux	19.27
21	UNC Charlotte	Joe Kinchen	Tyler Teer	18.73
22	Troy	Justin Mott	Caleb Downing	18.46
23	Georgia	Randy Tolbert	Chase Simmemon	18
24	Auburn	Daniel Holland	Jonathan Adams	17.54
25	Alabama	Jeremy Christian	David Rogers	16.91
26	Alabama	Daniel Taylor	Caleb Parker	16.89
27	NC State	Will White	Jeff Bumgarner	16.81
28	North Alabama	Shawn Dalrymple	Robb Young	16.44
29	Auburn	Andrew Wendt	Robert Melvin	16.33
30	Georgia	Dessie Bower	Wesley Mitchell	16.04
31	Virginia Tech	Nick White	Caleb Brown	15.7
32	Auburn	Clay Messer	Sam Rochell	14.76
33	Mississippi State	Andrew Gordon	Xan Hancock	14.61
34	East Carolina	Brad Kimrey	Allen Rouse	14.53
35	Mississippi State	Greg Bentley	Aaron Posner	14.13
36	Alabama	Mark McCarty	Lance Coggins	13.99
37	Mississippi State	Josh Cameron	Taylor Odom	13.29
38	Florida	Mark Gipson	Rhett Rampi	13.17
39	Auburn	Eric Terrell	Gene Buckley	12.81
40	South Carolina	Stephen Britt	Jake Hostetter	11.93
41	Troy	Jeremy Knight	Blake Turner	11.77
42	Southern Miss	Dax Graham	Morgan Johnston	11.69
43	South Carolina	Chip Gilley	Brandon Owens	11.52
44	UT – Chattanooga	Drew Hardin	Alex Craw	9.6
45	Faulkner	Hunter Dismukes	Josh Lock	9.11
46	Georgia College & State	Jared Hendrix	Jonathan Rotureau	8.73
47	Georgia College & State	Zach Olson	Josh Futch	7.78
48	Alabama	Brian Morrow	Trent Wright	7.15
49	Gardner Webb	Lee Phipps	Jacob Vandenbark	6.06
50	Auburn – Montgomery	Brandon Johnson	Matthew Mallett	5.57
51	Mississippi State	Chesley Heatherly	Taylor Bowling	5.38
52	East Carolina	Zane Bennett	Zachary Watkins	2.48
53	Montevallo	Joseph Fuller	Jacob Odom	0
54	Montevallo	Clent Davis		0
55	Auburn – Montgomery	Valerie Mitchell	Baron Litaker	0
56	Troy	Darrick Luke	Josh Grimes	0

Georgia Wins the East

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