fish story

– noun
An exaggerated or boastful tale often used by fishermen to exaggerate the size of their catch.

Fish stories come to life at our favorite watering hole, after a tournament weigh-in or on those fishing trips hanging out at the fish camp. These tales can get so outlandish anglers sometimes tell them just to get a good laugh from their audience. Well, here’s a story almost too good to be true, the only catch is it’s not a fish story at all!

Lake Austin is often referred to as a hidden gem in the chain of Highland Lakes. The lake is notorious for two things: heavy recreational traffic and big ole bass! And when it comes to hooking the proverbial “fish of a lifetime”, many central Texas anglers look no further than Lake Austin. This is where Texas Tournament Zone fishing team member Andy Nuyen gets struck by lightning so to speak, right in the heart of Lake Austin underneath the historic 360 Bridge.

It was a typical Wednesday afternoon for Andy. Once a week during the spring through summer months, he and fellow TTZ team members Robby Crabb or Brian Booker run a weekly Wednesday night tournament on Lake Austin. When time allows, he likes to get to the lake a little early to relax, take in the scenery and sometimes wet a line before the Wed Nighter. During the hottest times of the day in July and August, the fish tend to school right under the 360 Bridge; it’s been that way for years and anglers in the know can catch dozens of fish without cranking the big motor!

“I had been on the schoolies for about three weeks and basically had them to myself. These fish come up for only a couple hours a day, and it always seems to be when most people are still at work! The majority of them are whites and hybrids, but I manage to catch several black bass in the two to four pound range mixed in as well. It’s too fun watching these fish come up and knock that Sammy three to four inches clear out of the water,” said Andy.

After a month went by and he finally had his fill of topwater action, Andy thought of trying something different to catch the larger bass beneath the schools of feeding fish waiting for an easy meal to come falling down. So he turned to a bait quickly gaining popularity in Texas – the flutter spoon. This bait has been around for years, but was recently made famous by Kelly Jordon when he boated big fish after big fish on Kentucky Lake during a nationally televised fishing show.

Andy tells us more about his thoughts on the spoon.

“I’ve seen and heard of people using this bait to win tournaments and catch quality fish for a couple years now but never had the desire to give it a shot. After seeing a fish in the six pound range come shooting out of deeper water to try and take the bait from a small white bass I had hooked, something finally clicked.”

So he went to his local tackle shop, FishFinders Marine in Round Rock, TX, and bought a handful of flutter spoons from Jacky Roberts. What happened the following week is just short of amazing, but we’ll let Andy tell you the story.

“I had been sitting on the deck of the boat at the 360 ramp watching the lake for over an hour and didn’t see any fish schooling under the bridge; when Robby finally pulled up he wanted to put in and try to call ’em up with Flukes and topwaters. Since I didn’t see any schooling activity I never tied on a Sammy or spoon and was too lazy to rig one up at this point, so I popped another coldie and planned to watch Robby fish under the bridge. That got boring really quick, and after Robby made two casts with the Sammy I decided to drag my lazy butt out of the seat and picked up one of his Power Tackle rods already rigged with a flutter spoon.”

Keep in mind Andy has never thrown a flutter spoon until now.

“I made a long cast and watched it sink to the bottom. On the third stroke of the very first cast I tell Robby, ‘Dude, something just knocked the crap out of that spoon’ and set the hook. After three or four cranks I tell him whatever it is it’s a big fish; the fish violently shakes its head and I immediately think it’s a big hybrid. It never comes up and halfway to the boat Robby jokes around saying it might be a big bass, but since I insisted it was a hybrid he wasn’t reaching for the net. I get the fish almost to the surface and it starts taking drag like a freight train, brings me to my knees and runs way under the boat to the other side. After fighting it back to my side of the boat it comes up and flashes and I yell at Robby to get the net!”

The fish weighed 10.60 pounds on the Equalizer scale. Andy caught her on the bottom in 25-30 feet of water on his very first cast of the day fishing a bait he had never thrown before! This is Andy’s second double-digit bass out of Lake Austin within the last two years.

“It’s funny how things work out, I started wakeboarding on Austin back in 1999 and didn’t even cast a fishing rod on that lake until 2005. After catching a six pounder from my wakeboard boat I started fishing two to three times a week instead of wakeboarding. For me it doesn’t get any better than Lake Austin, I live three miles from the lake and can drop the MasterCraft in on the weekends and do a little wakeboarding and surfing or hitch up the Legend to go fishing on the weekdays…and the whole time I am just minutes away from downtown Austin with a real shot at catching trophy sized bass!”

We’ll chalk it up to pure luck, but as the saying goes…he’d rather be lucky than good any day!