for college bass. Eastern Ky and Northwestern are the other two teams vying for this years National Championship.

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A late switch to Lake Maumelle did little to shake up the standings on Friday as the top-5 teams were set for the 2010 College Bass National Championship.

Louisiana State, Northwestern State, Georgia, Alabama and Eastern Kentucky will erase their weights and fish a one-day derby on Brewer Lake in the Ozarks to decide who will be the national champion.

Brewer will be the teams’ third lake in as many days. The tournament started on the Arkansas River Thursday but was moved to Maumelle because of safety concerns on Friday. Teams had a few hours Thursday night to familiarize themselves with the often difficult Maumelle, which most of them had never seen.

News of the switch was most devastating to Ben Cleary and Randy Tolbert of Georgia, who sacked just under 15 pounds on the river Thursday and held a four pound lead. The cushion turned out to be more than enough, and their 5.53 pounds on Maumelle left them comfortably inside the cut.

“We’ll have just as good a chance as anyone else to win this thing tomorrow,” Tolbert said after the weigh-in Friday. “We’ll approach the new lake how we approach everything else – just fish hard and do what you can.”

Travis Laurent and Doug McClung, of LSU, were equally concerned with the move to Maumelle after bringing in 10 pounds on the river Thursday, but that concern turned out to be misplaced. A cloudy, rainy day allowed them to fish their strengths shallow as they brought in 9.49 pounds, the second heaviest bag of the day. The majority of their bass were caught by McClung on a topwater bait he said has been working well for him the past couple months.

“All I had to do was hold the net today,” Laurent said. “[McClung]is the real deal.”

Matching LSU for the heaviest two-day weight were Paul Rini and Zach Hester of Northwestern State. Rini finished sixth when the College Bass tournament was held on Maumelle in 2008, and was feeling good about his ability to catch a solid limit. He was right about out the outcome, but his time on Maumelle ended up hurting more than it helped.

After spending all morning sitting on deep spots that had paid off in the past, Rini and Hester made the decision to go shallow and swim a jig. They said they caught the three biggest of their 10.63-pound limit – the largest of the day – after noon.

Hester said he’s hoping Brewer looks like something that he’s fished before, but if nothing else, they’ll be entering the final with momentum.

“It gives you some confidence knowing you beat 40 other teams on two different lakes,” Rini said.

Both Alabama – Dustin Connell and Daniel Taylor – and Eastern Kentucky – Jonas Ertal and Tyler Moberly – started Friday out of the cut in sixth and eighth place respectively, but found enough good bass on Maumelle to make a move and extend their tournament. The University of Arkansas, which started the day in third, finished .15 behind EKU for the final spot.

The final five teams will all meet in Little Rock at 4 a.m. Saturday and make the hour-long drive to Brewer as a group. The weigh-in will be at the Academy Sports + Outdoors in North Little Rock at 3 p.m. Saturday and will be streamed on CollegeBass.com.

College Bass National Championship Day Two Results:

Place School Angler Angler Day One Day Two Total
1 Northwestern State Paul Rini Zach Hester 9.64 10.63 20.27
1 LSU Travis Laurent Doug McClung 10.78 9.49 20.27
3 Georgia Randy Tolbert Ben Cleary 14.55 5.53 20.08
4 Alabama Dustin Connell Daniel Taylor 9.14 7.89 17.03
5 Eastern Kentucky Jonas Ertel Tyler Moberly 8.51 7.84 16.35

LINK