21 teams fished, 11 teams weighed in and 3 places were paid.
As difficult as the fishing has been on Lake Austin, the fish are always willing to bite something. Finding that “something” has been the trick this year and last night two of our teams separated themselves from the rest of the field by throwing topwaters.
TTZ fishing team members Robby Crabb and Brian Booker finished first with nearly 10 pounds on only three fish! For three straight weeks Brian has been fishing a SPRO frog under overhanging trees and laydowns with good results. In the prior two weeks the frog has accounted for the largest fish in the boat, and last night was no different as the team’s winning sack was anchored by a nice fish in the five pound range followed by another solid keeper well over three pounds. Brian stated fishing the frog can be extremely tough since it takes a lot of commitment to throw it all night for only one or two bites; with two wins over the last three tournaments we don’t think Brian will be putting that frog down anytime time soon!
And here’s an almost Jim Bitter moment for you old schoolers…Robby caught their third keeper during the last few minutes of the tournament on a jig. After several failed attempts at netting the fish in the dark, the team finally got it into the boat and immediately thought it was a short fish. After barely clearing the 14″ mark, the fish jumped off the stick and flopped six inches away from the side of the boat before Robby was able to bat it down. Since it was so dark he ultimately had to sit on it to ensure it wasn’t going anywhere else but the livewell. The margin between first and second was a little over half a pound and this saved fish made a huge difference for the team!
Our second place team also found a good topwater bite and came in with the only limit of the evening. Doug and Chris actually managed to cull two fish out of their sack and came in with 9.42 pounds. Doug mentioned they caught all their fish during a span of 40 minutes, he had success on a Zara Spook and Chris was throwing an Excalibur Zell Pop. It’s been a while since we’ve seen those guys and it was really good to catch up with them last night!
The TTZ fishing team represented well last night as third place went to Tom Lorden and Big Bass went to James Roberts and his partner Todd Laurrell. Tom fished solo and headed south to catch his three fish stringer of 6.81 pounds. All three keepers bit a Texas rigged blue fleck Berkley Powerbait Ribbontail worm. James and Todd caught their big fish on a Kinami Nories Bug in very shallow water.
We met several new faces last night and appreciate all the support from the regulars so far this year. Even during these tough times it’s amazing to see the turnouts our tournaments are generating. TTZ is planning an overnight tournament on Austin with a beer and BBQ kick off to say thanks to everyone for making the Austin Wed Nighters a huge success, stay tuned for details!
