Anglers win Triton 189TRX with 225-horsepower Mercury outboard
Kelly Owens and Brent Broussard weighed 32.18 pounds to win the third regular-season event of the Texas Team Trail presented by Cabela’s (TXTT) April 14 on Lake Amistad. The anglers won a fully rigged Triton 189TRX with a 225-horsepower Mercury outboard valued at $31,495.
While other teams experienced typical limits, Owens and Broussard hit a home run on Amistad, besting the closest competition by more than 11 pounds. The anglers have lots of experience on Amistad but do not shy away fromadmitting they were in the right place at the right time to win this event by such a wide margin.
The anglers bag included a trio of studs – two 8-pounders and a 9 – over tree-covered high spots in 8-15 feet of water at the mouth of Burro Canyon on the lake’s Mexico side.
“We both ran all over the lake in practice and Brent caught a couple of key fish that clued us in that big fish might move into this area,” Owens said. “As much as anything, it was just realizing where those better fish were. We started there this morning and didn’t have a bite. We went back there three times during the day and the second time we went back we caught those three big fish in 20 minutes.”
Owens attributes the windfall to a lake that holds big fish and a bit of lucky timing.
“Amistad is famous for these bigger fish just showing up all of a sudden,” he said. “We went through there and there were some fish that had pushed up. We were fortunate enough to catch those three really big ones. We fished it again later in the day and never got a bite.”
Owens and Broussard caught their trio of giants on 8-inch Big Bite Suicide Shads rigged on 8/0 Owner Flashy Swimmers. This belly-weighted, wide-gap hook dressed with a silver willow leave blade offered the right blend of attraction and lip grabbing power. Also helpful was the day’s windy conditions.
“The water is so clear, you can see 20 feet down, so that northwest wind that blew 20-25 mph definitely helped by breaking up the surface,” Owens said.
Fishing their swimbaits on 7’5″ Falcon Super Duty rods, Owens and Broussard used 7:1 reels spooled with 20-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon. Aggressive presentations were essential.
“We’d make long casts and slow roll the baits through the trees,” Owens said. “You had to bump it though those trees. When they’d get it, your line would go slack and they’d be there.”
Between their visits to the Burro Canyon trees, the winners spent time fishing 6th Sense Cloud 9 C20 crankbaits in deep grass in about 20 feet. This, Owens said, was more quantity than quality. They caught about 20 fish in the grass, but kept only two small ones.
In addition to the new Triton boat and motor, the anglers added $1,650 in Anglers Advantage cash and $1,080 for their 9.31-pound kicker for a total of $34,225 in winnings.
Second-place finishers Kris Wilson and Harold Moore weighed 20.53 pounds to win $6,610. The anglers spent their day in Mexican waters, fishing creeks up the Rio Grande. Wilson said he and his partner targeted hydrilla in 18-25 feet and caught their fish on 6th Sense hollow body swimbaits.
“We rigged the baits on 3/4- and 1/2-ounce 6th Sense jig heads, depending on the depth,” Wilson said. “In some areas, the grass would be taller than in others. Also, when the wind was blowing harder, we’d throw the swimbaits on the 3/4-ounce head. It seemed that more of the fish were using the inside edge of the grass, so we were targeting that inside edge. We had eight bites and a couple were the right ones.”
Wilson and Moon fished several spots, but their weight came off of three different areas. Two were 200-300 yards apart and the other was six miles up the river.
“We had the confidence in the areas we were fishing and the bait we were throwing,” Wilson said. “We never put the swimbait down all day. If we had, I don’t think we would have caught the fish we did.”
Finishing third with 19.14 pounds, Trent Huckaby and Bubba Haralson fished the mid-lake area and worked the outside edges of hydrilla beds in 20-30 feet. The anglers alternated between a 3/4-ounce flipping jig with a craw trailer and a green pumpkin Senko Texas rigged with a 3/8-ounce weight.
“We were covering as much water as we could and looking for the better grass,” Huckaby said. “The Senko produced more, but the better fish came on the jig.”
The team took home a total of $4,340, including $1,100 in Anglers Advantage cash.
The remaining Top 10 are Morton/Hope (fourth); Allen/Kennell (fifth): Reynolds/Thompson (sixth); Carr/Ducharme (seventh); Mire/Matsubu (eighth); Rambo/Clark (ninth); and Murray/Ivy (tenth).
The TXTT will next wrap up the regular season on Ray Roberts, May 5. The 2018 schedule includes some of Texas’ most legendary bass fisheries and features huge payouts with unprecedented contingency opportunities.
For additional information, anglers are encouraged to call 210-788-4143 or check out the TXTT website at www.texasteamtrail.com. Site visitors can register for events, review the television schedule, get official Texas Team Trail gear, view results and learn more about what’s in store for 2018.
Texas Team Trail events are made possible through the sponsorship and continued support of these well-respected brands: Cabela’s, Ranger Boats, Lucas Oil, Evinrude, Mercury, Minn Kota, Triton Boats, Power-Pole, NITRO, Lowrance, Protect the Harvest, Garmin, Valley Fashions, T-H Marine, Atlas, G-Juice, Navionics, Amphibia, Powertex Group.
By: Blue Heron Communications
