JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. — Bryce Dimauro and Tripp Berlinsky dialed in their offshore game plan just enough to take the Day 2 lead at the Strike King Bassmaster College National Championship at Cherokee Lake presented by Bass Pro Shops with a two-day total of 33 pounds, 13 ounces.
The University of North Alabama duo opened the tournament in second place with a five-bass limit of largemouth weighing 18-14. Although the same quality didn’t show up today, the sophomores landed 14-15 and find themselves with a 3-4 advantage over reigning champions Garrett Smith and Andrew Blanton from Lander University heading into the final day.
In 2020, Dimauro watched his brother hoist the College Series trophy at the Harris Chain of Lakes and could now add another trophy to the family trophy case.
“It would really mean the world to me (to win). We had a chance last year and didn’t make it happen,” he said. “Connor made the Bracket twice and won a National Championship. It is kind of in my blood to do it, so hopefully we make it happen.”
Not only are they in position to win the National Championship, but Dimauro and Berlinsky could potentially win the overall Team of the Year race. They entered this tournament in sixth-place just 38 points out of first place and are the only team who started this event in the Top 10 in points to qualify for Championship Saturday.
“We finished second in our division,” Berlinsky said. “To win Team of the Year, that would be pretty cool. We didn’t think it would be possible. There was a sliver of hope that we could but haven’t thought about it the past two days. When (tournament director) Glenn Cale said something on stage, it opened my eyes up to it.”
While they fished the bank and offshore areas on Day 1, Berklinsky said the offshore bite was considerably better on Friday and he expects he and his partner will remain offshore for the rest of the tournament. Their best bites have come up the lake in 10 to 20 feet of water using five different baits.
“We dialed in what the bass really wanted yesterday, and we stuck to that today and kept it simple,” Berlinsky said.
By looking at their forward-facing sonar, Dimauro has noticed the majority of the bass in their primary spots are glued to hard bottom and rock. There are plenty of shad around, however, and occasionally those bass will rise off the bottom to chase those shad.
After weighing in only largemouth the first day, the duo brought a smallmouth to the scales on Friday along with four more green fish.
“It was a 19-incher,” Dimauro said. “It was a big help.”
It was a slow start to the morning for the UNA duo, who found boats in two of their best areas to start the morning. With just one bass in the livewell at 11 a.m., Dimauro and Berlinsky were able to pull into one of those spots, a drop off close to the main river current, landed a limit and culled twice before the end of the day.
“It wasn’t necessarily a great day,” Dimauro said. “We just had to put (something) together.”
Smith and Blanton, meanwhile, are looking to win their second-straight National Championship, something that has yet to be done since the inception of the Strike King Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops. The 2024 Bassmaster College Classic Bracket presented by Lew’s competitors opened the tournament in sixth-place with a 14-13 limit before landing 15-12 on Day 2, the heaviest bag of the day.
The Lander duo has been moving between shallow and offshore areas throughout the tournament. A buzzbait and a jig have produced quality bites up shallow around a specific type of cover with baitfish around it. That same flipping jig has produced key offshore bites on rock in 25 to 35 feet of water, including several in the waning moments of Day 2.
“We’ve kept it really simple,” Smith said. “It has been about finding the bass that are biting. When you get around them and they are biting, especially shallow, it’s insane. They’ll blow up on the bait when it is skipping in if they are there.”
Smith and Blanton have been fishing up the river most of the tournament, and Day 1 the shallow bite lasted until 11 a.m. The Lander team caught an 11-pound limit in the first 45 minutes on Friday, but with so many other boats fishing the same areas, they did not catch anything else until the final 45 minutes when they pulled up on an offshore spot they found in practice.
“We hadn’t even caught a bass there, and we pulled up and I caught a 3-pound smallmouth,” Blanton said. “(At that point) we were hopeful we had done enough to make the Top 12. We didn’t expect to catch much more, but we sat there for 10 more minutes and boated three more, two of which were over 3 pounds. That was huge.”
Catching bags of 16-5 and 12-10, Phillip Herring and Parker O’Bryan from the University of Montevallo are third with a total of 28-15. On Day 1, Herring and O’Bryan did the majority of their damage in the same area as Day 1 leaders Luke Davis and Kaden Raichel. On Day 2, both Montevallo teams returned to the area and struggled most of the morning.
“Where we caught every single fish on Day 1, we didn’t get a bite today. Our teammates only caught one,” O’Bryan said. “We realized everything was dead, so we started running around and found a current hole that was holding some good smallmouth. We caught two 3-pounders there, which gave us some confidence.”
Towards the end of the day, Herring and O’Bryan landed their final two keepers in the same pocket, lifting them into Championship Saturday.
Emmanuel University’s Levi Seagraves and Scooter Ligon Jr. claimed the Big Bass of the Day with a 3-7 bass, but Cole Hadlock and Jackson Kulijof of Murray State University officially hold Big Bass of the Tournament honors with their 4-3 largemouth from Day 1.
The Top 12 anglers will launch from TVA Cherokee Dam beginning at 6 a.m. and return for weigh-in at 2 p.m. The winning team will earn a spot in the Bassmaster College Classic Bracket presented by Lew’s. The final Bracket spot will be awarded to the overall Team of the Year, which will be announced during weigh-in on Saturday.
Visit Jefferson County, Tennessee is hosting the tournament.
