36 teams fished, 31 teams weighed in and 8 places were paid.
The Faith Angler Network Central Texas Team Trail made their fourth stop on a full and windy Lake Travis. With the spawn coming to an end and the fish caught in transition, the majority of the field found it difficult catching a limit of keepers to bring to the scales. Most teams reported good numbers of smaller fish being caught on Yamamoto Senkos and Zoom Flukes up shallow, but the bigger fish were harder to find. Of the 36 teams, only six limits were weighed and only five bags were able to break into the double digits in total weight.
Winning a tournament without a limit of fish doesn’t happen too often, but one team that proved you don’t always need five fish to get it done were Don Gordon and his partner Jon Jackson; they took first place with four fish weighing 14.59 pounds. Even better, they had a huge Travis toad at 9.06 pounds to anchor their sack and also win Big Bass! We spoke to Don about their day.
“Things started off great and continued to get better…it was my birthday! I am 18 with 42 years experience you see, so it seemed appropriate we would get the #1 draw. That was critical to our pattern, and we were able to be the first ones in the area; a pocket on the lower end. Jon hooked that nine plus 30 minutes into the day.
We didn’t know it at the time he caught it, because we were kinda fan casting, but noticed afterwards it was a bedding fish. She was there protecting fry, and had spawned out.”
The bed was in four foot of water and the team had seen buck bass cruising in the area earlier. The fish is Jon’s new personal best and he caught her on a prototype watermelon red GrandeBass Rattl’n Rattlesnake rigged on a shaky head. The difference in this Rattlesnake is that this bait has more of a “rattle” to it. Sounds like a cool deal for sure; we look forward to checking that out.
“A little bit later, I caught a three plus when I skipped an Indigo Grande worm under a dock. It hit way in the back, and was a hell of a fight. Around noon we left and went to check some other areas. We caught a lot of small ones, and decided to head back to our starting water. We were able to pick up two more keepers. One on a rock patch in 25 foot of water, and another on the bank essentially.”
Don had some things to say about his partner,
“He did a great job; really maintained his composure with that big fish. You know, this is the second tourney he’s ever fished…cashed a check in both of ‘em. He’s definitely gonna have high expectations for his third!”
Don would like to thank Texas Outdoor Zone, GrandeBass, Champion Toyota of Austin, Vicious Line, TTI-Blakemore, Sun Signs, Printing Solutions and TuffSkinz. Congrats guys on the win and happy birthday Don!
Taking second for the day was the duo of Mike Hastings and Joey Wilson with 12.71 pounds. Mike spent some time with us after the tournament to give the skinny.
“We got off to a slow start. There was another competitor on our starting water, so we went to a secondary spot where things weren’t really happening so we were a little frustrated. There were schooling fish there, but they were up and down so quick we really couldn’t get to them effectively.”
But if you know central Texas fishing, you know this isn’t the team’s first rodeo – so they adapted. They decided to move and commit to some productive boat docks mid lake, and caught all their keepers here on Zoom Flukes in glimmer blue and watermelon seed. Joey was dipping his, but Mike was not.
“We were very fortunate to catch a 4 plus and a 3 plus, that really anchored things for us to get us up in the standings. The other three in our bag were pretty little.”
Mike shared with us an interesting technique. They were rigging their Flukes on a hook provided by Amistad Tackle called the “Big Daddy Custom Swimbait Hook”. This hook is weighted uniquely with a 5/0 Mustad hook with a 30 degree bend.
“The hook is weighted in a way that allows you to skip the bait effectively, while producing a real unique nose forward swimming fall. That worked well, but they also bit the bait when we worked it faster like a jerkbait. You can do that well with this rig too!”
Mike would like to thank our good friends at Marine Outlet and Amistad Tackle. If interested in a guided trip with Mike, please check out gitbitguideservice.com. We know from experience you won’t be disappointed!
With only one event left during the regular season, the AOY points race is coming down to the wire with only three points separating the first and third place teams! After four events, Charles Whited and Kelley Mauldin are leading with 652 points.
Just two points behind and in second are Lance Wenmohs and Mike Clark; TTZ team members Dale and Jake Read are third with 649 points; the father and son team have also secured the points lead in the Youth/Adult division.
FAN will convene at Temple Lake Park and finish out the 2010 regular season at Belton on May 22. A two day Championship will follow (lakes and dates TBD) with the highest finishing team winning a new 2010 BassCat Sabre from Texas Boat World and BassCat!
Congrats to the teams that cut a check and see y’all on Belton!
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