Lake Travis is a beautiful canyon lake approximately 75 miles long near Austin, TX that has been around 50 feet low for several years until recent rains brought the lake to full pool. With all of the newly flooded areas and vegetation, fish were on the move and anglers on their heels trying to find their new areas. Tournament day had an array of weather patterns from calm and cloudy to rain and hail, but the catch was on as evidenced at the scales.

Winners Garret Koslan and Eric Crumley found a double digit bass weighing in at 11.38 lbs anchoring their win. A bass this size is nearly unheard of on Travis, making this an even more incredible day. “Our morning started out slow,” Eric explained. They started out on main lake points and small pockets using flukes. “We caught a small limit pretty quick, then we moved out into deeper water with Carolina rigs and fished slower. The better ones started biting after 9am.” Slowly, they began culling their small swimmers with bigger fish. Around 11am, Garret was throwing a Carolina rigged baby brush hog. He thought it got hung on the bottom, then it started coming up! “When that fish broke the top of the water, it got pretty crazy in our boat,” Eric recalled. “It took a few tries to get it in the net, but once we did we ran right in to weigh it in.” The scales locked in at 11.38 lbs, a big fish for any water body but particularly notable for Lake Travis. After getting that fish weighed and cared for, the team went back out to finish their day. “We went back out, and were able to cull the rest of our swimmers for bigger fish, but our day was done by 1:00.” Adding the rest of their final creel to their weight, they had 21.47 pounds to win 1st place and the guaranteed check for $20,000. Having the Big Bass of the tournament, they won another $500 for that catch. Then DELO, BioBor and AllStar added to their winnings with their bonuses as well. “I’d like to thank my wife for putting up with me,” Eric said, “and I’d like to thank Garrett for not freaking out too bad and catching that fish!”

2nd place was won by Tony Ferdinando of Spicewood, TX and Shane Logan of Buda, having a limit of bass weighing in at 18.96 pounds. “Tony did all the hard work for this tournament,” Shane explained. “He did all of the pre-fishing and caught all of the fish we weighed in today.” The duo started out on main lake points using topwater baits. Tony caught their kicker with that method that weighed around six pounds. “As the day progressed, we moved out to deep transition areas close to main lake points using a combination of Texas rigs, jigs and swim jigs.” They worked for their limit, taking until noon to wrap up their initial limit. “We didn’t cull our smallest fish until around 3:30.” When it was all said and done, their limit locked in at 18.96 pounds to win 2nd place and a check for $4,000. “I’d like to thank my partner Tony. He’s a really good partner and very knowledgeable. 90% of the credit definitely goes to him.” Shane and Tony have been partners in Bass Champs for the past ten years or so. Shane had to miss a few seasons of fishing due to deployment in the Army, but now that he is working with the Travis County Sheriffs department is happy to be competing in these events again. “Don’t let Shane fool you,” Tony added. “He is the one who usually goes after and gets our kicker fish in our tournaments. He’s good. I just got lucky this time!”

Three seemed to be the lucky number for the 3rd place winners, Craig Cordova of Austin, TX and Shawn Tamez of New Braunfels. Fishing in their third tournament with Bass Champs, this team decided to head to the south end of the lake for their catch. “We had been having some luck on the south end of the lake, so we started out their using topwater baits,” Craig explained. They started their day with a 5 ½ pound catch on topwaters, then switched to wacky worms for the rest of their fish. “We experienced an array of weather patterns. The morning started out fairly calm, but it transitioned to wind, rain, then sunny skies.” They were targeting creek mouths in 10’-15’ of water. “We caught a lot of small fish, and it took nearly all day to put a decent limit together. We were culling by ounces!” Their final five fish weighed in at 17.73 pounds to win 3rd place in the tournament and a check for $3,000. “We really had a great time fishing this Bass Champs event. Everything just came together in our favor this time! I’d like to thank my great fishing partner Shawn.”

The top 25 teams received winning checks, and the last $600 went to Fred Cates Sr and Fred Cates Jr for their 12.99 lb limit.

Sponsor incentives paid off for 9th place winners Ray Tomasits and Cary Laudadio. Skeeter doubled their $1,040 winnings then they also won the Lowrance GEN3 bonus!

With only one event to go, the Angler of the Year race is about to be determined. The top five teams are:
568 pts Charles Whited & Bill Polkinghorn
564 pts Trey Groce & Joe Bill Hale
551 pts Gerald Boboril & Jack Powe
530 pts Steve Magnelia & Michael Tennant
520 pts Matt Hill & Barry Mott

The final event for the Central Region will be May 14 at LBJ. In the meantime, Bass Champs staff and crew are headed to Lake Falcon on April 23rd for the third South Region event.

The annual Skeeter Owner’s tournament is getting closer! Mark your calendars to fish Lake Fork on June 10-12 for this great Skeeter Owner appreciation event.