50 teams fished and 10 places were paid.
TOTAL CASH AND PRIZES PAID OUT: $7,630 (95.6%)
TOTAL CASH PAID OUT: $7,230 (90.6%)
50 teams fished the last regular season event in the Central Division of the Lone Star Series tournament trail; and with the giant stringers and double-digit bass of late in the Texas Tournament Zone Wednesday Night Tournaments on Lake Austin, we all watched with great anticipation for this one! Expecting 30 plus pounds as a probable weight for top prize, we waited anxiously at the weigh trailer.
Not to say it was disappointing by any stretch, but the weights were a bit lighter than expected. A club tournament the night before, high skies, a gaggle of pleasure boats and hot weather made it a real test for our anglers on Saturday.
Coming in first was a well known Austin duo of Mike and Jr. Waldrop; the two brothers brought home top honors with a bag weighing 19.68 pounds.
If you keep up with Central Texas bass fishing at all, you know they’ve made their knowledge of Lake Austin a thing of legend with several first place finishes and some mammoth bags of fish over the years! We caught up with Mike after the weigh-in.
“The fish were pretty scattered for us today. We caught most of our fish cranking grass in around 14 feet. But, we caught ‘em on everything from stick baits and swim baits to spinner baits.”
Mike went on to tell us the fish they caught were in 6 to 14 feet, and that they caught a total of eight keepers throughout the day. Mike and Jr. mimicked the sentiment of the rest of our anglers by saying it was tough. You see, on Lake Austin a 20 pound bag has not been out of the ordinary in recent weeks. He gave us some more food for thought.
“We really caught most of ‘em on the main lake; they weren’t really in the creeks. But we did catch our last fish, which really helped us, on a brush pile in the very back of a creek right at the end of the day. We only had two good flurries of bites…the first was from 8:30 to 10:30, and the second was just before weigh-in.”
The Waldrops didn’t have any stories in terms of the “one that got away”, though Jr. had one come off that seemed pretty decent that they never saw. Their day was good for $2,500 and two pairs of Oakley optics valued at over $200 a piece!
Congratulations gentlemen, you have further solidified your position in the lore of Lake Austin supremacy. They’d like to thank Fitovers, Bee Caves BBQ, Lakes Upholstery and SRB Marine.
Second place in Saturday’s event went to Steve Strain and Terry Williams with a sack going 18.91 pounds after a half pound fish care penalty; they also won Big Bass with an 8.75 pound toad. Both accomplishments brought them a solid check of $1,480! Terry shared the details with us.
“We caught two keepers pretty quick around Dell’s place on the outside grass edges. The Strike King Ocho and a Senko were the two baits we got bit on all day. Keeper number three came around the “Fat Farm”, again in deeper grass before things shut down.”
And, as most successful teams do during an event, Terry explained a game change.
“After the bite slowed down up there and the fishing pressure was higher, we ran south of City Park and caught the big one under a dock in about 5 foot of water. She bit a 301 Senko weightless and at the hook set she went nuts with several jumps totally out of the water! Just before that we saw several fish cruising in and out and several large pods of bait just prior to Steve catching her. We decided then to run down to the bridge, and stayed for several minutes but didn’t see anything worth sticking around for. We later culled with a nice fish on the bluff rocks near the bridge, and caught a few more keepers by focusing on the shaded areas around those rocks.”
Interestingly, the team had to come in early…way early. They experienced some battery issues throughout the day, and the livewells were not functioning properly. To their credit, they decided to come in around noon and set their bag on the scales so they could get their fish back into the cool waters of Lake Austin.
Congratulations Steve and Terry! You had an incredible day considering the three hours of tournament time on the bank watching ski boats go by at the weigh trailer.
Rounding out the top three for the tournament was the team of Jacky Roberts and Ken Wilkins; their third place stringer was good for $700. Jacky talked with us afterwards.
“Well, we caught our fish south for the most part. We tried to stay away from the traffic on the other end of the lake best we could. We culled our last fish at just after noon, and caught some smaller keepers after that.”
But the lion’s share of their yield came early.
“We had a limit on a small stretch down south pretty early, I’d say by 8 in the morning. Caught a lot of ‘em on a Pro’s Choice Eg’r Craw in the green pumpkin candy color. Threw a Fluke too, but couldn’t catch a keeper on it. Most of our bites came relatively shallow. What was weird was we had some good hydrilla in 18 foot of water, but the better fish just weren’t there for us today.”
The pattern for Jacky and Ken seemed to be the mouths of the creeks, as Jacky explained.
“Ken had caught some keepers on a Flick Shake early, and then he picked up a 3:16 Mission Fish and threw that swimbait in the mouth of a creek at about 8 o’clock…it was still kinda cloudy. After a few cranks, his rod loaded up on that 7 pounder. We had been questioning our decision all morning to go south, but we felt pretty good after that one!”
Well done Jacky and Ken on a heck of a season.
Speaking of seasons, the Angler of the Year points have been updated.
Congratulations to Lee Beuershausen and Charles Whited for winning the AOY title in the Central Division. They will have their Championship entry fee waived, and will face the North Division’s Chris Tilton and Greg Yates on Sam Rayburn in October. The highest finishing team will take home $1,000!
Additional kudos go out to the teams of Allen Gass/Randy Grounds and Jesse Fry/Scott Landon, as they finished 2nd and 3rd in points and will also have their Championship entry fee waived.
If a team fished at least three events or finished in the top 50% of the final points they qualify to fish the Championship. Qualifying anglers in the Central and North Divisions will compete in the LSS Championship October 22-23 on Sam Rayburn; the winners will take home a 2011 Nitro Z7 powered by a Mercury 150 (valued at $25,000). More information regarding the Championship registration and tournament details will be released as the dates draw nearer.
We’d like to thank all the anglers that fished with us this season…we hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned for more details on some big things in store for next year!