Yantis, TX (April 13, 2024) – Anglers left the dock at Caney Point Recreation Area to a beautiful Texas sunrise, all with the hopes off conquering Lake Fork, stop #3 of the 2024 Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s Texas Team Trail presented by Progressive. The day presented perfect conditions for fishing up shallow chasing spawning fish, and overall tournament conditions that anglers dream of each event. But when the dust settled and all numbers were calculated, the Lake Fork local team of Steve Hodge & Shawn O’Malley walked away the newest champions of TXTT. The team weighed in a Rapala “Crush City” bag worth 13-04, anchored by a very impressive over-slot-limit fish. For their victory, the team wins a 2024 Ranger Z-518 with 150hp Mercury motor, a new Garmin graph, Power-Pole Charge system, and Angler’s Advantage cash. In total, they team cashed in on $57, 978 in cash & prizes, plus valuable points toward the 2024 TXTT Championship in June on Toledo Bend where, if qualified, they will fish for over $100,000 in cash & prizes.
“We started off the day in an area where we found some fish spawning in a high spot. It was a tough start, because our first three fish we had to throw back [slot-limit]. We then moved around trying to locate a few other areas we knew fish would be bedding but either the fish were gone or were surrounded by boats,” said the winning team. “We then went back to our original starting spot and were able to catch the ‘over’ throwing a white fluke rigged on a EWG Gamakatsu hook. That gave us a lot of momentum, and luckily we just went looking for more fish ‘sight-fishing’ and were able to catch three other keepers.”
The team reported catching their last keeper around 1:30 in the afternoon. Hodge & O’Malley wanted to go on and thank their sponsors, local marine dealership, and all of their supporting friends and family.
Ranger Boat owners Lowell Bennett & Landen Bennett Finish Second, Plus Power-Pole Big Bass
“The big fish came on my son’s first cast of the morning, which made us both sick- but helped us relax knowing catching an over ‘slot’ would help us tremendously,” said Ranger Boats owner Lowell of the father-and-son team. “The rest of the day we just looked up shallow and fished for bedding fish”.
For second place, the team weighed in 12-14 and took home $5,928.00, which included Angler’s Advantage, the $300 Garmin Bonus (awarded to the highest finishing team with exclusively all Garmin electronics), and the Power-Pole Big Bass Award. The Power-Pole Big Bass was a 10-08 Lake Fork monster, and awarded the team a Power-Pole Pro Series II shallow water system.
“The big fish my son caught was on a spinnerbait. But the rest of our bites came on flipping a Strike King Menace onto beds. All of our rods are rigged up with Sunline Shooter Fluorocarbon Line.”
The team also wanted to give a shout-out to the family, especially Lowell’s wife, for allowing them to fish so many tournaments as father-and-son.
Rest of the Top-10
- 3rd: Thomas Martens & Dean Alexander: 9-04, $4,146.50
- 3rd: Cole Mitchell & Connor Theiler: 9-04, $2,386.50
- 5th: Jared West & Joe West: 9-01, $2,692.00
- 6th: Terry Peacock & Scott Dean: 8-14, $2,390.00
- 7th: Shane Howell & William Davis: 8-09, $1,699.00
- 8th: Nick Brown & Byron Chaves: 8-07, $1,585.00
- 9th: Michael Rollert & Gandy Stubblefield: 8-04, $1,437.00
- 10th: James Harrison & Kyle Swearingen: 8-03, $1,558.00
Full results can be found through the link here.
To register for the 2024 Texas Team Trail tournaments, please read the updated 2024 RULES and then follow this link to register today: https://outdoorteamworks.com/trail/txtt/registration/
2024 Texas Team Trail Schedule:
- February 17th Brookeland, TX Sam Rayburn Reservoir
- March 23rd Brookeland, TX Sam Rayburn Reservoir
- April 13th Yantis, TX Lake Fork
- May 4th Corsicana, TX Richland Chambers
- June 8-9th Many, LA Toledo Bend Reservoir – CHAMPIONSHIP
For more information about Texas Team Trail, including sponsor incentives, official tournament results and photos, visit TexasTeamTrail.com. Be sure to subscribe to the e-newsletter to receive all of the up-to-date news and announcements.
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About Texas Team Trail
Texas Team Trail is a part of the Outdoor Team Works family of fishing tournaments. The OTW brand offers a wide range of fishing events from professional tournaments to grassroots fishing derbies. All events are supported by some of the top companies in the nation and include on-site activation and activities, as well as extensive media support. For additional live updates and information, follow TXTT on Facebook and Instagram
2024 Proud Sponsors
Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Progressive, Nitro Boats, Ranger Boats, Triton Boats, Mercury Marine, Aftco, Garmin, Power-Pole, TH Marine, Sunline, Gamakatsu, VMC, Rapala ‘Crush City”