An overcast day presented great fishing conditions, not necessarily good biting conditions.

The Team of Elton Brock and Jason Geesey brought a five fish limit to the scales that weighed 15.19 lbs with a 4.14 lb kicker. Good enough for first place and a check for $712.

At safe light we headed to the Dam area, and there were about 20 boats competing for the water there, we caught a couple of non-keepers and decided to leave the crowd. We headed to the mid lake area and were looking for bream beds, finding those in the coves we were able to catch some additional fish that would be great fish anywhere else but were just short of 16 inches. As the morning progressed, we moved to the boat docks where we landed the majority of our keepers with brush hogs. We left a few in the lake that got tangled up or broke off, but overall, it was a great day with lots of fish being caught. The presentation was the key – very slow and had to coax them into biting, with multiple casts. 

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Second place went to the local Team of Brian Jones and Matt Russell. Also with five fish that weighed 14.47 lbs. They also had the big fish of the event that went 4.29 lbs.

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The next NE/SE Region tournament will be at Toledo Bend on May 30, 2026.

Brent Stafford
(832) 922-5510

Waco, TX

The North Central T.B.O.T.T. was greeted with warm and slick calm conditions at take-off April 18^th providing the smoothest run of the day.

The weather forecast and weather apps had a shift in conditions late in the 1^st hour after calling boat numbers.   Winds were forecasted to turn out of the NW 15-20 as an April cold front approched – NOT!   The  NC Team field of tournament anglers faced sustained winds of 23 mph with gust up to 37 mph as the day grew longer in the tooth.   It would demand accurate and calculated casting the rest of the day with skilled boat navigation and a guaranteed wet ride regardless of boat make and model. 

Eric Tapia and Steve Shows had a memorial day on the water in 2 key areas (holding on) targeting wind-blown rocky points with jerk baits and crawl cranks.  Once the winds really kicked in and the bite slowed down they finished up focusing on 4 to10ft depths where there was no wind presenting shakey heads, TRD’s and boated their biggest bass at 5.79 lbs on a brush hog.   They took home $ 360.00 and a 3^rd place finish.

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Rob Paxton and Dan Beard had a great day on Wacky Waco.   As the bite slowed and the winds got faster they used chicken rigs, big TRD’s and Senkos also in 4 to 10 ft of water.   Their method was to move baits very slowly.   It paid off with a sack of 5 weighing in at 19.31 lbs anchored by the biggest fish on the day tipping the scale to 7.32 lbs   Big Bass and 2^nd earned them $890.00   

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James Seymore and Casey Garcia fished up the North Bosque and main lake coves targeting laydowns and standing timber flipping a variety of baits and dragging big worms to take home $1,340.00 1^st place money with 19.52 lbs that included a 6.61 pounder. 

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Congrats to the winners and all that dealt with the strong winds.

Paxton and Beard take over the region team points lead with our last stop of the North Central Texas Bassmaster Open Team Trail on Lake Whitney May 9^th next month.

Tight Lines!

David Rosenquist
Texas Bassmaster Open Team Trail
North Central Region Director