The Bass Champs Central Region held its fourth event of the season June 28 on Lake Belton, and it was tough.
Hot summertime conditions did not help increase the bite factor, but Georgetown angler Dean Alexander and Leander angler Eric Crumley took the win with 9.47 pounds.
“We figured it would be tough on Belton, based on the time of year,” Crumley said. “We didn’t have any practice, just showed up to fish the tournament. We fished main lake stuff with top-water baits in areas where we could sit the boat in about 20 feet of water and throw to the bank. We had a limit of smallmouths by 10 a.m.”
After that bite quit they headed up river and tied on a big soft plastic.
“We made one cull with a 4-pound largemouth bass, and that gave us our 9 pounds,” Crumley said. “We caught a few more after that, but none of any consequence. On our way back in, we checked the time and had seven minutes left —we could have shut (the motor) down and fished a brush pile. We were thinking we could at least be in the top ten at that point, and anything could go wrong if we shut down. Maybe the boat wouldn’t start, or something. We decided to go ahead and weigh in what we had.”
The weight held and the pair won the event, even though their big bass of 3.66 pounds was beaten out for big bass of the tournament — 4.41 pounds.
Charles Whited, San Marcosl, and Bill Polkinghorn, Canyon Lake, came in 2nd place with an 8.25-pound total, anchored by their 4.2-pound kicker. They were awarded a check for $4,000.
Gatesville High school angler Zane Washburn and his partner Ryan Phillips secured a third place finish with 7.57 pounds.
“We headed to a rocky flat, about 5 feet deep, to start our day with Yellow Magics,” he said. “The morning bite was pretty good, and we had a limit in the boat by 9 a.m.”
Having secured an initial limit with top-water baits, they decided to stick with that pattern for most of the rest of the day.
“The bite got really slow,” he said. “We used crankbaits for a little while, and was able to cull one time. We only caught one fish between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.”
For more information, go to basschamps.com.
