109 teams fished, 64 teams weighed in and 11 places were paid. Use the scroll bar on the right to view all the results.
Complete results will be published once they become available.
The second stop of the 2009-2010 Tuff Man trail drew 109 teams to Belton’s Cedar Ridge Park. Originally planned for Lake Limestone, the tournament was moved to Lake Belton due to excessive low water levels, inadequate launch ramps and other safety issues. With dropping temperatures and rising water levels, the fluctuating conditions make an already fickle lake even more of a challenge. Belton can hero or zero you real quick at any time of the year; but as many anglers know, late fall is the prime time to target smallmouth…and Belton has one of the best populations in Texas!
With several open tournaments preceding the second qualifier, results indicated sporadic bites comprised of small fish and the occasional keeper. This day would be no different as most anglers struggled to find quality fish with some having difficulty finding a bite in general. Several teams reported good numbers of short fish earlier in the day on a variety of baits including spinnerbaits, Senkos and Carolina rigs. Keeper bites were harder to come by, and the anglers fortunate enough to have them also stated early morning was the key. Of the 109 teams fishing the tournament, only 64 made it back to the scales with fish to weigh.
When fishing is this tough, the few that stumble upon the fish are able to cash in…and cashing in BIG appears to be the theme for this tournament’s top qualifiers! Coming in first place were Texas Boat World team members Clayton Carver and Joshua Brown with 15.86 pounds. If the name Carver sounds familiar, it’s because Clayton won this year’s Fishing for Freedom tournament with Gary Klein and was awarded a brand new Triton boat and trailer valued at $17,999!
The team had a great day of fishing and started out throwing a shallow running crankbait. Although it put some smaller fish in the boat, it didn’t prove as effective as it had been during Fishing for Freedom. After a quick adjustment they began flipping a jig into the flooded brush and filled their sack with some very solid fish. Consistent with several other reports, all their keepers were caught before 11 am and the bite became extremely slow after that. Clayton and Josh won $2,500 and added another $2,500 to their winnings through the Texas Boat World contigency program! They would like to thank their sponsors Texas Boat World, American Rodsmiths and Rage Tail Baits.
You can learn more about the Triton Gold Contigency money for the Tuff Man trail by contacting Cliff Brown at Texas Boat World or by clicking here.
Another name in the headlines comes from the second place team of Keith Honeycutt and Sam Jones. October has been an amazing month for Keith to say the least; after finishing second earlier this month in the Temple Area Builders Association tournament (which was also held on Belton), Keith and another partner won $50,000 by winning the Bass Champs East/Central Championship on Cedar Creek! Using a very similar pattern from the TABA tournament, Keith said they had fish located on the main lake and threw topwaters to catch them early in the morning.
Throughout the day they followed the rising water and continued upgrading their catch with a 3/8 oz Red Dot spinnerbait. Sam added the fish were shallow and most of their luck came from the very back pockets. The team caught a total of 17 keepers with their best 5 going 13.06 pounds and earning them $1,500. Keith and Sam would like to thank their sponsors Berkley, Ranger and Castaway Rods.
Belton may be a lake renown for big and scrappy smallmouth bass, but rest assured there are some good largemouth swimming in there with them. Sorphal Korng, who finished third with his partner Rodney Gaskill, caught this Belton toad weighing just under 7 pounds and won Big Bass during the TABA tournament held October 2nd.
Big Bass for this tournament paid two places with the team of Markus Morace of Moody and Leland Smith of Copperas Cove winning $763 for their fish weighing 7.31 pounds. Second place went to the team of Mark Beckman and Tommy McKay of Bryan; they won $327 for a fish weighing in at 5.45 pounds.
Morace and Smith only weighed in two fish, but their two keepers totaled slightly over 10 pounds and were good enough to qualify them for this year’s Championship. The big fish was caught early in the morning around 8 am on a spinhead jig with a paddle tail grub. Marcus would like to thank his sponsors Marine Outlet and American Rodsmiths for their support.
We’d also like to congratulate Billy Conway and Dan Wills on their 6th place finish! Billy is the co-host of the On the Dock radio show with Marine Outlet owner and Central Texas Marine Association president Rick Smith.
On the Dock airs every Friday afternoon from 5-6 pm on KTEM 1400 AM. Billy and Rick interview local boaters and fishermen getting all the latest tips on area lakes and coastal waters. Listeners are invited to call in with questions or comments. Toll free call 866-597-1400 or 254-773-1400 between 5 and 6 pm Fridays. If it’s boats and boating, fish and fishing then Billy and Rick are the ones to speak with! You can also catch them live at www.myktem.com on the WORLD WIDE WEB.
There are only two qualifying events remaining; don’t miss the next Tuff Man bass tournament on Lake Stillhouse Hollow out of Dana Peak Park on the 21st of November. Tuff Man is an open team trail and you only have to qualify once to fish in the GUARANTEED $10,000 Championship!
Complete rules and entry form are available here.