Will Diffenbauch (L) of Hundred, WV and Ryan Radcliff (r) of Parkersburg show off their catch in last weekend’s FLW College Fishing Conference Championship in Virginia.
Release from FLW Outdoors
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“This is amazing,” said said Dieffenbauch, a senior in civil engineering. “I really don’t know what to say. After coming so close to winning the title last year, I really wanted to win this one. Now I want to get greedy and win Nationals.
“Philpott is not an easy lake to fish, we worked for every fish we caught,” Dieffenbauch went on to say. “I am just happy we caught five bass today. The lake fished really tough today. First of all there was a lot of boat traffic that we didn’t have earlier in the week. The wind was really blowing this morning pushing the bait fish up so that impacted the bite and these fish have just been hammered for four days straight which also added to today’s challenge.
“We were targeting deep points, 30 to 50 feet, with lots of brush,” added Dieffenbauch. “We were drop-shotting mostly robo worms. We also used a ½ ounce Sworming Hornet with a Yamamoto saltwater swimbait, I don’t think anyone else was using that.”
Dieffenbauch will be making his third trip to Nationals and hopes that the third time is a charm. Radcliff will be making his first appearance at Nationals. This was the first year the two had been fishing as a team.
“This is a beautiful thing,” said Radcliff, a junior majoring in criminal justice. “Top-five, we are going to Nationals! I can’t wait. The first thought that went through my mind was ‘holy crap, we just won a boat’. It’s mind blowing.
“I had a terrible day,” Radcliff went on to say. “I kept breaking my line and I lost about four fish, they kept getting snagged in the brush. Wil was amazing though, we just kept working and were able to haul in five fish. We knew we had challenged Ramapo and they were going to have to catch ‘em to win. We knew it was going to be close, we were pretty nervous.”
The stars were in alignment for
Final top-five results:
1st: Fairmont State University – Ryan Radcliff, Parkersburg, W. Va., and Wil Dieffenbauch, Hundred, W. Va., 15 bass, 24-12, Ranger Z117 bass boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury
2nd: State University of New York-Plattsburgh – Chris Benninger, Grand Island, N.Y., and Richard Lee, Port Kent, N.Y., 15 bass, 23-0, $5,000
3rd: Virginia Tech – Jody White, Shaftsbury, Vt., and David Bryant, Covington, Va., 14 bass, 19-10, $3,000
4th: Ramapo College – Jeffrey Voss, Secaucus, N.J., and Joseph Zapf, Whippany, N.J., 10 bass, 18-8, $3,000
5th: Virginia Tech – Anderew Jackson, Lebanon, Va., and Patrick Snellings, Fredericksburg, Va., 12 bass, 16-6, $3,000