ROBERTS & WILKINS TOP NEARLY 200 ANGLERS ON AUSTIN AND TAKE HOME $3700

A cold front on legendary Lake Austin did not seem to hurt the participation level, as 99 teams showed up to duke it out for top billing. And the little river with the big bass did not disappoint. TTZ paid out 16 places and it still took 19.69 pounds to get a check! The spawn can be a difficult time to pattern fish and some of the Lake Austin legends were noticeably absent from the money line; it just goes to show what we all already know about Lake Austin; just because they were there yesterday… It was a packed house at weigh-in as everyone came to see what the best anglers in Central Texas would bring to the scales. Taking home the win against the large and talented field was the team of Jacky Roberts and Ken Wilkins. Their total weight of 25.82 pounds landed them a check for $3,700! Jacky spoke with us after the weigh-in. "Before we ever started pre-fishing, we’d vowed to stay south. In three previous weeks I’d racked up a total of three days of pre-fishing, and had found a 150 yard stretch where the grass started in 5 foot and ended in about 8 foot. I caught a quality fish there every time I pre-fished and would leave it alone after that. I hadn’t been able to catch anything in the creeks, so we decided to start on that stretch on the main lake this mornin’." Good thing they did, because they had a healthy limit off of it by 9:00 am! Jacky and Ken only left the area once that morning to idle across the lake and fish another small area where they were able to cull one fish. After that, they returned to the original stretch and culled twice more by lunch. The second cull was a fat 7 pounder Jacky landed. "After that, we had to make a decision. We talked for a while and decided to hit a similar grass area we had fished in the past, but hadn’t pre-fished. It was only a half mile away so we decided to give it a try. I’ll be dang if we didn’t pull up there and it set up the exact same way. After a few casts, Ken caught that second 7 pounder!" The team spent the rest of the day cycling back and forth between the original stretch and this new stretch; but just before weigh-in, Jacky had one more spot to hit. "Last Saturday I talked my wife Diane into going pre-fishing with me. She agreed, but only if I’d stop by Ski Shores and get her a burger. So I did, and we were just kinda cruising along because I didn’t want to get on pad while she was eating. I was watching my side imaging while we cruised and found a little rock pile. I decided to give it a cast or two and stuck a 7. So I asked Ken if we could give it a few minutes before the end of the day." Of course Ken obliged after hearing this story, and he’s glad they did. Jacky was able to connect with a near 6 pound chunk right away on this pile, and it culled nicely for them. Five minutes later they were bagging their fish and heading to the scales. Jacky shared a little about what he thought was the key to their success. "We caught all but one fish, that last one off the rock pile, on a Fluke. The rock pile fish was on a green pumpkin candy E’gr Craw. But with the Fluke we essentially dead-sticked it in the grass. You had to really be in tune with your bait due to the wind conditions. We also fished extremely slow and hit the same two areas over and over all day because of the fish movement in and out of the area." They caught around 25 keepers, and several unders, and it just seemed to be one of those days where their decisions were the right ones. Which as we all know with tournament fishing is the key to winning an event. The team decided to check one creek to "get it out of their system", but after several minutes knew they needed to get back out in the main lake. The bites for Ken and Jacky were described as swimming bites on the better fish and substantial thumps by the smaller fish. The duo found the water temps to be around 58 at take-off, and 61 by the end of the day on the main river channel. We asked Jacky who he’d like to thank. "My partner Ken; he is a very good fisherman, a great guy and a lot of fun to fish with. I wanna thank TTZ for a very well-run tournament trail, and I gotta thank XPS 12-pound flouro. I really think that was a key to our success today. But most importantly, I want to thank my wife Diane. She is always so supportive, and she was the first voice I heard when our bag of fish took the lead! She is really very special." Congratulations Jacky and Ken on a well-deserved victory! Lance Hale and Barry Mott came in second with a total weight of 25.31 pounds and were just ounces short of top honors. Their efforts earned them $1,800. We talked to Lance about their day, and Like Jacky and Ken they went against the grain and stayed away from the upper end of the lake. "Barry and I pre-fished and had a game plan for the tourney. We knew there would be a majority of the field heading north and looking for bedding fish. So we weren't going to fight the crowd; more importantly the wind. We decided with boat 51 that we would stick with what we knew worked the previous weekend, so we headed to the north end of City Park, and the wind setup just perfect for a drift down the shoreline." Lance and Barry weren’t kidding when they say they had a game plan, and did they ever stick to it! "We only fished one bait all day and caught every fish on that bait…a trick worm on a weighted hook to get it down into the grass. Drifted in front of City Park all day long, and once we got down to the volleyball poles in the water we picked up and went right back to the end of the park and did it again." The team never left the City Park area once, and after culling two times had their final limit by 11:00. Interestingly, their biggest fish came when Barry made a cast and suffered a, uh-hum, professional overrun. After trying to pick it out for several minutes he decided to reel it in and change line. When he got the slack out, he felt pressure and hooked up with the 6.72 pound beast! "Barry fought the fish to the boat and when she saw the boat she made a big run. I thought to myself if that fish gets to the backlash we are screwed! She was pulling drag and luckily Barry got her turned and into the net." The team caught 12 fish all day; 7 keepers and 5 dinks. After noon the bite died for them and they didn't catch another fish. "It was tough getting beat by ounces but I can't say I'm disappointed finishing second with the field that fished. I really wanna say congratulations to Jacky and Ken. Overall, it was a great day to be on the water, and I'd like to thank Tracker for donating the Hydrowave I was lucky enough to win!" Well done Lance and Barry! Taking third was the adult/youth team of Steve Pack and his son Colin. They had a limit going 24.62 pounds, anchored by an 8.59 pound behemoth, good for $1,250! This team headed up a really cool trend, as three of the top six teams on Saturday were adult/youth combos. So, as they say…take a kid fishing! Big bass honors went to TTZ team member James Roberts and partner Brian Burns. The 9.51 pound toad earned the team a nice $990 payday! We talked to Brian for a bit about how he caught the big one everybody else was after on Saturday. "I caught her 8:30 am around City Park in grass on a Senko. We weren’t sight fishing, she just happened to hit the Senko shortly after I threw it out. Bit near the inside grass line, but was definitely in the grass. She was just barely hooked and we were really lucky land the fish. She jumped twice, and both times James and I were holding our breath to see if she would stay on!" Brian was throwing the Senko wacky rigged weightless, and was fishing in about 4 to 6 feet when the big fish bit. "My line just kinda got heavy, the fish didn’t really bite it. Man, we were sure glad to have her, but honestly didn’t think she’d hold up with the fish that have been coming out of Austin lately!" The team had a great day, and had 4 fish for 18.33 pounds, anchored by the day’s big bass. One more fish would have definitely put them in the money; and depending on the size, could have put them at or near the top. In addition to winning Big Bass, James and Brian also won a healthy selection of Pro's Choice Lures (donated by Jacky Roberts and Fish Finder's Marine) for being one spot out of the money. Congrats guys! Here are the remaining teams in the money: 4th place - Dean Alexander and Haylon Hernandez 5th place - Ronny Maynard and Paul Carman 6th place - Dale Read and Jake Read 7th place - Gary Raesz and Joey Eischen 8th place - Mike Appleby and Tim Patereau 9th place - Brandon Stanley and Kelly Stanley 9th place - Shelby Floyd and Jordan Shipley 11th place - Josh Wallace and Jesse Fry 12th place - Brad Casebier and Stephen Chevalier 13th place - Jamie Slayden and Cathy Randazzo 14th place - Lino Gutterez and Ruben Ribera 15th place - James Aboud and Alan Taylor 16th place - Matt Moeller and Corey Martenson Special thanks to our sponsors for their support in making the TTZ Trail one of the most rewarding and fun circuits to fish. We appreciate each and every one of you for fishing with us. We all know you have options, and we thank you for giving us a shot to earn your business! If you haven't fished with us yet, here's a glimpse of what TTZ is all about...