Team Baylor Places 2nd

[fishinkid2010]

Thought I would share this will y'all, not exactly caught off my Hobie, but super fun nonetheless!

Yesterday was the Collegiate Bass: Sam Houston State Invitational on Lake Whitney, TX. This tournament was between all the schools throughout Texas. I was school from UT, Texas Tech, Dallas Baptist, and lots others. Luckily for Baylor the lake is only an hour drive from Waco, much better than the guys coming all the way from Lubbock!



With the lack of rain in Texas the lake was extremely low, the launch ramp we used could be called “sketchy” at best. Due to the water being as low as it was they were forced to use a single lane launch ramp. Needless to say getting all the boats on the trailer for weigh in took forever.

We did not have a chance to pre-fish this lake so we went into the tournament rather blind. We also were fishing out of our Bass Tracker and not the Pro Craft, so it was tougher to make a big move across the lake to find fish with a smaller aluminum bass boat with a smaller outboard. It was also super windy which created a great deal of chop on the water.

We started the day by making a run across the lake to a section of shoreline that dropped off to 25’ when you were about 75 yards from the shore. It was full of submerged timber as well. Being that it was the early morning the wind was light enough that we could affectively fish it. We began by throwing Mann’s deep diving crank baits and medium diving cranks, we also were throwing a white Stanley Wedge spinner bait with a trailer hook. We pulled one nice fish out of here, and I had one big keeper hit the bait near the boat but get off.

From here we moved and started looking for coves with timber in them. We never found any grass and never found fish relating to boat docks. So the game plan throughout the day was coves. On a side note, I also had one more nice keeper jump and spit the hook a little later in the day… that was a heart breaker!

Baits that we threw all day were cranks, spinner baits, Roboworms on shakey heads, Stanley jigs with brush hogs for trailers, Sidewinders on a Carolina rig, Skinnybear flukes, all slathered up with Unibutter.

When fishing the heavy timber I recommend using heavy line. All of our reels are loaded with 15- 17# McCoy Fluorocarbon and 65# Braid. We fish North Fork Composite and Rainshadow rods that are on the heavy side. Rainshadow’s RX8+ rods have really been proving themselves this year, they are very sensitive, but heavy enough that I have no qualms about bouncing a nice sized bass into the boat.
Northfork has designed some incredibly sensitive blanks too. I have been fishing them with smaller baits like little jigs, shakey heads, and T rigs, on Whitney their blanks proved to be very valuable since they helped me feel when I was dragging though rocks, and when I actually had a bite. (Lake Whitney is solid rock in most places.)

With an hour left our trolling motor died on us and we were forced to head in and call it quits. We tied up to the marina and I fished a Lateral Perch for an hour hoping for a big bass off one of the many brush piles in the marinas for Crappie. No luck, but we were feeling alright with a limit in the livewell.

We were a little nervous for weigh in though, after talking to a few teams that had limits as well.

1st place won it with 12.22 pounds….

Team Baylor had 12.17 pounds!!! Super close but good enough for 2nd place. I also caught big bass of the tournament. (Which came on a Mann’s crank swam between two trees.)












Big thanks to our sponsors! Its their support that helps make this happen!

Diamond Pacific Construction
Skinny Bear Tackle
Mann’s Bait Co,
Culprit Bait
Roboworm
Stanley Jigs
Batson Enterprises
North Fork Composites
Bullard Int.
Costa Del Mar Sunglasses
McCoy Premium Fishing Line
Seaguar Fluorocarbon
Earthsports.com
Bass King clothing
Hodges Capital Management
Owner Hooks
Unibutter
Cablz
Power Tackle

Thanks for reading! Now get out there and catch some bucket mouths of your own!