20 teams fished, 10 teams weighed in and 3 places were paid.
What a difference a week makes! The cold, wet and overcast conditions of last week turned into a warm and sunny evening for the 20 teams that showed up to the second event of the season on Lake Austin. The Spring Break traffic had lightened up, making it easy for our anglers to gather on the City Park beach during registration for some pre-tournament banter. Before launching the field, TTZ and Certified Arbor Care recognized Dale and Jake Read for their accomplishment last week and rewarded the team $300.00 for their 30.18 pound record breaking sack at the season opener.
With a drastic increase in recreational traffic and most of the fish in post spawn mode, the fishing proved to be fairly tough. Most of our teams reported very few bites throughout the evening with a good portion of the fish being caught towards the end of the tournament. Despite the challenging conditions, there were several solid fish brought to the scales; unfortunately none of the teams could not put together any real pattern and finish out a limit.
The third and fourth places could not have been any closer as Derrell and Bobby edged out Lance and Robert by .03 pounds! Derrell reported having motor problems at the beginning of the tournament and the two had to abandon their original plan and fish where they could. Throwing lightly weighted Yamamoto Senkos at docks, the team fished their way back to weigh in and brought in four fish good enough to finish in the money. Speaking of problems, Robert and Lance had some trouble getting all their fish to the scales. “The one that got away” literally did right before weigh in. As Lance was gathering their fish, one of their keepers jumped out of the live well and found its way back to the lake. As it turns out that lost fish eventually bumped them out of the money. The team ended up finishing fourth and took home the Yamamoto and Kinami tackle pack.
How many times have you heard the saying, “It only takes one cast”? Well, that’s all it took for Dean and Cody as they won Big Bass and second place with their 6.69 pound fish. One cast and one fish rewarded them a total of $280.00, not too shabby by any means! Taking first with a record low of 8.67 pounds were tournament directors Andy and Eric. The team reported throwing wacky worms and Carolina rigs early without a bite before settling in and catching their two keepers on flipping jigs with a Yamamoto Flappin Hawg trailer. Rounding out the list of fishing quotes, “Never give up!” was the motto as their big fish of the evening was caught just minutes before heading back to weigh in.
Those that fish Austin regularly know just how finicky the lake can be. With warming weather and more consistent recreational boating, it’s only a matter of time before the fish adapt to the changing conditions and settle down. Once this happens anglers will be able to fish targets instead of combing areas searching for a bite. Tune into the fishing reports section of the forum to stay updated on what the fish are doing and how to catch them. Thanks again to all that came out, see ya’ll on the water!
