La Ward angler Bruce White might want to buy a lotto ticket after the weekend he had.
White, along with his partner, Victoria angler Cory Leita, caught four bass, including a 5.12-pound kicker, to win the Bass Champs Central Region tournament on Belton Lake Saturday with 13.15 pounds. The pair bested 197 teams to take home more than $25,000.
When White got back to his truck Saturday night, he saw someone had broken in and ยcleaned it out.ย However, less than a day later, police had tracked down the thief and recovered all of Whiteยs property.
It was that kind of weekend for the angler who has been trying to win on a major fishing trail for several years. And White had never before fished on Belton.
ยIย’ve never been on it,ย he said. ยMy partner, Cory, has fished the lake maybe three times. We mixed it up with crankbaits and jerkbaits. It was more of a reaction bite for us. We fished a little bit of shallow and deep water. I caught those fish in about 15 feet of water.ย
The two anglers have been following the Bass Champs circuit this season, which did not allow them to get any practice time on Belton prior to the tournament. White said it worked to their advantage this tournament, but that isnยt always the case.
ยWe went to Falcon and cashed a check, but without practice down there, we would not have gotten a check,ย White said. ยThis is our first win, and it is really nice to finally win one of these.ย
The pair caught three fish during the first hour of the tournament, and then didnยt get another bite until about 1 p.m.
ยThe wind didnยt affect what we were doing,ย White said. ยIยd like to thank Waterloo Rods, Boerne Marine and Bass Champs for putting on such a good tournament.ย
The second-place team of Vincent Adler, Nolanville, and Rodney Thompson, Harker Heights, caught a 5-fish limit for 13.12 pounds, just missing the win but still cashing a check for $4,750.
ยIt was real nice,ย Adler said. ยThe wind picked up about 9:30 or 10, and we had caught three by then. We then switched to a different part of the lake and caught the last two. We were fishing about 8-feet-deep off of banks and points with a shaky head.ย
The team focused on the main lake and tried to find bass in a prespawn position.
ยWe saw some guys fishing shallow, but we didnยt see them catch anything,ย Adler said. ยWe caught the big fish (5.12 pounds) early using that shaky head on main lake rocky points.ย
Adler wanted to thank his sponsors ย Skeeter Boats, Livingston Lures and Power Pole.
In third, the team of Jason Buchanan and Terry Kircus, both of Burnet, fished their way to a second top-three finish this season with a 5-bass limit for 11.55 pounds.
ยWe were fishing shallow using big Brush Hawgs,ย Buchanan said. ยWe were catching prespawn fish around structure. We are pretty familiar with this lake and we pretty much caught fish all day.ย
Buchanan said it was a grind trying to find bigger fish.
ยWe didn’ยt find anything big,ย he said. ยJust a bunch of 2-pounders. I figured weยd be back in the money, but I thought it would take 18 pounds or so to be in the top three. It was a nice surprise.ย
Caldwell angler Vincent Neal hooked the big bass of the tournament with his 5.86-pound fish that earned him a $1,000 bonus.
Bass Champs paid out a 114-percent payback to the anglers totaling $65,235.
The next Bass Champs tournament will be held this Sunday, March 22 on Lake Fork for the 7th Annual Ford Mega bass on Lake Fork.
By: Conor Harrison, Bass Champs
