BAINBRIDGE, Ga. (Feb. 17, 2025) – The Louisiana State University (LSU)-Shreveport duo of Miles Smith of Houma, Louisiana, and Levi Thibodaux of Thibodaux, Louisiana, won the MLF College Fishing tournament on Lake Seminole Friday with a five-bass limit weighing 24 pounds, 2 ounces. The victory earned the Pilots’ bass club $2,000 and a qualification into the 2025 MLF College Fishing National Championship.
Both business majors, Thibodaux and Smith are comfortable fishing grass from their time on Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn. So when they came to Lake Seminole – the first time there for each of them – they tried to spend practice running the lake and getting a feel for the grass. Bad weather on two of the days limited their search efforts, but the anglers were able to find a handful of spots in one area where they could stay on the fish amid a cold front.
“We found a few different holes in the grass that had a few fish,” Thibodaux said. “We really didn’t know what to expect because we didn’t practice the last day because of the rain and all. We didn’t expect to do that great, to be honest.
“Basically, what we figured out in practice was there were a lot of fish roaming on the grass flats. We kind of figured out with that cold front coming some of them would get off the flats and get in the holes or edges where it’s a little deeper.”
The grass flats were mostly 2 to 4 feet deep, and Thibodaux and Smith targeted holes that were anywhere from 5 to 10 feet deep, mostly keying on edges and hard-bottom areas. They found five or so areas that fit the bill, ranging in size from an area the size of a couple bass boats to one area that was about 100 yards long. The champs caught their fish throwing a jerkbait and a Strike King Hybrid Hunter crankbait – a lure they have plenty of experience with back home.
Throughout the day, the LSU-Shreveport anglers rotated their best spots, staying close and “burning down” each spot for everything they could catch.
“Since we really couldn’t see a lot of the lake like we wanted to, we just kind of settled into that area where we knew we had fish,” Thibodaux added. “It’s a popular area. There were a lot of boats there, but I don’t know that they were focusing on the same things we were focusing on.”
The top 10 teams finished:
1st: LSU-Shreveport – Miles Smith, Houma, La., and Levi Thibodaux, Thibodaux, La., five bass, 24-2, $2,000
2nd: University of North Alabama – Jake Brown, Loretto, Tenn., and Nathan Reynolds, Nashville, Tenn., five bass, 22-14, $1,000
3rd: Florida Gateway College – Bryce Balentine, Sorrento, Fla., and Connor Koch, Lakeland, Fla., five bass, 22-10, $700
4th: Emanuel University – Colby Elliott, Blairsville, Ga., and Michael Gammons, North Charleston, S.C., five bass, 21-11, $600
5th: University of Montevallo – Connor Bell, Lisbon, N.Y., and Nicholas Dumke, Grand Rapids, Minn., five bass, 21-6, $500
6th: University of Tennessee – Matthew Dettling, El Macero, Calif., and Cody Domingos, Knoxville, Tenn., five bass, 20-15
7th: University of Montevallo – Brennan Berglund, Zimmerman, Minn., and Colton White, Moore, Okla., five bass, 20-10
8th: Florida Gateway College – Will Boyd, Quincy, Fla., five bass, 20-9
9th: Campbellsville University – Noah Dabney, Mannsville, Ky., and Evan Fields, Shelbyville, Ky., five bass, 20-7
10th: Lander University – Harrison McCall, Salisbury, N.C., and Cameron Yates, New Durham, N.H., five bass, 19-15
https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/mlf-seminole-college-21725.html
College Fishing Tournaments