The first tournament of the new West Texas Team Trail (WTTT) was held on Lake Amistad on Saturday, February 9, 2008. A total of 68 teams that entered the tournament showed there was indeed a need for a quality team tournament trail in West Texas.

The weather was absolutely perfect with a cool morning, but warm and clear skies in the afternoon. Light winds let the anglers run anywhere on the lake without any problems. With an off limits period the week of the tournament, the teams went out with a more even playing field and high hopes of learning the patterns quick enough to put some fish in the livewells.

There were a total of 223 fish weighed in for 538.84 pounds. We had a 100% live release and wish to thank two of our sponsors for that feat, Sure-Life Labs and Keep Alive Oxygen Infusors for the donation of their products. The fish were actually so lively after being treated in the release tanks that they were jumping out of the large tanks and into the tanks next to them. We want to thank all the fishermen for bringing in the fish in such great condition. Each team was given a bottle of Catch And Release to treat their livewells. It was immediately obvious that it worked when the fish were trying to jump out of the weigh bags when they were brought to the scales! We also would like to thank the TPWD officer that helped us with the release. He was a true credit to his uniform and agency. He taught several of the entrants how to fizz a fish that is caught in deep water. Now several fishermen have this knowledge to take with them for future use.

The team of Spike Stoker and Justin Stone figured out the deep bite well enough to have 3 beautiful Amistad hawgs in their bag to go with the two 3 pounders they caught and take the first place honors. The father and son team of Bill and Larry Fillmon found a deep bite also and started filling the livewells the very first thing that morning for second place and big bass honors. Our hats are off to these two teams for “taking all of us to school” on Amistad!

We would like to thank Chris Jones and his staff from FLW for their co-operation with us at Amistad. With the East/West Fish-Off taking place at the same ramp as the WTTT, we worked together to make both tournaments run extremely smooth. The fishermen were the main reason everything went so smoothly. Everyone was professional, co-operated with each other and worked together better than I have ever seen where two tournaments are taking place at the same time.

We especially want to thank the sponsors that shared our belief in creating a great team trail in west Texas. These sponsors include Ranger Boats, Evinrude Motors, MinnKota, Humminbird, Stearns, Sospenders, Costlow’s Fishing4insurance, Cannon, GrandeBass, Texas Sidewinder Rods, Sure-Life Labs, Keep Alive, Mad Dog Gear, Yamamoto Baits, River Slung Lures, Amistad Lodge, Ledheadz Custom Baits, Stidham Vinyl Lettering, Xcite Baits and the Brownwood Chamber Of Commerce. Without the generous support of these sponsors, we would not be able to do what we love!

With the large number of teams entered in the trail, we felt it necessary to move our March tournament from Lake Stamford to Lake O.H. Ivie in order to prevent over crowding. Especially when we found out a bass club had voted to hold their club tournament on Stamford, on the same day as our scheduled date. Our next tournament will be on O.H. Ivie, March 8th and will be headquartered out of Elm Creek Village & Marina. For more information and a complete schedule, please visit our website or email thehag@grandebass.com