2010 Wed Night Season is Here!

Posted: 3/10/2010

It’s that time of year again to kick off the TTZ Lake Austin Wed Night Tournaments; with a ShareLunker already turned in and the spawn about to bust loose we expect the beginning of this season to be a slug fest! Our first tournament will be March 17, 2010 and we hope to see a lot of familiar faces as well as new ones.

Texas Tournament Zone, with the help of our partners, takes pride in providing one of the best weeknight tournaments on THE BEST big bass lake in the Austin area! And speaking of partners, this season Power Tackle, Fish Finders Marine and Jarod Jigs join Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits and Kinami Baits in providing premium tackle awards!

Along with the “just out of the money” tackle packs, this season’s largest stringer and biggest bass will each receive a Power Tackle rod of their choice (valued up to $384) along with an assortment of tackle from GYCB, Kinami, Fish Finders and Jarod Jigs!

And if that’s not enough, TTZ and Power Tackle have teamed up to offer anglers the ability to demo the latest, innovative rods to hit the market. At every tournament, you’ll have a chance to demo a select group of Power Tackle rods ranging from the No Ratz PT05 ultimate flipping stick to the best crankbait rod on the market – the PGC170. To see what you’ve been missing, check out the action on Sugar Lake, Mexico with Charles Whited and Power Tackle…

Sugar Lake, Mexico with Power Tackle

For a list of available rods, please see the tournament flyer or contact us for more details.

Last year we averaged 21 teams per event and paid out $20,985 in prize money. This season promises to be BIGGER and BETTER than ever so stay tuned for more exciting details to come!

TTZ Tournament Rules

1. Participants and Eligibility:
- Participation is open to current members of TTZ.
- To register and become a member, please click the “Register” button in the upper right hand corner of the forum. Registration to the forum is free and easy!
- A team will consist of one or two anglers per boat; all contestants must have a valid fishing license.

2. Entry Fees/Payout:
- Entry fees shall be $40.00 per boat per tournament, which includes $30.00 main pot, $5.00 Big Bass pot and $5.00 tournament fee.
- Payout as follows:
1-5 boats pay 1 place 100% of pot
6-14 boats pay 2 places 60%, 40% of pot
15+ boats pay 3 places 50%, 30%, 20% of pot
- Overall Big Bass takes the entire Big Bass pot (except when otherwise noted).
- All ties will be resolved by splitting that place and the next place’s money.

3. Registration/Tournament Hours:
- Registration will begin half an hour before the start time posted in the tournament ad.
- Each team must register in person at the designated registration area. Cash only, no checks.
- All boats are subject to a livewell check.
- Tournament hours will be 6:30 pm to 10:00 pm.
- Boats will launch simultaneously for tournaments drawing 20 teams or less. For tournaments with over 20 teams, boat numbers will be assigned chronologically at registration and staged flights of five boats will be released 30 seconds apart.
- Boats must be beached at the weigh-in area by the end of the tournament.
- It is the angler’s responsibility to get the official time from the Tournament Director.

4. Permitted Fishing Methods:
- Only artificial baits may be used. No live or cut bait is permitted (pork baits are permitted).
- All bass must be caught alive in a legal and sporting manner. No snagging.
- Each competitor may only use 1 rod at a time. No more than 1 line in the water at a time per angler.
- Trolling with the combustion motor is not permitted.

5. Live Fish/Weigh In:
- A limit of five bass (largemouth, smallmouth, Guadalupe/spotted) may be weighed in per team. No team may have more than the tournament limit (5 bass) in the livewell at any time during the tournament except during the short timeframe of culling a fish.
- All fish must be a minimum of 14”; short fish presented for weigh-in will result in the loss of that particular fish.
- There will be a ONE POUND fish care penalty for each dead bass presented for weigh-in. Culling of dead bass is prohibited.
- Weigh-in will be back at the launch site on a first come first serve basis.

6. Sportsmanship/Safety:
- All contestants are required to follow high standards of sportsmanship, courtesy, safety and conservation.
- Safe boating must be observed at all times.
- In case of inclement weather it will be the contestant’s decision to stay and fish or seek shelter/leave. Once tournament fees are paid and the tournament has begun there will be no refunds for any reason.

* Decisions of the Tournament Director are final and are not subject to appeal. Interpretation of these rules will be left exclusively to the Tournament Director.

* All participants expressly assume all risk(s) associated with each tournament event and hereby release, indemnify and hold harmless Texas Tournament Zone, Marine Outlet, the host, all sponsors, and tournament officials from all claims or injury and/or damage arising out of, or related to and/or incurred in connection with any TTZ sponsored event(s).

Still not fired up? Check out the pics from some of last year’s tournaments…“Go Big or Go Home!”

Kisselburg and Glass Win Big on Travis!

Posted: 3/09/2010

Bass Champs Central held its second event of the 2010 season on a nearly full Lake Travis! The lake had been been ravaged over the last few years by historic drought conditions; reaching a low of 634 feet above sea level toward the end of 2009, it had only been lower twice in history.

Enter El Nino, and a few short months later Lake Travis was swelling at 677 feet above sea level at the time of this tournament. Rising steadily, most of the debris and cloudiness in the mid to lower lake had subsided and made the water color exceptionally good for such drastic water level changes; and even the backs of the bigger creeks in the upper end were fairly clear.

However, an unusually cold winter and rising cold water made fishing tough for most teams. To illustrate the point, half the field either didn’t weigh a fish or threw their meager sack back into the lake, and it took just over 9 pounds to get a check.

In practice many teams reported finding fish in the backs of major creeks as some areas of the lake warmed into the 60s. But when tournament day came, the water temps dropped well back into the upper fifties after the cold water runoff from the recent winter storms. All day Saturday it stayed overcast and breezy, and just didn’t bring those temps back up for most shallow patterns to hold.

But a few teams still managed to find their fish in the backs of the creeks they’d located during practice. One of those teams were Landon Glass and Jayson Kisselburg and TTZ had a chance to talk to the winners about their success.

Glass and Kisselburg practiced up until a week and a half prior to the prefish cut off day for a total of three days .

“We covered the lake from above the narrows to the lower end and hit every creek that came up on the GPS. I had no idea Travis had so many creeks! Only three of the many creeks we checked held a concentration of fish.”

Landon found the fish in the back of one of the major creek arms towards the lower end of the lake. He reported the last 300 yards of the creek were gin clear and had laydowns and “beanie” trees in it. He found the mother load here and told us he saw upwards of 200 bass up to 8 pounds that day!

“I cut the hook off of my tube and pitched it to a few of them and they ate it. At that point I knew these fish were catchable.”

The pair did not return to this area for the remainder of practice so they wouldn’t give the location away to other competitors.

On tournament day, having drawn boat number 58, there were already two boats in the creek. But due to low light conditions, it was assumed the other competitors couldn’t see what they were sitting on. The team of Glass and Kisselburg got in line and worked their way in.

“Once the other boats left we positioned ourselves in the middle of the creek in the 8 foot range and lowered the Power Pole and played defense. There was another competitor chomping at the bit to get in!”

While anchored, they made long casts with 1/8 ounce weighted tubes and wacky rigged Yamamoto Senkos. When there were no other boats around, they would lift the Power Pole and make a pass to the back of the creek and would then return to play defense again. Glass and Kisselburg saw every fish they caught, but the fish were not locked on beds. In fact, they were actually cruising in and out of the creek. The team’s big fish was 8.62 pounds, and was fooled on the Senko.

“We only had one big fish we saw that we couldn’t catch, and it was around 6 pounds. That fish would have culled our smallest…a 3.5 pounder. We even had the long idle timed to make sure we weren’t late for the weigh-in!”

Congratulations to Landon and Jayson on a very impressive 24.82 pound sack worth $20,200! They would like to thank Big Bite Baits, McCoy Fishing Line, Quantum reels, Super Pork, Gibb’s Propeller and 6th Sense Custom Lures.

Complete results are available here.

Toyota ShareLunker 484 Comes from Lake Lyndon B. Johnson

Posted: 3/08/2010

(Mar 8, 2010 TPWD News Release) With the exception of Lake Austin and Lake Travis, Colorado River lakes in the Texas Hill Country have never produced bass weighing 13 pounds.

That changed Sunday, when Lloyd Ward of Horseshoe Bay saw a huge bass cruising near the bank in three feet of water. “I pitched my jig in front of her, and she swam over and ate it,” he said. The fish tipped the scale at 13.7 pounds when weighed at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, headquarters for the Toyota ShareLunker program.

The previous record for Lake LBJ was a 12.55-pound fish caught in 1989.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) stocked northern largemouth bass into the lake in 1971. Florida largemouth bass were stocked in 1976, 2001 and 2002. “Those fish are now old enough to weigh 13 pounds,” said ShareLunker program manager David Campbell.

Ward knows his big fish is not the only one in the lake. “I saw two others today that were just as big,” he said.

Besides Lake Austin, O.H. Ivie and E.V. Spence reservoirs are the only other main-stem Colorado River reservoirs to have produced entries into the ShareLunker program. Both those lakes are located in West Texas far upstream of Lake LBJ.

Anyone legally catching a 13-pound or bigger largemouth bass from Texas waters, public or private, between October 1 and April 30 may submit the fish to the Toyota ShareLunker program by calling program manager David Campbell at (903) 681-0550 or paging him at (888) 784-0600 and leaving a phone number including area code. Fish will be picked up by TPWD personnel within 12 hours.

ShareLunker entries are used in a selective breeding program at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center (TFFC) in Athens. Some of the offspring from these fish are stocked back into the water body from which they were caught. Other ShareLunker offspring are stocked in public waters around the state in an attempt to increase the overall size and growth rate of largemouth bass in Texas.

Anglers entering fish into the Toyota ShareLunker program will receive a free replica of their fish, a certificate and ShareLunker clothing and be recognized at a banquet at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens on June 5, 2010. In addition, if a Texas angler catches the largest entry of the year, that person will receive a lifetime fishing license.

For complete information and rules of the ShareLunker program, tips on caring for big bass and a recap of last year’s season, see www.tpwd.state.tx.us/sharelunker. The site also includes a searchable database of all fish entered into the program along with pictures where available.

Information on current catches, including short videos of interviews with anglers, are posted on www.facebook.com/sharelunker.

The Toyota ShareLunker Program is made possible by a grant to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation from Gulf States Toyota. Toyota is a long-time supporter of the Foundation and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, providing major funding for a wide variety of education, fish, parks and wildlife projects.

TTZ March Raffle – 10 Packs of Yamamoto Senkos!

Posted: 3/05/2010

This month’s prize will be 10 packages of 5″ Yamamoto Senkos in the color of your choice! No purchase neccessary and it only takes a few minutes to enter.

To enter the raffle, click here…good luck!

The 5″ Senko is one of the most productive bass lures ever invented, and the top producer in Yamamoto’s Senko product line. It’s not magic, but it’s close! Not only does the Senko have incredible fish catching action, but it casts like a bullet and gets into the strike zone quickly. Bass can hardly resist the Senko’s unique horizontal fall when fished weightless or wacky style. Say Yamamoto Senko…and say no more!

Need proof? In 2009, TTZ team members won $6961.00 in the following TTZ weeknight tournaments:

If you add the other teams that won money using Senkos, the amount would be well over $10,000!

For more information about the Yamamoto Senko or any other GYCB products, please click here or visit thier site at yamamotobaits.com.

Full Moon Brings Flood of Toyota ShareLunkers

Posted: 3/01/2010

(Mar 1, 2010 TPWD News Release) Three lakes, Austin, Amistad and O.H. Ivie, spit out Toyota ShareLunkers February 27, the day before the full moon.

Carl Adkins of San Marcos led off the action with Toyota ShareLunker 481, a 13.1 pounder from Lake Austin. Adkins was fishing near the Loop 360 bridge in seven to 12 feet of 51 degree water with a soft plastic lure. The catch came at 6:45 a.m.

ShareLunker program manager and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department information specialist Larry Hodge were on their way to pick up the fish when the phone rang at mid-morning with news of the Lake Amistad catch. Teddy Silcox of Del Rio landed a 13.02 pounder, Toyota ShareLunker 482, from 28 feet of 52 degree water. He was using a Boudreaux bait.

Fish lightning struck a third time while Campbell was charging the hauling tank with water from Lake Austin. Randy Jackson of Mineral Wells caught a 13.03 pound ShareLunker, No. 483, from O.H. Ivie Reservoir. He was fishing in three feet of 43-degree water with a black and blue Easy Jig.

“At that point David Campbell and I were hoping the phone would ring again and hoping it wouldn’t,” Hodge said. Three fish to be picked up hundreds of miles apart presented a problem, but other TPWD staff from the A.E. Wood Fish Hatchery and the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center volunteered to help. By the time the day ended at midnight, the three crews had logged about 1,200 miles.

And no matter what your opinion is on the influence of moon phases on fish catches, ShareLunker records clearly show that the biggest factor in when fish are caught is not the moon phase. Most fish are caught on weekends, because that’s when most people go fishing.

Three or more ShareLunker catches on the same day have come in February only once before, in 1995. All three fish came from Lake Fork. From three to five fish have been caught on the same day seven other times, all in March.

The catches bring the number of entries into the Toyota ShareLunker program for the current season to 12. Since the program’s inception, Lake Austin and O.H. Ivie have produced eight lunkers each. Amistad has now gone double-digit with 10 entries.

Because of the number of entries expected in the coming years from Amistad and O.H. Ivie, official ShareLunker weigh and receiving stations have been set up at those lakes. Angler’s Lodge serves Lake Amistad and Elm Creek Village serves O.H. Ivie. Additional stations are being sought; interested parties should contact David Campbell for details. A list of the current stations is available here.

“Bass Life” with Casey Ashley

Posted: 2/26/2010

In the second season of Bass Life, professional Bassmaster Elite 50 angler Casey Ashley goes on the adventure of his life fishing for huge peacock bass deep in the Amazon jungles of Brazil. The docu-reality style film takes viewers along on Casey’s trip as he experiences his personal “dream come true” on the Amazon River.