Heavier Bass Equal More Scholarships

Surprise, surprise….the LCM bears dominated yet another SETX high school bass tournament on Rayburn Saturday and it resulted in well-earned

paydays for several of their teams. They not only took home first and third place money, but celebrated three other Bear teams earning

scholarship money as well. The feat is more impressive considering the fact that they were competing in a field of over 400 other anglers. I have suggested several times over the past year that an LCM bass fisherman has to look no further than a team mate to know who he has to beat to win a tournament.

While every volunteer team Captain enjoys his commitment for the day, it is hard to imagine that any of them had more fun than Tony Brister. He

nervously shared the excitement of the strike and landing of every bass only to have to sweat out the final weigh-in at the end of the day as well.

I can assure you that even the most experienced pro cannot eyeball two stringers and tell you which one is two-hundredths of an ounce

heavier. When all was said and done, Tony’s winning team of Spencer Brister and Aiden Loftin had captured first place honors by less than a

small crawfish! Their winning total of 21.62 pounds earned both youngsters some serious scholarship money and bragging rights as well. Braxton Rambo and Cameron Dougharty took home third place money while finishing very much in the hunt with 20.16 pounds. Also earning scholarship checks were Justin James and Gavin Cooper (25th ), Dakota Posey and Brendon Brones (27th ) and Jacob Longlois and Tanner Stewart (39th ). That is owning the day when five teams from one school finish in the top ten percent of a field that large.

The Bassmaster Elite pros will be back in town in two weeks and they could be looking at ideal conditions for the first time. The playing field narrowed drastically in acreage when it was decided that Louisiana waters were off limits, but area bayous and both the Sabine and Neches

rivers are in good shape. You can expect the weigh-in crowds to be large so wearing a mask and social distancing when possible is encouraged. I knows it is a tad early for most of us, but attending just one of the blasting off ceremonies is worth the inconvenience. The pre-dawn lights reflecting off the water and the opportunity to watch the pros navigate through the armada is impressive. It seems as though every southeast Texas fisherman is still consumed with the spawn, but they could be missing a terrific crappie bite in the process! Nelson Procter, a mid-lake camp owner on Toledo Bend and retired guide claims this is his favorite time of the year on the Bend. “On most decent weather days I can catch all of the bass I want to catch and finish it off with a mess of crappie,” says Procter. I knows my chances of catching a double digit bass are slim when spending all of my time fishing a Wacky worm or spinner bait in the shallows, but the action is faster and some very large crappie are right there with them. ”For that reason, Procter keeps two bass rods, a crappie rod rigged with a small jig and a twelve foot crappie pole lying on his deck. “I can’t tell you how many times I have had a bass on and hooked a slab crappie on my jigging pole at the same time,” says Procter. He is also quick to point out that he fishes only two colors in the jig and two in his choice of Wacky worms. “I can take all the lures I’ll need in one sandwich bag!” “If they are biting something else I’ll be eating waffles for supper, but that is seldom the case,” says Procter. “I like watermelon and black-blue tail in the worm and back-chartreuse and pink-white for my jigs.” I spoke with Nelson Monday night and he was watching March Madness and eating white perch tacos at the time. “We got out late this afternoon and caught only eleven bass before the crappie really turned on. We kept sixteen nice slabs, eight for each of us, and got back in time for tip-off.” I have talked with two other local anglers that have done well recently fishing virtually the same crappie program in the back of Six Mile and Clear Creek. They were both fishing a jig about two feet beneath a cork, but chartreuse-silver flake was the ticket for them!