Brookeland, TX (March 23rd, 2024) – Ranger Boats owner Jason Bonds & Derek Mundy are no strangers to high finishes and wins in Texas. Today, at the second stop of the 2024 Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s Texas Team Trail presented by Progressive, the team brought in a ‘Dirty Thirty’ to the scales with a five-bass limit worth 37-13. The duo beat out 204 other TXTT teams, with a total of 410 anglers in the field. For their efforts, the team walked away with over $41,845 in cash and prizes. This included a 2024 Nitro Z-18 with 150hp Mercury motor, a new Garmin graph, Power-Pole Charge system, and Angler’s Advantage cash.
“As impressive as it looks, it was a little bit of a struggle for us. But once we got dialed-in throwing a Carolina Rig with a grub style plastic, and a Crankbait off of a grass edge, things turned around in a hurry to our favor,” said the Ranger Boats and T-H Marine angler Jason Bonds. “The Garmin EchoMapping System is what helped us the most today in targeting specific ‘juice’, without it the work out there would have been much harder.”
The team reported that the afternoon bite proved to be the difference maker for them, with two big upgrades after 2:00pm. They also wanted to give a shout-out to local Sam Rayburn Ranger dealer Premiere Boating Center for helping them stay on the water.
Mercury angler Hayden Heck & Ken Berthelot Take Second and Power-Pole Big Bass
Relying on a big Swimbait and a Crankbait, Grandfather and Grandson team Hayden Heck & Ken Berthelot brought to the scales a five-bass limit worth 35-08 in their Rapala ‘Crush City’ bag, anchored by a 9-14. Winning the Power-Pole Big Bass award, the team took home a new Power-Pole Pro Series II, plus $6,680.00 in cash.
“We were one of the last boats to launch today, so weren’t too sure we were going to get on our spots we found in practice.” said Mercury angler Hayden Heck. “We probably caught fifteen keepers throughout the day and pulled up to one spot that produced two 5-pounders for us; that with the big fish was a major difference for us.”
Hayden reported that the Big Bass came on a big Swimbait tied on with Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon.
“I just want give a big shoutout to Texas Team Trail for putting on such a great tournament. It was really cool to come out here and fish with my grandpa and have such an awesome day.”
Third Goes to Triton owner Marshall Hughes & Cole Stewart
Triton Boats owner Marshall Hughes is a Texas Team Trail champion and no stranger to Top-5 finishes on Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Today he and his partner Cole Stewart weighed-in 29-15 which was good enough for third place and a check worth $4,660.
“Today was all about a Carolina Rig and a big Buckeye Jig. But don’t let our results fool you, we didn’t have a keeper in the livewell until noon. We were able to find an area that still had some pre-spawners in it which gave us a limit. After that we went up shallow and got very fortunate finding two bigger fish on a bed and they just happen to bite.”
Rest of the Top-10
- 4th: Easton Heigley & Blake Schroeder: 26-03, $3,496
- 5th: Austin Quiet & Brian Arabie: 22-09, $2,106
- 6th: Joshua Rodgers & Casey Burleigh: 22-05, $2,552
- 7th: Rusty Miller & Ricky Stephens: 21-05, $2,140
- 8th: Colby Miller & Cole Moore: 20-13, $1,924
- 9th: Will Carstens & Ross Bryant: 20-07, $1,698
- 10th: Mike Ligon & Andrew Galland: 20-01, $1,728
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.
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”