Texas Classic Bass Club August Tournament on Lake LBJ

I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club August Tournament over the weekend Saturday on LBJ. The weather was typical for August, HOT!!! Water temps at 80 degrees and water clarity was clear to 4 ft. The lake is fishing very well lately. I fished with Bill Gibbson from the club. The tournament hours were 3:00 AM to 10:00 AM.

The Tournament:

Bill and I met at 2:00 AM and we drove out to the lake and idled the boat the first spot I wanted to fish and set to work. It was dark with zero moon light, I started fishing on an underwater light in the marina. We fished around there for another hour and no other takers, so we headed over to the back of the marina and fished the grass. There was quit a bit of top water action, so I tied on a top water frog and started fishing. A few casts later a large explosion resulted in my frogs disappearance, I reeled up to feel for the weight of the fish and when I felt it, I swung hard to set the hook and the link broke. From the weight of what I felt I'm pretty sure it was a big fish and I never even turned it's head. I tied on a new frog and shook it off. A few casts later I put our first keeper in the boat with the frog. 30 minutes later I caught our second keeper on the frog and a little while later I caught a released a 13 inch bass. At that point Bill decided he wanted to borrow a frog from me since he hadn't packed any. We fished them for a while longer and then decided to hit another spot.



I pulled up on a shallow underwater light in front of some boat docks and made a single cast with a crank bait which was slammed as soon as it entered the soft glow of the light under water. After a brief fight, a 3.11 lb large mouth was put into the live well for our third keeper. We made a few more casts, but no takers. We moved on to the next underwater light and on the first cast to it I hooked into another large bass, it jumped and fought to the point that it pulled off at the side of the boat before we could net it. Bill hooked up next with a crank bait and caught our third keeper. A cast later I caught our 4th keeper from the light and on the next cast caught a 13 inch bass from the light. I let the boat float over the light while measuring the short fish and it pretty much killed the bite there, so we moved on down the bank. We fished some grass with no takers on the frogs and then back to an underwater light. I caught our 5th keeper at that point and it was 5:30 AM when we filled our limit. I only say that because several of the teams in the tournament decided to wait and not fish until 6:00 AM because they were convinced the fish were not biting in the early hours of the night.



We left that area and hit a point with some grass on it. On the first pass around the point we had to big blow ups on the frogs, but couldn't get the bass to take the lures. On the second pass Bill had a fish blow his frog about 2 ft into the air when it hit, but again, no luck getting it hooked up. We one or two more missed opportunities and I decided to try another area where I'd caught a 5 lb fish the weekend before.



We arrived and fished all around the area, but I was only able to manage one short fish about 6 inches long. Unfortunately the school of fish that had been there before were long gone. I decided we should move and hit another spot that had produced the weekend before as well. We arrived to fish another point and started throwing Carolina rigs on the point. After a few drifts across the point I hooked up with a short fish. A drift or two later I caught our 6th keeper and culled out a small fish. A few more drifts along and Bill caught our 7th keeper, but no enough to help improve our weight. A little while later I caught another short fish and then we ran out of time.





Tournament in Review:

We think we caught about 10 bass or more over the morning. Most of the fish were caught on crank baits and frogs. Bill and I caught five keepers going 9.5 lbs putting us in 3rd place. A few missed opportunities kept us from second and possibly 1st place, but that's fishing for ya.

We didn't take any pictures from the tournament, below is a picture of the fish I caught the week before.

Special Thanks:

Thanks go out to my family for letting me take a Saturday to do some fishing.