8 teams fished, 4 teams weighed in and 2 places were paid.
Patterns usually don’t last very long on Austin; but this year we had a ridiculous run of spawning bass coming to the scales. If you were fortunate enough to find your way into that magic creek or knew how to pull them off beds, chances are you took home some money while the rest of the field was left fishing for scraps, and quite frankly third place. But that dominating era is finally behind us, and the past couple week’s have seen winning sacks come from anything but bed fishing or a creek. Lake Austin is finally settling into its summer patterns.
Robby Crabb and Andy Nuyen won their first Wednesday Nighter of the season with 13.94 pounds. After several second place finishes and countless tackle packs, the team finally put together a winning stringer of bass! It wasn’t a landslide by any means and their limit bested second place by less than half a pound. Robby and Andy ran south and focused on inside grass lines around rocky banks in order to find their limit; they were able to make a crucial cull late in the evening and caught eight keepers by the end of the tournament. Robby gave us his thoughts after the weigh-in.
“Thank God the spawn is drawing to a close and you can catch fish the old fashion way by flipping docks, throwing top waters and flukes; we don’t have to kill ourselves racing to the two or three creeks that are holding spawning fish only to stare at huge bass that have no interest in eating.”
“We saw a lot of lake tonight as we hopped around to six or seven different spots. Every other spot or so we would catch a keeper, on the second to last stop we hit the jackpot catching five keepers, including our biggest, on consecutive casts…junk fishing at its best!”
When asked if he would like to thank anyone in particular, Robby jumped at the chance and told us,
“I’d like to thank my awesome netter who always seems to throw in a keeper or so and breaks off at least one fish each tournament. Without him I would probably still have hair and 10 extra years of life to live.”
After winning the Kinami tackle pack last week for their third place finish, the team of Jamie Slayden and Brandon Houston came in second with 13.49 pounds. Brandon told us about their night.
“I caught our first and biggest fish in the back of a dock next to a huge cypress tree in about two foot of water on a Pro’s Choice E’gr Craw. Our next spot was a long stretch of concrete embankment that had some patchy grass along it; Jamie caught our second biggest fish there on like the third cast. We were able to fill a limit there and cull twice. All of the fish were caught on a C-rig with a Bullfrog Big Bite stickbait. The only thing we really keyed on was feeling the grass, if you weren’t in it you were not going to get a bite.”
The Waldrops came in third just half a pound out of the money and a pound or so away from winning; they caught the majority of their fish on a white buzzbait and took home a Kinami tackle pack for their 12.85 pound bag.
Winning Big Bass of the tournament were Brandon Stanley and Cary Laudadio with a 5.19 pound fish. The team graciously accepted the prize money and told the crowd just how bittersweet it was.
“I lost an easy double-digit tonight right at the boat! She thumped my wacky Senko and headed straight towards the boat, after swimming under it she came clear out of the water on the other side and just spit the hook! I felt so sick after seeing it; I regrouped and made another cast back to the spot and hooked and lost another fish in the four pound range. On the third consecutive cast I caught the five pounder and thought it might of been the big girl coming back for a second chance,” said Stanley.
The lake is fishing well and fish are biting from Quinlan all the way down to Walsh. Teams have been catching them on a variety of baits including topwaters, crankbaits, frogs, flukes and jigs; of course a wacky or Texas rigged Yamamoto Senko is still accounting for the majority of fish caught. Water temps this week ranged from 69 degrees around Quinlan to mid 80s around the 360 bridge; the topwater bite is about to explode and having a Sammy or Spro frog tied on would be a good idea. See everyone next week!