16 teams fished, 8 teams weighed in and 3 places were paid.
TTZ would first like to welcome home Mike Garrett and thank him and all his fellow soldiers for their service to our country. Without them none of this would be possible.
The bite on Austin remains extremely tough; over the past weekend three bass clubs held their monthly club tournament on the lake with very sporadic weights. Winning stringers consisted of 11, 12 and 14 pound individual sacks over a 12 hour time frame. Very few limits were brought in, and from the reports of several club members the weights fell off dramatically with two to three pound sacks being very common.
It’s anyone’s game on Austin right now; TTZ fishing team members Brian Booker and Andy Nuyen proved it tonight by taking first place with only four fish going 7.85 pounds. Brian and Andy fished some docks and brush piles early in the evening and quickly realized the fish were not shallow due to all the recreational traffic on the lake. Making a drastic change in their game plan, the two headed for deeper water and caught their four keepers on a topwater frog, Yamamoto Senkos and a TTZ hand tied jig with a Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog trailer. All of their fish, with the exception of the frog bite, came from 12-15 feet of water. Brian caught the team’s largest fish under an overhanging tree adjacent to deep water.
Coming in second were Army Bass angler Mike Garrett and TTZ fishing team captain Robby Crabb. Following a similar deep water pattern, Mike caught the Big Bass of the tournament out of 25′ of water on a Lake Fork Tackle Flutter Spoon. Mike learned this deadly technique for summer time fishing from Kelly Jordon while fishing the Skeeter Owners Tournament a few weeks ago on Lake Fork. Robby caught their other keeper on a TTZ custom hand tied jig.
As previously mentioned, if you have fish in the tank it’s always a good idea to come back to the weigh in. Kenneth had no clue his two keepers (both caught on a black spinnerbait) would cash him a check, but in the end his 5.80 pounds fell just shy of Mike and Robby’s weight and earned him a third place finish. Cary and Tom took home the Yamamoto and Kinami tackle pack for their just out of the money finish.
There are several reasons the fishing on Austin has been so unpredictable…constantly flowing water, abnormally cool water temps and the increase of recreational traffic are all contributing factors to the lake’s finicky bite. But then again it’s Lake Austin so what else can you expect? One thing for sure is it can only get better from here; thanks to all that came out and congrats to the winners!
