9 teams fished, 6 teams weighed in and 2 places were paid.
Kicking off the long awaited Travis Tuesday Nighters, 9 boats came out to battle the heavily gusting winds and were greeted by a very different lake than we saw last year. With clear water conditions and tons of bushes in 10 to 15 foot of water, it looked like every cast was the right one.
Creek temperatures ranged from 67-71 degrees, while the main lake hovered around 61-64 degrees. At just a few inches over full pool (681 feet), it has been a long time since the bass out there have had this many places to hide. And hide they did…but not from everybody.
Chris Ellensohn and James Polkinghorn brought a huge sack of five keepers to the scales, weighing in at 15.11 pounds, to win first place! They caught most of their fish relatively shallow, and some were around the submerged cover. The prevailing bait for the team was a Zoom Fluke. Very few guys have had a fifteen pound bag on this lake in a full day, but to do it in an after work tourney is quite a feat. Well done fellas!
Taking second for the night was our old friend and owner of Austin Bass Fishing.com, Terry Williams, and his partner Louis Warren. Catching over 11 pounds of bass isn’t easy in just over three hours on Travis…especially when you do it with just four keepers. But that’s what they did; in fact, their bag went 11.31 pounds with a 6.86 pound kicker! It was the big bass of the night, but shy of the Big Bass Rollover of 8 pounds sponsored by River City Grille. But trust us, this fish is gonna get caught this season out there, and probably a couple times over when it is all said and done.
We spoke to Terry about their night.
“We caught our fish fairly shallow, but close to deep water around some submerged bushes. Caught most of ‘em on brush hogs and spinnerbaits, but the big fish came on a spinnerbait. It was barely hooked, and almost gave me a heart attack when I saw her head come up. To make it even more exciting, I noticed the trailer hook was barely skin hooked in the side of her head!”
Interestingly, Terry had seen a fish in this area pushing 8 pounds on a bed a few days ago, but she just wasn’t locked on. He caught the big fish in the general area but does not believe this to be the same female. Sounds like Terry’s got a pretty good hole picked out! He better, as he was quoted very recently as saying “a monkey can go out and catch ’em on a spinner bait right now”. So far, he’s backing it up.
Taking home third place and a nice tackle bag from Pro’s Choice Lures and JaROD Jigs was Colin Saunders and Ray Buerkle. These names might ring a bell, as they won Big Bass and took home a check in last week’s Lake Austin tournament. They reported catching their bag of five fish at 6.04 pounds on Flukes as well.
It bears mentioning that Troy Matte, fishing solo, caught this nice chunk. It weighed 5.20 pounds and engulfed a trick worm; his one fish weighed at or better than half the bags of the night!
Most teams reported catching a couple small keepers, but almost everyone caught a lot of unders. There were some beds reported but no one claims to have caught a bedding fish that they were aware of. Lots of large gizzard shad and tilapia were seen and the overall lake conditions are incredible. This lake is gonna kick out some sacks this year guys, so be sure and come see us next Tuesday night.
And don’t forget the River City Grille Big Bass Rollover…the pot just got a little sweeter. But you ain’t gonna catch her from the couch! See you all at Mansfield.