21 teams fished, 9 teams weighed in and 3 places were paid.
Wednesday night on Lake Austin brought out a strong turnout of 21 boats. While the weather was excellent, the recent heavy rains created a lot of muddier water in the feeder creeks; particularly on the north end of the lake where some of the better sight fishing had been. Additionally, there were drastic drops in water temps with the cooler runoff. In fact, anglers reported seeing water in the 53 to 55 degree range up lake! The southern end of the lake saw less drastic water color change and temperature drops, but it too was impacted. Add the fact the current ripped down the lake throughout the tournament, and you start to understand why it only took a tad over 9 pounds with three fish to win on one of the hottest lakes in Central Texas.
Family night at the TTZ tournies continued as we had two teams of brothers cut checks in the top three! Mike and Junior Waldrop pushed through the adverse conditions and got it done for the second week in a row with 9.77 pounds to win $315. Junior told us about their night.
“Wasn’t a pattern really, in fact we caught ‘em on several baits. The better baits for us were a Senko and a topwater if anything. We really just tried to keep a bait in front of them and hope for a reaction bite.”
Taking second was TTZ team member Duke Kinley and his partner Levar Jenkins; the two came close with a 9.09 pound bag of three fish. We got the skinny from Duke.
“We caught our fish on the lower end; just tried to get around the more stable water around the mouths of some spawning areas. Our best results came on the Lake Fork Tackle Hyper Stick. I call it a knot, because of the look of it.”
“That’s the bait I was showing guys before the tournament…that thing does some cool stuff in the water man – you just gotta see it! We hooked our last smaller fish later in the day with the Chatterbait.”
Third place went to brothers Blake and Waylon Pabst with four fish at 8.04 pounds.
Big Bass was 7.57 pounds and was caught on a GrandeBass Rattlesnake by the team of Carson Roberts and Bryce Miller. This one fish paid them $105 and was also enough to secure a generous tackle pack stuffed with Yamamoto Senkos, Pro’s Choice soft plastics from Jacky at Fish Finders and a gift certificate from Rick Smith and the gang at Marine Outlet.
We’ll see you guys at City Park next week, where once again, anything can happen! By the way, if you haven’t had a chance check out the new and improved Ski Shores; it’s the same great food with expanded services. Quicker turnaround time for us anglers, an outdoor bar (also for us anglers) and more spacious seating make for a very relaxed and enjoyable meal before the tournament. More to come on some cool opportunities for us out there…stay tuned!