11 teams fished, 5 teams weighed in and 3 places were paid.
The fishing in central Texas continues to struggle and February 13 was no different for the inaugural event of the Lone Star Series. With tournament directors traveling from both north and southeast Texas, the Central Division debuted its first tournament on Belton. After previously heavy rains had filled the lake 10 feet over its normal pool, ensuing storms caused tournament directors to move the event from Temple Lake Park to Cedar Ridge and even threatened a possible rescheduling.
Ultimately the rains were not a factor, but freezing temperatures and dense fog dampened the spirits of most anglers. And it nearly got the best of us here at Texas Tournament Zone…but like the other determined teams that fought the cold and fog we hitched up the frozen sled and headed for the ramp.
The thick fog combined with a flooded lake could potentially spell disaster; the tournament directors wisely delayed the start an hour while the anglers anxiously awaited the first boat number to be called. As the fog slowly lifted, 11 boats idled their way out of Cedar Ridge and began their quest to win a new $35,000 Nissan Titan truck.
A flooded, cold and muddy Lake Belton is not a pretty sight. Teams reported water temps in the high 40s with off-colored conditions nearly everywhere from the 36 Bridge to Cowhouse Creek. As expected the fishing was extremely tough; very few fish were brought to the scales while over half the field were unable to produce a single 14″ fish. After a slow and cold day on the water, we caught up with the three teams that finished in the money.
TTZ spoke with the winner, Daniel Barnes. Staying mid lake all day, Daniel found the swollen lake’s water color stained to dirty; he fished alone Saturday and was the model of execution.
“I had 3 bites all day, and three keepers.”
Daniel threw a 1/2 ounce black and blue flipping jig primarily, and it accounted for all of his production. His first bite came just after the fog delay about fifteen minutes into the tournament; it was a black bass in some flooded brush in 10-12′ of water and about 15 inches long. After a while with no more bites, he took his drop shot and went to check on some deep fish in 27 feet of water he found the week before in Bass Champs…sure enough they were still there. There was one small problem though,
“I could see they were still there, they just wouldn’t eat!”
This prompted Daniel to head back into the shallower water where he caught his first fish. Around 10:30 his second bite came in a foot of water on the shallow shelf of a bluff wall near some trees. It ended up being a beautiful bronzeback weighing over 4 pounds! That’s a huge smallie for sure; in fact, it was the second biggest bass of the tournament tipping the scale at 4.26 pounds. Daniel continued fishing trees in the 10-12′ range when he was hit again around 1:30. This largemouth was bigger than his first, weighing about three and a half pounds, and brought his total weight to 9.38 pounds. It was enough to win him first place and a hell of a payout…especially when you don’t have to split it with a partner. Well done Daniel!
Daniel would like to thank Marine Outlet, Power Tackle, Tight Lines Premium Fishing Tackle and Victory Tackle.
Coming in second were TTZ team members Robby Crabb and Andy Nuyen. This is the first season the two have fished a trail together, but they are no strangers to fishing from the same boat and have already had some success in past tournaments. Robby tells us how their day started,
We woke up to the high 20′s and a boat completely froze up; the compartments, glove box (with boat keys in it) and lower deck were all frozen. You could skate on the floor of the Legend!!!
Knowing the possible dangers of the recent floods and the soup fog, the team decided to stick around Cedar Ridge and started all the way in the back of the creek right next to the marina. When they pulled up to the first spot Andy noticed the livewell handles were still frozen solid; before making their first cast into the flooded bushes, they spent the first five minutes of the day chiseling away ice to unlock the livewells. The water was in the high 40s and muddy; after an hour of nothing but freezing hands they decided to make the run down the lake to their starting water.
Once they reached Morgan’s Point, they went directly to the back of a creek and found some clearer water that was two to three degrees warmer than the rest of the lake. After working the very back they started fishing their way out when Robby connected with the first keeper of the day.
“I pitched to a lone beanie bush with a black n blue Jarod hand-tied flippin jig trailored by a black/blue Zoom chunk. At first I felt like I was hung up in a vine or small limb, but then I decided to thaw out and realized my line was headed to the channel. Four seconds later Andy nets my one and only bite of the day, a 6-01 lber.”
Trying to duplicate the pattern in the next creek up, the team used a push pole to get them as far back as possible into the creek. After pushing the Legend through a forest of brush, they finally found some open water and began fishing.
About 10 minutes later Andy flips a Yamamoto Senko into some trees and sets the hook on a solid 2.5 pounder. Andy describes his first bite of the day,
“After feeling nothing but stick and twig bites all morning, something finally pulled back a little differently…I set the hook and saw the fish roll on top and head back into the trees.”
Unfortunately, the fish buried itself and eventually got off beneath the surface. They both knew the bite had been tough on Belton and thought that lost fish may have cost them dearly. The team hit a couple other areas trying to add to the big fish but 3 pm came way too quick; the team fished from Frank’s Marina to Cedar Ridge and their two bites came in the same major creek arm.
When Andy and Robby pulled up to the weigh-in they both looked at the fish and assumed to only have 4.5 to 5 pounds and a decent chance at best for Big Bass. As tournament director Scott Gordon announced the current Big Bass at 4.26 pounds, they started feeling better about their chances of taking over the big fish lead and were completely surprised to see the scales settle at 6.01 pounds!
The single fish put Nuyen and Crabb in second place and also won Big Bass of the tournament, earning them two checks totaling $510 and a Power Tackle Paragon PG105-76 rod valued at $369.
Andy and Robby would like to thank Marine Outlet, River City Grille, Spicewood General Store, Power Tackle, Choke Canyon Lodge, Jarod Jigs, Yamamoto/Kinami Baits and FishFinders Marine.
After the weigh-in we got some closing comments from Andy,
“Before this tournament neither Robby or I had been on Belton since December last year. With the lake over 10 feet high we had no clue what it would look like or where to go; we’d like to thank our team for pointing us in the right direction. The guys that fished Champs the week before gave us enough info to help us eliminate dead water and pick our primary water.”
Rounding out third place and earning $150 were the team of Dean Jones and Chris Nors with two fish for 5.15 pounds. Consistent with the other winning teams they also caught their fish on jigs, specifically brown jigs in muddy water. Dean and Chris would like to thank Dobyns Rods.
The Lone Star Series goal was to create a team tournament series that provided the contingency programs, payouts and prize packages normally associated with much larger trails but to do so at the $150 entry point. With the feedback they received, LSS set out to meet or exceed expectations related to lake selection, schedule flexibility, high payouts, sponsor participation, divisional options and rules flexibility for the 2010 series. With the first tournament on Belton, LSS collected $1,760 and paid out $2,229 in cash and prizes for a 135% payout.
Texas Tournament Zone believes the Lone Star Series has established the foundation needed in order to create one of the state’s premier team tournament trails. We look forward to the 2010 series and hope that tournament anglers will join us for the remaining 2010 events. For more information on the Lone Star Series please check our calendar or go to lonestarseries.com. The next Central event will be on Lake Conroe March 27.
And speaking of prizes, Robby Crabb also managed to win a new Lock-n-Haul transom saver through the “Guess the Winning Weight” contest…you’re on a roll Robby!
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