Tournament Highlights

April 26th Fishers of Men:  It was great day to be in on Belton Lake, considering the area was hammered by thunderstorms and a tornado the evening before.  ArmyBassAngler Jarod Shelton went out alone.  His partner, Al Pemberton, was close by on Ft. Hood in military training.  Jarod ran up the Leon River and started fishing a main lake point he knew was holding fish thanks to some good practice days the week before.  Using his Castaway Long Range Launcher crankbait rod he threw his Strike King Sexy Shad and boated a limit in six casts!  Jarod thought he would be unbeatable but was only managing to catch small fish.  He tried everything under the sun to catch bigger fish, but was unable to cull beyond 9.14 pounds.  Unfortunately, this day, it was not good enough for a payday.  “If I could have weighed in the buffalo carp, white bass, hybrid bass, and stripers, then I may have had a chance to win,” Jarod said sarcastically.

     Pro Staffers, Randy Sitz and Chad Nelson, started the morning fishing the main lake secondary points with “pop-r” top water baits.  After a disappointing 44th place finish on LBJ last month, the team was hoping to redeem themselves.  Randy managed to catch three nice fish on the top water bait and lost another half-way to the boat.  After the sun broke out, the top water bite died and they moved up Leon River where they threw spinnerbaits around submerged trees and rocks in eight feet of water.  Randy connected with two more solid bass on the spinnerbait just a couple of minutes apart.  Both fish were holding close to lay downs.  It was 12:15 and the team breathed a sigh of relief as they had a limit.  Looking to increase their weight they went further up river to a spot where Randy caught a four and a three pounder during Friday’s practice.  When they got there, there were a couple of boats in the area.  Randy asked one of the guys if he could sneak in and fish a little stretch no bigger than two boat lengths.  The gentlemen agreed and Randy immediately hooked up with a 4.7 pound kicker fish.    He was using a drop-shot rig tipped with a 6 inch watermelon/red worm in about 14 feet of water.  They continued to fish hard looking to upgrade, but had to settle with their catch as it was time to stow the Castaway Rods and head to weigh in.  The team finished, “in the money,” in 12th place and stayed at 11th place in the season’s points standings.  “I thought we adjusted well to the conditions today.  Belton can be a tough lake to pattern fish on.  A lot of the time you have to junk fish...just do a little bit of everything and scratch out a limit.  We kept our baits wet all day and never gave up,” said Randy. 

     ArmyBassAnglers Mike Garrett and Brent Homan started out the day great! They drew boat number eight, a great starting position. Their first spot of the day consisted of a series of points with deep ledges on each side. They immediately started catching fish upon arrival. The team was throwing Senkos on XP3 Castaway Rods.  Mike’s first fish of the day was a solid keeper. They continued to comb the point and ended up with their limit by 7:30 am—off to a great start!  The team culled four times on this point before making a run to their second spot which was also a series of points. The second spot did not pay off for the team at all. Working their way back towards the weigh in site, they pulled up on the third spot. They instantly got their first double-header of the day, both were keepers. The team decided to move back to their first spot to finish out the day. The team’s final weight was 11.16 pounds. They caught a lot of fish, but just were not able to find a good kicker fish.   “The cull bar was making its money today.  We were very pleased with our effort and it was nice not seeing ‘ol Murphy today,” they laughed.

BASS Region 9: Lake Navajo

Dave Behm takes home the Big Bass Honors and a pay check by landing this 5.07lb small mouth beast on with his CastAway Skeleton Rod.  “With temps the in the mid 40s the bite was soft...and the rod provide all the sensitivity I need.”—HOOAH!

Bass Champs, Falcon Lake:  Pro Staffer Don Bailey fished from the Skeeter 20I Returning Heroes Home Boat without his longtime friend and fishing partner, Cody Roberson.  Cody recently said good bye to his family and friends and headed to New York for the final preparations for his deployment to Iraq, where he will soon depart for.  However, in keeping with the spirit of the team concept of the ArmyBassAnglers, honorary angler and Sportsman’s Warehouse Fishing Manager Shayne Beckham stepped up to fish with Don at the Bass Champs event on the exciting Falcon Lake in deep South Texas.  It was an exciting day for the duo as they caught a respectable limit of fish using 12 inch plastic worms (they picked up at Sportsman’s Warehouse) around trees in relatively shallow water.  However, the mystique and shear meanness of Falcon large mouths had them on edge all day.  Both anglers had their hearts stomped on by big fish that were just too ornery to play by the rules.  As a matter of fact, one of Shayne’s first fish of the day snapped 80lb braid and made them think they were on to something special.  As with many of the teams fishing Bass Champs this day, they just couldn’t coax a lot of big fish to bite.  “That lake is simply awesome and I have to go back…..a lot,” Don said when thinking about what could have been.

 

A special thanks the Official Sponsors of ArmyBassAnglers:  Skeeter Boats, Yamaha, Aggregate Haulers, FirstCommand (Killeen & San Antonio), Malibu Kayak Company, Images by Jay, Fox’s Pizza Den, First Continental Mortgage Company, Realty Executives (Leslie Diotte), Geneva Enterprises, Tri-County Photography,  Returning Heroes Home, Pack & Mail Plus,  CastAway Graphite Rods, LINE-X, JaROD Tackle LLC, and Sportsman’s Warehouse!  Special thanks to our families!  Thanks so much.— HOOAH!

Following a Tornado in Belton, TX and a Difficult Farewell to Cody Roberson the ArmyBassAnglers Fair Well in Difficult Conditions

Tournament Photos

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