12 teams fished, 3 teams weighed in and 2 places were paid.
Tonight may have been one of the hottest evenings we’ve had so far this year…and I’m not talking about the bite. We saw water temps in the high 80s and it definitely made for a sluggish bite. We only had three teams weigh in but all three sacks were solid weights for a 3.5 hour tournament on Travis.
Shallow was the key for the few teams that brought their fish to the scales. Kenneth and Kenneth brought in the only limit by fishing main lake points and banks with Texas rigged plastics. Their 13.79 pound sack edged out TTZ team members/tournament directors Robby Crabb and Andy Nuyen and rewarded them with a $215.00 pay day, not too bad for a couple hours of fishing!
Robby and Andy had plans to run up the lake and try to duplicate their pattern from Saturday’s ABC Open. However, jumping a wave at 72 mph in the Legend caused a couple of rods to become unbuttoned and forced them to shut down and regroup. By the time they were ready to move on half the field had passed them up and convinced the team to stay on the lower end. Seeking out docks sitting in 40-60 foot of water, they slowly put together a respectable 13 pound sack by fishing Texas rigged Yamamoto Senkos and Kinami Flashes underneath walkways and cables. Robby mentioned a primary key to catching their fish was the presence of baitfish and perch; dirty water was another factor and all their fish were extremely shallow and tight to cover. Andy also stated they lost two fish in the four to five pound range that would have bumped their sack to over 20 pounds.
TOZ team members Don Gordon and Cody Greaney, who also cut a check this past Saturday, came in with a healthy 12 pounds and took home the Yamamoto and Kinami tackle pack. From the looks of the pic, their big fish was actively feeding on baitfish and doing a mighty fine job of it! Cody also mentioned their keepers coming from very shallow water.
Speaking of big fish, Greg and Wade Mehaffey had the 7.77 pound bonus fish on tonight. Greg was fishing a shaky head on 10 pound fluoro when the fish bit and took him out to deeper water. After coming up and giving them a glance at just how big she was, the fish ran him under the boat and wrapped herself around the trolling motor. 10 pound line and trolling motors don’t mix well and just as Wade went for the net, the line snapped and all that was left was the story about the big one that got away. Greg was still out of breath as he retold the story at the ramp and estimated the fish to be easily over eight pounds!
On a more positive note, we were told Mansfield will most likely not be closed once the lake level dips below 640′. The left two lanes apparently run pretty deep and the ramp will remain open until they are out of the water. It’s only a matter of time before the Lucky 7 Big Bass Pot goes down and next week the pot starts at $740.00! Thanks again to all that came out and see y’all next week!
