22 teams fished, 5 teams weighed in and 3 places were paid.
After several reports from the weekend confirmed another wave of BIG fish were back on beds, 22 teams showed up hoping to hook into the fish of a lifetime and take home a little cash. But as we know all too well, Lake Austin can shut right off just as quickly as she decides to turn on. This was the case last night as only six teams came back to weigh-in and only five of the six had fish to weigh.
When fishing is this tough a limit goes a long way; coming in with the only limit of the evening and taking home $330 for first place were Blake and Waylon Pabst. The brothers are no strangers to winning on Austin and already have another win, along with a third place finish, under their belts this season. They reported the bite was acutally pretty good as they caught 11 total fish and broke another one off. Yamamoto Senkos were the baits of choice as three of their fish were caught on a wacky rigged green pumpkin Senko and the others bit a Texas rigged black Senko.
We spoke to Blake and got a little more info after the tournament.
“We hadn’t been on the lake in a couple of weeks so had no fish located, we just went fishing! We really just focused on our favorite stretch of docks mid lake. Waylon caught three pretty nice keepers early on and then caught the biggest one that was right at three pounds right before dark. The last keeper I caught
at about 9:30; all fish were right against the bank.”
Blake and Waylon would like to thank Banner Sign Graphics, their family owned and operated business since 1984. For more information on digital graphics/wraps, screen printing or vinyl graphics, please visit bannersigngraphics.com.
Coming in second, for the second week in a row, was Brad Casebier. Brad went solo again and proved you don’t always need two lines in the water to get it done!
“I only fished two beds, and caught one fish off each. I drew first flight and was first into “the” creek. Since I didn’t prefish it, I had no clue what to do once I got in. I ran to the back and saw a 3 pound male locked on a bed…he bit pretty quick. At that point there were four boats in there and I bailed out.”
Brad caught the two bed fish on a 1/2 oz watermelon jig with a double tailed trailer and mentioned seeing several more fish that were unwilling to cooperate.
“I did see the biggest fish of my life, as well as a group of 10 or so all over five pounds in a staging area in the main lake. I put in a solid hour on her, but she wasn’t interested in biting.”
Brad’s two fish sack included the Big Bass of the evening (which he’s also won for the second week in a row) at 5.11 lbs; he took home $200 for second place and an additional $110 for Big Bass. Brad would like to thank his sponsor Radiant Plumbing.
Rounding out third place was TTZ Fishing Team captain Robby Crabb and Grant Schnabel. The two had some bedding fish located before the tournament and found some success early on. Unfortunately, only the males were willing to cooperate. Robby filled us in on their evening,
“I knew were some four pounders were locked on so started there first. I made a LONG cast with a wacky rigged Senko to the bed and immediately felt a thump! I thought for sure it was one of the bigger fish, but after a few cranks I knew it wasn’t…but at least it was a solid keeper.”
“We worked our way into the cut and after a few more casts around the bed there goes another thump; Grant put his rod down and grabbed the net thinking this was one of the four pounders. It ended up being a 14 incher, but the good thing was after he netted my fish he picked up his rod and had another 14 inch keeper on!”
Robby also told us they had a chance to finish their limit but lost a fish around 9:30. Fishing a shallow row of docks they caught six unders before he hooked into a good one, the fish pulled some drag for a few seconds and then just let go.
Congrats to all the winners and thanks to everyone for coming out. Even if the fish aren’t biting, there are always good times to be had and stories to be shared after the weigh-in. At the end of the day this is what the Wed Nighters are all about – good times and good friends…and sometimes the money ain’t bad either! See y’all next week!