McKendree’s McKinney, Jackson Continue Special Run On Lay Lake With Wild Card Victory

une 24, 2021

McKendree’s McKinney, Jackson Continue Special Run On Lay Lake With Wild Card Victory

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SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. — Between school, work and other obligations, the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Wild Card presented by Bass Pro Shops at Lay Lake was the only chance for Blake Jackson and Trevor McKinney from McKendree University to qualify for the National Championship.

Thanks to a 14-pound, 7-ounce bag of mostly spotted bass on the final day, they increased their two-day total to 30-2 to take home the victory and do just that. To make it even more special, it happened on the same lake where the anglers squared off against each other in the final round of the College Classic Bracket last season, with McKinney winning and advancing to the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk.

“I was telling Blake, ‘Man, we ought to move down here.’ Every time we come we catch a bunch of fish and catch big ones,” McKinney said onstage with tournament director Hank Weldon.

“This is what we’ve fished for the last four years,” McKinney continued offstage. “We’ve had a good college career, but we had never won a Bassmaster event. This was our last chance and we really wanted to win. It makes it sweet being our last event.”

With this tournament win under their belts, Jackson said Lay Lake will hold a special place in his mind and, for this tournament in particular, the best part was fishing with McKinney and not against him.

“The best part about this week, we were catching fish on the same bait for the most part (that we used) during the bracket against each other,” Jackson said. “We combined forces this week and were catching them on the same exact bait we were throwing then. It was really neat.”

The Dallas Baptist University duo of Michael Postlewait and Andrew Rickman had the biggest bag of the tournament on Day 2 with 18-6 to climb from 23rd to second place with a two-day total of 29-6. Day 1 leaders Weston Hollar and Wesley Gore from the University of Montevallo finished third with 29-2.

After landing in third place on Day 1 with 15-11, McKinney and Jackson started the day on a spot they found with 30 minutes to go the previous day. Using almost exclusively a Rapala DT6 crankbait in chartreuse/brown, the duo took advantage of the early morning bite and strong current in the midlake region.

“We had a couple of current breaks on the main river that we were targeting,” said McKinney, who finished 31st in the Classic earlier this month on Lake Ray Roberts. “We caught them really well this morning and had all of our weight by 8:30. The current by the end of the day was almost nonexistent. When you are fishing for spots, especially on the Coosa River, current is huge, and if you can find them in the current they are easy to catch and the DT6 is the best crankbait in the world to throw at spotted bass in the current.”

Every fish they caught swallowed the bait, Jackson said.

“These spots go nuts to begin with, but every one of them had two treble hooks in them,” he said. “(McKinney) made a comment today while we were out on the water and said, ‘I think we’ve had to use the pliers to get every one of these fish unhooked.’”

With the floodgates throughout the Coosa River open this week due to heavy rains from Tropical Storm Claudette that passed through over the weekend, McKinney and Jackson were able to find several places loaded with spotted bass. Jackson added that hard bottom was the key to finding the specific areas the spots related to.

Now that they are qualified for the Bassmaster College Series National Championship, which is scheduled for Aug. 12-14 on the St. Lawrence River, Jackson and McKinney have their sights set on a top finish and making their way back to the College Classic Bracket.

“We are going to go up there and hopefully qualify for the Bracket again,” McKinney said. “The Bracket was an experience that everyone should have. It is awesome what they do to give one college angler a shot to fish the Bassmaster Classic. To think we are going to have a shot to make the Bracket at the championship feels really great.”

After catching 11-0 on Day 1 fishing points on the south end of the lake, Postlewait and Rickman ran up the river and landed on a current break that was loaded with big spotted bass.

“We basically scrapped everything we did yesterday,” Rickman said. “The first day of practice we were fishing the dam, and he caught a 4.89 spotted bass. So, we got up there today and they cut the current off a little bit and we had four in the first 20 minutes and five in the first 40 minutes, and we kept culling throughout the day.”

With only minutes left to fish, Rickman cast his crankbait into the current and caught about a 3 1/2-pound spot. Deeper-diving crankbaits were the key for the Dallas Baptist duo in the current under the dam.

“We were sitting in a little eddy, just enough to where we could hold there, and we were bombing 5XDs and 6XDs, whatever we didn’t snap off, into the current,” Postlewait said. “We had to weed through the striper. We caught 30 stripers today, and every once in a while, it would be a 3-pound spot.”

They also added a 5-pound largemouth flipping while giving their primary area a rest.

The lack of current on Lay Lake on Day 2 hurt Hollar and Gore, who caught 11-8 on the final day to finish in third. The Montevallo duo used a Spro Poppin’ Frog most of the week as well as a flipping bait.

“I guess the home-lake curse kind of got us today. We never got a big bite today,” Gore said. “It just wasn’t meant to be.”

While the bigger creeks on Lay Lake were under pressure, Hollar and Gore focused on shorter pockets off the main lake with a feeder creek that was pushing out water from the heavy rains that moved through over the weekend.

“They slacked the water off so much today that it repositioned the fish we were catching,” Gore said. “The fish we were catching were in the backs of bays. Most of the bays you went in that had a main feeder creek were stacked up. Today when we got down there, all the bays were really stagnant.”

Matthew Cummings and Joseph Woods from Bethel University earned Carhartt Big Bass of the Tournament honors with a 7-4 largemouth they caught on Day 1. The Top 10 teams from this event punched their tickets to the National Championship.

21 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Wild Card presented by Bass Pro Shops 6/23-6/24Lay Lake, Columbiana  AL.(BOATER) Standings Day 2

    Angler                                       Club/School                       Pts

1.  Trevor McKinney – Blake Jackson              McKendree University                250Day 1: 5   15-11     Day 2: 5   14-07   Total:  10  30-022.  Michael Postlewait – Andrew Rickman          Dallas Baptist University           249Day 1: 5   11-00     Day 2: 5   18-06   Total:  10  29-063.  Weston Hollar – Wesley Gore                  University of Montevallo            248Day 1: 5   17-10     Day 2: 5   11-08   Total:  10  29-024.  Kayden Tanner – Trevor Easter                Tarleton State University           247Day 1: 5   15-05     Day 2: 5   13-05   Total:  10  28-105.  Tripp Bowman – Blakely Young                 Louisiana State University-Shrev    246Day 1: 5   11-15     Day 2: 5   16-09   Total:  10  28-086.  Lane Bailey – Justin Eggers                  CVCC RedHawks                       245Day 1: 5   14-12     Day 2: 5   13-04   Total:  10  28-007.  James Willoughby – Chance Schwartz           University of Montevallo            244Day 1: 5   11-08     Day 2: 5   16-00   Total:  10  27-088.  Aaron Cherry – Chandler Holt                 University of Montevallo            243Day 1: 5   16-14     Day 2: 5   10-01   Total:  10  26-159.  Grayson Morris – Cal Culpepper               University of Montevalllo           242Day 1: 5   11-15     Day 2: 5   14-03   Total:  10  26-0210. Cordell Beckman –                            Greenville University               241Day 1: 5   11-15     Day 2: 5   13-13   Total:  10  25-1211. Hunter Bailey – JR Young                     Jacksonville State University       240Day 1: 5   09-14     Day 2: 5   15-09   Total:  10  25-0712. Grant Lesage – Zach Davis                    Southeastern Louisiana Universit    239Day 1: 5   13-12     Day 2: 5   11-10   Total:  10  25-0613. Jake Kimbrough – Grant Busby                 Blue Mountain College               238Day 1: 5   14-07     Day 2: 5   10-11   Total:  10  25-0214. Chase Hubble – Brent May                                                         237Day 1: 5   12-04     Day 2: 5   12-04   Total:  10  24-0815. Conner Dimauro – Justin Botts                bryan college                       236Day 1: 5   09-06     Day 2: 5   14-13   Total:  10  24-0316. Walker Brown – Jd Bedford                    University of North Alabama         235Day 1: 5   11-09     Day 2: 5   12-04   Total:  10  23-1317. Hunter Bond – GL Compton                     Clemson University                  234Day 1: 5   09-02     Day 2: 5   14-08   Total:  10  23-1018. Tyler Pendergrass –                          University of North Alabama         233Day 1: 5   12-03     Day 2: 5   11-05   Total:  10  23-0819. De Andre Allen – Luke Glasgow                Itawamba Community College          232Day 1: 5   08-14     Day 2: 5   13-15   Total:  10  22-1320. Matthew Benson – Nathanael Wright            Emmanuel College                    231Day 1: 5   08-00     Day 2: 5   14-09   Total:  10  22-0921. Preston Kendrick – Eli Stevenson             Bryan College                       230Day 1: 5   11-08     Day 2: 5   10-15   Total:  10  22-0722. Drew Jennings – Cody Griffith                Auburn University                   229Day 1: 5   07-10     Day 2: 5   14-08   Total:  10  22-0223. Matthew Cummings – Joseph Woods              Bethel University                   228Day 1: 5   14-14     Day 2: 5   07-01   Total:  10  21-1524. Connor Hicks – Parker Kaye                   University of Tennessee             227Day 1: 5   11-13     Day 2: 5   09-13   Total:  10  21-1025.  Dale Hansard – Mason Lee                    Jacksonville State University       226Day 1: 5   14-02     Day 2: 5   07-06   Total:  10  21-0826. Dawson Andrews – Wyatt Ensminger             Southeastern Louisiana Universit    225Day 1: 5   08-02     Day 2: 5   13-03   Total:  10  21-0527. TJ McKenzie –                                Emmanuel College                    224Day 1: 5   12-10     Day 2: 5   08-10   Total:  10  21-0428. Collin Reyes – Reagan Nelson                 Tarleton State University           223Day 1: 5   11-06     Day 2: 5   09-08   Total:  10  20-1429. Aaron Hawkins – Broxson Daigle               Texas A and M University            222Day 1: 5   09-15     Day 2: 5   10-15   Total:  10  20-1430. Cole Thompson – Walker Sahagun               University of North Alabama         221Day 1: 5   10-10     Day 2: 5   10-03   Total:  10  20-1331. Caz Anderson – Storm Cline                   Carson-Newman University            220Day 1: 5   09-12     Day 2: 5   10-08   Total:  10  20-0432. Matt Short – Colton Combs                    Eastern Kentucky University         219Day 1: 5   10-09     Day 2: 5   09-10   Total:  10  20-0333. Landon Lawson – Donavan Carson               King University                     218Day 1: 5   12-09     Day 2: 5   07-07   Total:  10  20-0034. Cole Dodson – Trent Jones                    University of Montevallo            217Day 1: 5   08-13     Day 2: 5   11-03   Total:  10  20-0035. Reece Martin – Hunter Jenkins                Dallas Baptist University           216Day 1: 5   08-05     Day 2: 5   11-09   Total:  10  19-1436. Sam Hanggi – Matthew Welcher                 Auburn University                   215Day 1: 4   08-14     Day 2: 5   10-13   Total:   9  19-1137. Salvador Garcia – Reese Jones                Northwest Arkansas Community Col    214Day 1: 5   06-09     Day 2: 5   13-00   Total:  10  19-0938. Jordan Pennington – Tyler Cain               University of Montevallo            213Day 1: 5   08-03     Day 2: 5   11-06   Total:  10  19-0939. K.D. Sizemore – Ethan Gilmore                Auburn University                   212Day 1: 5   09-15     Day 2: 5   09-10   Total:  10  19-0940. Chase Milholen – Levi Mullins                Bethel University                   211Day 1: 5   06-07     Day 2: 5   13-00   Total:  10  19-0741. Austin Goins – Elijah Kirk                   Bryan college                       210Day 1: 5   08-11     Day 2: 5   10-12   Total:  10  19-0742. Grant Harris – Jacob Welch                   Drury University                    209Day 1: 5   08-13     Day 2: 5   09-12   Total:  10  18-0943. Nate Triplett – Cody Barnes                  University of North Alabama         208Day 1: 5   08-04     Day 2: 5   10-01   Total:  10  18-0544. Syon Barnes – Hayden Bartee                  Jacksonville  State University      207Day 1: 5   06-07     Day 2: 5   11-12   Total:  10  18-0345. Elliot Torode – Tyler Cory                   University of Montevallo            206Day 1: 5   08-15     Day 2: 5   09-02   Total:  10  18-0146. David Ackerman –                                                                 205Day 1: 5   09-05     Day 2: 5   08-11   Total:  10  18-0047. Bradley Martin – Kopeland Rosser             University of Montevallo            204Day 1: 3   05-15     Day 2: 5   11-08   Total:   8  17-0748. Hunter MCClaskey – Nicholas Gilbert          King University                     203Day 1: 5   08-10     Day 2: 5   08-10   Total:  10  17-0449. Clay Tresler – Carter Carlton                Northwest Arkansas Community Col    202Day 1: 5   09-05     Day 2: 5   07-14   Total:  10  17-0350. Jacob Butts – Garrett Smith                  Erskine College                     201Day 1: 5   07-05     Day 2: 5   09-12   Total:  10  17-0151. Caleb Sheldon – Hayden Fuhr                  Lander University                   200Day 1: 5   07-06     Day 2: 5   09-11   Total:  10  17-0152. Clent Blackwood – Bryar Chambers             Wallace State                       199Day 1: 2   03-10     Day 2: 5   13-01   Total:   7  16-1153. Adam Carroll – Trey Dickert                  University of Montevallo            198Day 1: 5   08-02     Day 2: 5   08-09   Total:  10  16-1154. Michael Chism – Mason Westerman              Southest Missouri State Universi    197Day 1: 5   06-03     Day 2: 5   10-07   Total:  10  16-1055. Dax Ewart – Wilson Smith                     Bethel University                   196Day 1: 5   10-01     Day 2: 5   06-08   Total:  10  16-0956. Adam Hollingsworth – Matthew German                                              195Day 1: 2   03-11     Day 2: 5   12-08   Total:   7  16-0357. Corey Yaden – Blake Stephenson               Brewton Parker college              194Day 1: 5   07-00     Day 2: 5   09-02   Total:  10  16-0258. Zack Barrera – Bryson Osteen                                                     193Day 1: 5   10-00     Day 2: 5   05-15   Total:  10  15-1559. Tanner Barclay – Lloyd Laconsay                                                  192Day 1: 5   09-08     Day 2: 4   06-07   Total:   9  15-1560. Jake Thornbury – Wil Rigdon                  Campbellsville University           191Day 1: 5   08-01     Day 2: 5   07-13   Total:  10  15-1461. Jarred Jones – Logan Tate                    Jacksonville State University       190Day 1: 5   08-01     Day 2: 5   07-11   Total:  10  15-1262. Anthony Cicero Iv – Cy Lambert               Bethel                              189Day 1: 5   07-12     Day 2: 5   07-14   Total:  10  15-1063. Brayden Nichols – Kenneth Cheramie           Louisiana State University Shrev    188Day 1: 5   08-09     Day 2: 5   07-00   Total:  10  15-0964. Parker Wilburn – Tristen Dubbs                                                   187Day 1: 5   07-06     Day 2: 5   08-00   Total:  10  15-0665. Noah Campbell – Troy Harris                  GEORGIA COLLEGE                     186Day 1: 5   09-14     Day 2: 3   05-06   Total:   8  15-0466. Blake Milligan – Chase Mundhenke             Auburn University                   185Day 1: 5   08-05     Day 2: 5   06-11   Total:  10  15-0067. Marshall Wiggins –                           University of Central Florida       184Day 1: 5   09-05     Day 2: 4   05-10   Total:   9  14-1568. Ethan Shaw – Tyler Price                     Bryan College                       183Day 1: 5   08-14     Day 2: 5   06-00   Total:  10  14-1469. Conner Johnson – Hunter Osborne              Georgetown college                  182Day 1: 5   07-14     Day 2: 5   06-12   Total:  10  14-1070. Shane Nelson – Brayden Federer               Adrian College                      181Day 1: 4   06-01     Day 2: 5   08-08   Total:   9  14-0971. Conner Crosby – James Cobbs                  Auburn University                   180Day 1: 2   06-12     Day 2: 5   06-12   Total:   7  13-0872. Thomas Mingle – Stone Payne                  Univerity of Tennessee              179Day 1: 4   07-02     Day 2: 5   05-14   Total:   9  13-0073. Davian Smith – Jackson Pontius               University of Montevallo            178Day 1: 5   12-15     Day 2: 0   00-00   Total:   5  12-1574. Dustin Bauer – Cody Cissell                  Campbellsville University           177Day 1: 5   07-02     Day 2: 5   05-11   Total:  10  12-1375. Drake Hemby – Griffin Heffington             Carson-Newman University            176Day 1: 3   05-02     Day 2: 5   07-04   Total:   8  12-0676. Hunter Haraway – Malcolm Patton              Calhoun Community College           175Day 1: 5   05-13     Day 2: 5   06-03   Total:  10  12-0077. Luke Byerly – Drew Elrod                     University of Tennessee Knoxvill    174Day 1: 5   05-13     Day 2: 5   06-02   Total:  10  11-1578. Matthew Kahrs – Brandon Comeaux              McNeese State University            173Day 1: 4   05-08     Day 2: 4   06-06   Total:   8  11-1479. John Murphy – Johnny Richardson              Greenville Technical College        172Day 1: 5   06-10     Day 2: 2   05-01   Total:   7  11-1180. Noah Coleman – Dalton Johnson                Auburn University                   171Day 1: 1   00-13     Day 2: 5   09-15   Total:   6  10-1281. Thomas Millraney – Zachary Bowen             Bethel University                   170Day 1: 5   05-15     Day 2: 3   04-11   Total:   8  10-1082. Nathan Burdett – Tyler Buchanan              Troy University                     169Day 1: 5   07-15     Day 2: 1   02-07   Total:   6  10-0683. Garrett Walters –                                                                168Day 1: 0   00-00     Day 2: 5   09-10   Total:   5  09-1084. Tyler Hudson – Evan Mcnaughton               Western Kentucky University         167Day 1: 0   00-00     Day 2: 5   09-07   Total:   5  09-0785. Cody Gregory – Gage Sherrod                  Bethel University                   166Day 1: 4   03-07     Day 2: 5   05-04   Total:   9  08-1186. Avery Whitwell – Jackson Holbert             University of North Alabama         165Day 1: 1   01-07     Day 2: 4   06-03   Total:   5  07-1087. Dustin Bargo – Connor Melton                 Western Kentucky University         164Day 1: 4   03-15     Day 2: 2   03-07   Total:   6  07-0688. Sam Shiver – Phillip Parrish                 Faulkner University                 163Day 1: 5   06-15     Day 2: 0   00-00   Total:   5  06-1589. Drew Traffanstedt – Scott Sledge             University of Montevallo            162Day 1: 5   06-12     Day 2: 0   00-00   Total:   5  06-1290. James Hess – Holden Kauble                   Wabash Valley College               161Day 1: 0   00-00     Day 2: 4   06-12   Total:   4  06-1291. Noah Boyett – Ty Garlington                                                      160Day 1: 3   03-03     Day 2: 2   03-01   Total:   5  06-0492. Jalen Bean – Jacob Douglas                   SOUTHWEST MISSISSIPPI COMMUNITY     159Day 1: 0   00-00     Day 2: 3   04-13   Total:   3  04-1393. Gavin Cloutier – Calvin Rogers               King University                     158Day 1: 0   00-00     Day 2: 3   04-07   Total:   3  04-0794. Seth Elkins – John Russell Reaves            Jacksonville State University       157Day 1: 1   01-10     Day 2: 1   01-09   Total:   2  03-0395. Seth Roberts –                               Bethel University                   156Day 1: 2   02-14     Day 2: 0   00-00   Total:   2  02-1496. Thad Simerly –                               Tennessee Tech University           155Day 1: 2   02-09     Day 2: 0   00-00   Total:   2  02-0997. Alyssa Taylor –                              Northwestern State University       154Day 1: 0   00-00     Day 2: 1   02-04   Total:   1  02-0498. David Froehlich –                            Abraham Baldwin Ag College          153Day 1: 1   01-07     Day 2: 0   00-00   Total:   1  01-0799. Blake Banks – Wes Wilson                     University of Georgia                 0Day 1: 0   00-00     Day 2: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0099. Sean Clayton – Owen Dimaio                   Clemson University                    0Day 1: 0   00-00     Day 2: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0099. Reed Green – Hunter Enlow                                                          0Day 1: 0   00-00     Day 2: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0099. Carson Maddux – Jake Maddux                  Auburn University                     0Day 1: 0   00-00     Day 2: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-0099. Callaway Robinson – Dawson Ricks             georgia college and state univer      0Day 1: 0   00-00     Day 2: 0   00-00   Total:   0  00-00———————————————————————–TotalsDay   #Limits    #Fish      Weight1        74       417       799-102        77       426       863-14———————————-151       843      1663-08

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