ATX Bassmasters: Welcome

August 6, 2011

Lake LBJ – Cottonwood Shores, Texas  

Waldrop won… again.  Starting to sound like a broken record?  Michael Waldrop is quickly beginning to develop a bit of a reputation as being one of two Kevin VanDams in the Austin, Texas area.  Who’s the other one?  That would be his brother, Jack Waldrop Jr.  While Jack does not participate in ATX Bassmasters club tournaments, he and Michael have been nearly unstoppable in the weekly Wednesday Night tournaments put on by Texas Tournament Zone all summer.  Michael and Jack Jr. have become such minor celebrities in the local bass circles that if you happen to see them on Lake Austin, you can almost guarantee that there will be a floatilla of 5-10 other bass boats crowded around their fishing spot.  It’s like a scene out of The Bassmasters Elite Series on ESPN watching KVD.  Michael proceeded to hold down his reputation by nailing the win in this month’s ATX tournament on Lake LBJ.  

Michael’s win this month is exceptionally impressive on several levels: 1) he bested the rest of the field by nearly 10 pounds, 2) he took over as the current leader for the Big Bass of the Year Award, and 3) he unofficially took over the lead for the Angler of the Year race.  On an incredibly frustrating and uneventful night for most of the field, Michael weighed in a five fish limit for an impressive 15.10 pounds.  Michael’s limit was anchored by a behemoth 8.40 pound bass which took over the lead for the Big Bass of the Year title.  Due to heavy winds and the difficult navigating due to the dark night time conditions, Michael, as well as the rest of the field fished within just a few miles of the launch site all night.  Michael caught most of his keepers by fishing a fluke around underwater lights.  Three of his keepers came fishing rock piles with a NetBait Paca Craw, and his big bass came at dawn fishing a fluke through some of the lake’s abundant shoreline vegetation in only 1-2 feet of water.  Michael said he caught fish anywhere from 2-12 feet of water.  Congrats on the three-peat, Mike.  

In second place was David Bueche with a five fish limit weighing in at 6.40 pounds.  David, like the rest of the field, complained of a slow bite, yet he managed to get five small keeper bites, which was enough to get him close to the top.  He initially decided to make the rough run up the lake in the wind and dark, but after getting up there, fishing for a bit, and finding conditions unfavorable, ran back down to join the rest of the anglers on the lower end of the lake.  David’s first fish didn’t come until 3 hours after the start of the tournament when he finally started getting a few bites fishing deep underwater lights.  He managed to catch four of his keepers with this pattern using a small 3.5” black/blue Grande Bass Rattlesnake on a 1/4oz shaky head popping it off the bottom in anywhere from 15-30 feet of water.  At sunrise, David’s fifth keeper was a small Guadalupe Bass which he caught swimming a finesse jig / grub trailer combo close to a deeper dock with some chunk rock.  

Third place finisher, Gary Brownell, weighed in 4 fish for a total of 5.1 pounds. Gary found the fishing slow at first in the high winds and didn’t get his first bite until the winds calmed around 4:00 AM.  Throwing a swimbait along the outer edges of an underwater light produced his first keeper bite.  Not able to get another fish from the lights with the swimbait, Gary pulled out a 5” Senko Pro that he fished on a shaky head around the lights again to get his next keeper.  As the sun began to rise, Gary picked up his swimbait again to fish the edges of the shoreline vegetation, and managed to pick up keeper number three.  With time on the clock dwindling, Gary managed to get his last keeper near the launch site by fishing the dam once again with the swimbait.  This one was a famous “monster” Guadalupe Bass probably only weigh half a pound.  At the weigh-in Gary was heard commenting, “I thought swimbaits were supposed to be big fish baits!”  

Congrats to all of our top finisher’s on a difficult and frustrating night tournament. Our next tournament is scheduled for September 24th.  Due to severe drought conditions causing low water levels on many area lakes, the final decision of the location has been postponed to be decided during the club meeting at the beginning of September.  Keep an eye on the website’s calendar in order to view the final decision after the meeting.  Those interested in participating in club events are encouraged to come to our club meetings the first Tuesday of every month at Threadgill’s on Riverside at 7 PM.