Texas Defeats Oklahoma for Second Straight Year

As the teams of professional anglers awoke for the final days competition at Lago Vista Lodge on Lake Guerrero the Oklahoma held a slim lead over the team from Texas just as they had the year before and the anglers from Oklahoma confidence was high as they were planning on keying on an area that had produced some quality bites early on during the event. However, the Texas team had found a pattern during second day of fishing that they thought would give them the edge over the Okies and both teams were letting the other team know how they felt as the day got started with good natured teasing as they pulled away from the takeoff area intent on winning the event for their respective states.

Recap of Day One

On day one the Oklahoma team of Tommy Biffle and Jeff Reynolds lead all teams with a huge 5 fish limit weighing over 32 pounds to set the pace overall to include Reynolds 10.11 bass that was big fish of the day. Their victory over Cody Bird and Clark Wendlandt and that big fish earned their team two points for the Oklahoma team. However the other two Texas teams tied it up when Mark Pack and Kelly Jordon defeated Harmon Davis and John Sappington and then the Texas team of Mike Hawkes and Wade Middleton knocked off the team of Jeff Kriet and Luke Clausen to leave the overall score tied up.

Recap of Day Two

On day two singles matches were the highlight of the day with team captains Jordon and Kriet each submitting lineups that were not known to the other teams until time to fish and when the dust settled it was Oklahoma taking a 2 point lead over Texas as Reynolds defeated Hawkes by 6.86 pounds, Kriet defeated Pack by 6.73 pounds, Biffle defeated Jordon by 6 tenths of an ounce and Clausen defeated Middleton by 1 pound. However Texas kept it close when Wendlant defeated Davis by 1.92 pounds and Bird knocked of Sappington by over by 5.55 pounds and also earned Texas additional extra point with his 10.55 big bass of the day meaning whichever team won the overall team weight event on the final day would once again be crowned champs. After day two Texas Captain Jordon said “We did what we needed to do today as we expanded our water and made it come down to the final day” Oklahoma captain Kriet said “ We could have closed the door today and won it all as we keyed on that area were all those big fish came from but Bird and Wendlandt came up big for the Texas team to make the final day for all the marbles”.

Final Day Recap

The format for day three called for each team to weigh only their biggest fish from the an eight hour fishing day to combine for an overall team limit. The Oklahoma team was banking on the magic area the produced Biffle and Reynolds big limit on day one while the Texas team had found several key areas and was establishing a pattern where they felt the bigger fish were holding. The action started early for the Texas team and they never looked back after as the two boats with Hawkes, Pack, Jordon and Middleton fished their first area right as the sun came up and they quickly landed three fish in the five pound range and another one about 4 pounds while the Oklahoma teams area began to dry up in regard to getting the bigger bites needed to win that days fishing.

As the day wore on the Texas team gained even more speed as Bird landed a 11.59 giant and Wendlant and Pack followed up with two more over 8 pounds each culling a couple of five pound fish and when it was all said and done the Texas team hit the scales with an impressive group of fish that weighed in at 42.16 pounds of Guerrero lunkers to the 33.95 pounds tallied by the Oklahoma team as Texas ran off with an average fish weight of over 7 pounds the final day.

“We know how to catch big fish in Texas and in the end we proved it” Texas captain Kelly Jordon said. “Our guys really stepped it up again on the final day just like we did last year” said Cody Bird, “Cody and I had a phenomenal day on the last day, our best five weighed over 36 pounds and when Cody caught that 11 pounder all I could do was laugh” Clark Wendlandt. “This lake is awesome! I don’t know how many 3-4 pound fish we caught the final day” Middleton said. “I like all those guys but I sure didn't want to lose to them and we didn’t” Hawkes said. “I wasn’t here last year but I could quickly tell that you didn’t want to lose this event with all the talk that was going on and I’m just glad I got a couple big bites to help out our team” Pack stated.

Oklahoma Team Captain Jeff Kriet said “Hey we caught them great every day and it was tight all week long just like last year but in the end those guys caught the big ones when it really mattered but we’ll be back next year I can promise you that”. “That’s twice now that they’ve beat us on the final day after we’ve lead them and I sure don’t want it to happen again but hey it was fun as you never knew when a ten pounder was going to bite and I’m already ready for next year” Reynolds said. “This was a great trip and while I hated to lose to those guys we did catch a lot of good fish” Biffle said. “They got us again” Sappington said. “I don’t know how they do it but they sure catch the big ones when it matters” Davis said. “I lost a giant on the last day that might have made a difference. This fish took me all over into the brush and I just couldn't do anything with it but you can bet I’ll be fishing that tree next year” Clausen said.

After it was all said and done all the anglers felt Lake Guerrero was really coming back as the anglers reported catching numerous fish in the 3-5 pound range every day on spinnerbaits and soft plastics in 1-8 foot of water. All told in the three day event their were numerous fish over 8 pounds caught to include three fish that weight over 10 pounds and the average weight for the fish brought to the scales was 3.38 with many stories of broken tackle and lost fish in the brush.

Daily Big Bass

Day 1 Keelshield Big Bass Award 10.11 Jeff Reynolds
Day 2 Minn Kota Big Bass Award 10.55 Cody Bird
Day 3 Garmin Big Bass Award 11.59 Cody Bird

Overall Big Bass and Winner of Lago Vista Lunker Award Cody Bird.

The event was hosted by and held out of Lago Vista lodge www.lagovistalodge.com again this year and will be featured on the Outdoor Life Network and various FOX Sports Outlets in the early spring of 2006 on Americana Outdoors and Fishing Texas.
 

Courtesy of the Red River Shootout and Careco Multimedia