189 teams fished, 102 teams weighed in and 26 places were paid. Use the scroll bar on the right to view the results of places in the money.
Click here for the full results.
Skeeter Bass Champs’ fifth and final regular season event was held on Lake Travis Saturday, June 6th. The second Champs event on Travis this year turned out to be a rough one in more ways than one. First off would be the fishing, as many teams reported their fish moving on them or getting lockjaw. Secondly, pleasure boat traffic was brutal, requiring many anglers to find alternatives to fishing near the main lake. And finally, the ever-falling lake levels caused some real problems with boat launching, loading, and beaching at the weigh-in, resulting in considerable strain to the competitor’s equipment and patience.
But Elgin’s father and son team of Flint and Danny Fisher got it done in a big way. This was their first ever win in a Champs event, and in fact the only Central event they fished this year in the trail. We’d say they picked the right event, as they hauled 20.12 pounds of bass (with a 6.02 lb monster) to the scales, but suffered a one pound fish care penalty bringing their official weight to 19.12. It would still be enough to win by nearly 3/4 of a pound. The Fisher’s did a TTZ on camera interview just after the win. “We really caught them on a lot of different baits,” shared Flint. “The better bites though came on crankbaits and ten inch worms.” They did not find boat traffic to be much of a concern, and were able to avoid much of the turbulent waters. This win made the team $20,200 richer after the $200 Sure Life bonus was attached.
TTZ also spoke with the second place finishers. The team of Charles Whited and Bill Polkinghorn is always a force to be reckoned with, but particularly on this lake. They proved it again by lugging 18.50 pounds to the scales. ”We fished to win this tournament,” Charles said. “We only got 7 fish, but they were the right ones!” What was particularly interesting was how they got it done. Many reported starting their day with topwaters, and gradually working out deeper with slow, bottom crawling baits. All pretty standard, right? Well, proving bass don’t read the same books we do, Whited and Polkinghorn flipped the script by starting out on points and ledges with c-rigs, they let the docks heat up before finishing the day with jointed topwaters around those dock edges. In fact, they caught their biggest during the heat of the day on a topwater. They did not have any break off stories or miscues as can often be the case in tourney fishing. Charles summed it up by saying he “was happy with the way” they executed. Their unconventional approach earned them a nice $6,000 payday after the $3,000 Skeeter bonus.
Coming in a very close third place, another father and son team represented well in Saturday’s event. Chans and Sterling Martin used their “custom jigs” to entice their bag of 18.36 pounds. Catching their fish on and around bluff and ledge walls in 30 feet of water proved to be the deal for the Martins. Sterling humored the Champs weigh-in audience with his retort to Chad Pott’s question about what makes their jigs different or special? “They catch bigger fish!” Suppose so, as they earned the Martin’s $2,000, which will buy a lot more jig building material for sure.
TTZ would also like to congratulate Jody Jackson and Loy White for their bag of 16.98 pounds and 4th place finish. Known as they guy that taught Clark Wendlandt to bass fish on Travis, Jody showed us all he’s still got what it takes on Big T in a big way.
Additionly, our good friends Yung Follis and Jeff Cook also managed a nice sack and check with their first top ten finish in a Champs event. Yung mentioned their goal going into the tournament was to at least hold their 19th position in overall points and with a little luck end the year among the top ten. With the lack of practice, the team relied on their past experiences and hit familiar areas they felt would be holding fish during the summer. They started the day catching their first keeper and a few smaller fish on a medium diving crankbait before transitioning to slower presentations in deeper water, specifically steep bluffs on the main lake. Cook and Follis were able to cull several times throughout the day and managed to upgrade all but one of their smaller keepers. Jigs and Texas rigged worms during mid day accounted for their larger fish. When it was all said and done, their 15.06 pounds and 9th place finish moved them up in the overall points and placed the team just one spot out of the top ten. Yung and Jeff would like to thank their sponsors Texas Boat World and Geneva Tackle.
The Champs faithful will get to fish the championship events in October, as this year’s format allowed teams that fished all five regular season events to attend. The North and South divisions will go to O.H. Ivie on the 3rd and 4th, while the Central and East teams will go to Cedar Creek on the 10th and 11th. Thanks to Chad, Jeff and the whole Champ’s crew for another stellar year. Bass Champs is a very well run tourney trail and we were glad to be a part of it again this year. We are looking forward to the championship events and the surrounding festivities. See y’all then!
