Anglers win Nitro Z18 with a 175-horsepower Mercury outboard

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (June 9, 2020) – Kris Wilson and Harold Moore weighed 26.04 pounds to win the second regular-season event of the Texas Team Trail presented by Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s (TXTT) June 5 on Lake Sam Rayburn. The anglers won a fully rigged Nitro Z18 with a 175-horsepower Mercury outboard valued at $34,635.

This event was the first of two back-to-back tournaments held on this Angelina River reservoir. This double-header replaced the Toledo Bend and Lake Amistad qualifying events that were postponed earlier in the season due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Outpacing the field by more than 4 pounds, Wilson and Moore relied on a strategy of mobility. As Wilson explained, they committed to playing the numbers game.

“We ran around so much, we fished from above the 147 Bridge all the way to the south end and everywhere in between,” Wilson said. “We probably fished 25 or so spots. That was pretty much our game plan; we’d pull up and try to catch the active fish on the spot and then we’d move on.

“It was a timing deal on most of these spots. The way I look at it, the more spots you hit, the more potential you have to hit one at the right time. We would run six or eight spots and not even get a bite, then we’d pull up on one and catch four or five fish.”

Noting that they bagged their big fish – a 9.16 – around 10:30, Wilson said he and Moore were targeting deep drops; some in 12-14 feet, most in 28-30. The deeper spots proved most productive and yielded the majority of their 20-plus keepers.

“We spent a lot of time on the lake, several days before cutoff,” Wilson said. “I graphed 13 hours a day for three days. I didn’t event pick up a rod. Some spots had stumps, some had brush and then some had nothing; just slick points.

“There was a period of time when it got really slick calm and it seemed like we could get bites on some places with brush; but when we had a little bit of breeze, the slick spots, or the ones with just a little bit of rubble were better. In practice, the bigger fish were coming off the more obscure stuff – the spots where other people might overlook.”

In addition to the fully rigged Nitro Z18, the team claimed $2,370 of Anglers Advantage cash and a $1,130 Big Bass award. Their total payday was $38,135.

Second-place finishers Randy Turner and Justin Morton brought 21.90 pounds to the scales. After striking out at mid-lake, the anglers opted to run north and flip the cypress trees.

“We keyed on some shady areas up in the day,” said Turner. “Plus, the bream were spawning, so I think the fish were using the shade for cover, but they were able to feed under there.”

Turner said he and his partner caught their three biggest fish – a 7-pounder, a 5 1/2 and a 5 – off one particular tree. They’d fish the tree, catch one, move on and fish elsewhere, then return to that magic spot and pop another good one.

Working in about 3 feet of water, Turner and Morton caught all of their weight on Texas-rigged Zoom Old Monster worms in the redbug color. They used 1/2-ounce tungsten weights and No. 5 wide gap hooks.

“You had to get your boat in a certain angle because some of the limbs were blocking your cast,” Turner said. “You had to get your bait right up against the tree.”

For second place, Turner and Morton earned $7,613, which included $1,738 in Anglers Advantage cash and a $250 Ranger Boats bonus.

The remaining Top 10 are Boulware/Collins (third) Phillips/Sparks (fourth); Shook/Iles (fifth): Taylor/Neugebauer (sixth); Nitschke/Bonds (seventh); Cox/Reese (eighth); Jordan/Bush (ninth); and Rambo/Clark (tenth).

The next stop for the TXTT is the championship event set for October 24-25 with the location to be announced at a later date. The Texas Team Trail presented by Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s consists of four regular-season events and a year-end championship. The championship is a two-day tournament open to teams who have fished all four regular-season events.