16 teams fished, 6 teams weighed in and 3 places were paid.
There are only two more Travis events left to qualify for the possible Saturday August, 28th full day tournament, which we will have if no one hits the eight pound plus rollover mark. And to qualify, you have to fish at least one Travis Tuesday Night Tournament in 2010. With 16 boats out this week, and a few new faces that showed up, it’s evident folks are getting in while they can.
On one of the hottest days on the water most anyone can remember in some time, the fish cooperated a bit for the top four teams and we actually saw some decent weights brought to the scales. And there was a pattern…basically, when you think you are fishing deep enough and slow enough, slow down some more and go deeper still. In fact, the depths reported among the top teams were from 25 to 50 feet!
Winning with an impressive five fish limit was the team of Trey Groce and Joe Bill Hale; their 10.99 pound bag was good for $240. Actually, they brought in 11.99 pounds to the scale, but lost a pound due to a fish care penalty. We asked Trey how they did it.
“We caught ‘em on 10 inch Power Worms around real deep docks. We didn’t catch that many fish but had some break off on us. It was a tough bite, so glad to pull it out, and fortunately the dead fish penalty didn’t end up hurting us.”
Well done Trey and Joe Bill!
Coming off his third place finish in the Choke Canyon Invitational this past weekend, Kelley Mauldin teamed up with Mike Grounds for second place on Tuesday. They had a heavy four fish bag that totaled 9.65 pounds, and earned them $145 for their efforts. The team had been catching them on a deep ledge, and tonight was no exception as Kelley explained.
“Same thing for us, the fish are still there. Still on a ledge in 25 feet of water. We’re using Brush Hogs and Senkos. Not a great bite, but if you work at ‘em you can get them to bite. We lost a few tonight…we both did. But that’s part of fishing.”
Well done guys and congrats on two checks in just four days Kelley!
Rounding out the teams in the money with third place, good for $95, was the TTZ team of Brian Booker and Andy Nuyen. Their small limit weighed 9.20 pounds, but a dead fish cost them some weight, bringing their final weight down to 8.20 pounds.
“Shoot, we were jacked up to catch a limit quite frankly. It has been a while! The fish were deeper than they’ve been all summer. They are still suspended in the marina, but we caught some of the fish in literally 50 foot of water. You gotta be a patient son of a gun to let a weightless Senko fall that far. It is a challenge too when you hook ‘em, because while we’d like to reel up slow to stabilize that air bladder, you have to get ‘em up over the cables as quick as you can. So it’s a catch 22, and it cost us a pound tonight. Fortunately it didn’t affect our finish,” said Brian Booker.
Proving their diversity and finishing fourth was the team of Jr. and Mike Waldrop. Better known for taking heads on Lake Austin, they came out tonight and put together an impressive bag; especially for not having seen the lake in many months. The Waldrops ended up with four fish for 7.57 pounds; Mike told us all about it.
“You know, due to some technical difficulties, we got on the water late. But we went after it, and caught all our fish deep…at around 40 foot I guess. Had to fizz ‘em all pretty good except for the big one. We caught that one on a topwater.”
Fourth place received a nice tackle pack generously donated by Jacky Roberts, owner of Pro’s Choice Lures and Fish Finders Marine.
Well, that puts another one in the books. And don’t forget guys, there are only two Tuesday Nighters left! If you want to qualify for the possible tournament on the 28th of this month, and have not fished a Tuesday Nighter in 2010, you MUST fish one of the next two events. That pot is growing, and so is the interest. We’ll see you at Mansfield on Tuesday where the River City Grille Big Bass Rollover starts at $1,200!