Winning Baits & Techniques from TXTT Event #1 on Sam Rayburn!

Brookeland, TX (February 10th, 2025) –The first event of the 2025 Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s Texas Team Trail presented by Progressive at Sam Rayburn is in the books. Sam Rayburn is always notorious for giving anglers great quality fishing early in the year and after a weeklong warming trend the legendary body of water showed out with another 40 plus pound limit.  Riley Harris and Luke Potter reached their winning weight by 9:00AM on tournament day and even elected to weigh-in early.

Both Harris and Potter were relatively calm showing up to the weigh-in early, however, when they asked for two Rapala ‘Crush City’ weigh in bags, those who were surrounding Umphrey Family Pavilion at the time in Brookland, Texas started to wonder what kind of magic they had in their live wells.    After the final weight was recorded they set the bar high and despite numerous 20 plus pound limits nobody else was able to come close to their epic day that was anchored by the Power-Pole ‘Big Bass’ of the tournament which weighed 10-11.

With the advancements and technology today available to bass fishing tournament anglers, everyone would assume immediately that the two young Texas anglers were relying solely on technology to get the job done. But in their post-tournament interview shortly after they weighed in and took dozens of pictures with their very proud families, they revealed that they were not solely focused on using technology.  Starting out the day on a spot that Riley Harris had found in another tournament just a few weeks before the Texas Team Trail event, their goal was to simply catch a limit but with the big pre spawn bass on the move something legendary happened.

“Man, today Luke and I decided to start on that spot I found a few weeks ago, hoping to just bag a limit. But within the first couple of minutes of fishing, we hooked up to an 8-pounder, and shortly after caught another one about the same size,” said Harris. “I didn’t even really think about the total weight we had, we both just kept fishing hard and believe it or not the five fish we caught first with the five fish we weighed in. We continued to sit there on that spot and went onto catch another limit of keepers that probably would have weighed 27- to 28- pounds.”

During post-tournament interviews, the team reported that the spot they had found was not anything out of the ordinary for the time of year on Sam Rayburn. It was a spot that anyone could have found and is in the right area for pre-spawn fish to be relating to in early spring. Both anglers agreed that the fish that they caught were on the move up shallow getting ready for the spawn.

“We caught all of our fish today throwing a 6th Sense 400DD series crankbait”, the team reported. “It may seem out of character to what we see a lot of anglers catching fish on, especially this time of year, but there is always crankbait fish to be caught on Sam Rayburn. Today, it really did not seem to matter about the color, there were so many fish in that area that were reacting to our old-school chunk-and-wind technique. We were prepared to use technology and had other 6th sense baits on the deck prepared to utilize if we needed to. But with the day that we had today, we never got time for had to use it.”

Harris and Potter, for their efforts, walked away with a 2025 Ranger Z-518 boat and motor package, they also collected the $500 Garmin Trolling Motor Contingency Bonus for running a Garmin Force. The team also elected to participate in the TXTT Angler Advantage side pot. In total, they walked away with $56,984 in cash and prizes. In addition to their magical day on the water and big payday, the team also sits in first place in the 2025 Progressive Team of the Year race which will also win another boat to the team leading the team of the year race at the end of the season while also rewarding teams finishing in the top 25 of the team of the year race.

Webb & Lane finish Runner-Up with 25-04

Making the drive from Oklahoma, Glen Webb and Steve Lane weighed in a five-fish limit worth 25–04 to take home second place which earned them$8,577.00  . This included the $500 Garmin Electronic Contingency Bonus for having exclusive Garmin graphs rigged on their boat.

Glenn Webb,who is no stranger to large scale spring tournaments in east Texas having won other major events on Sam Rayburn Reservoir knew the areas he wanted to key in on thanks to that past success. The team did most of their damage using notorious springtime baits, catching seven keepers throughout their day on the water.

“It’s springtime, and it’s Rayburn. I don’t want to say we did anything old school, but we caught all our fish, throwing a jerkbait and an Alabama rig through areas I had found in practice that have fish, and I knew about from previous times being here”, said Garmin owner Glenn Webb.

I’ve gotten pretty dialed in on the electronics game that anglers have to utilize to do well in tournaments this time of year during today’s tournaments. It was just a matter of my partner and I rotating between an Alabama rig with 20lb Sunline Sniper fluorocarbon and a jerkbait to catch the fish we had. The area we were in seemed like the fish were very aggressive and feeding, which tells me that Rayburn is fixing to absolutely explode. But knowing that a 41-pound bag won this tournament, it’s hard to say that Rayburn is not exploding right now.”

Webb & Lane reported that their bites primarily came on an Alabama rig and a few key culls came on the Megabass 110+1 jerkbait when they were looking at fish following the Alabama Rig on Garmin LiveScope but wouldn’t commit. Webb utilizes one screen on the front deck of his boat rigged on a BeatDown Outdoor “The Ultimate” graph mount.

The team also wanted to give a big shout out to their families and supporting friends who help them stay on the water to have fun during tournaments.

“We are kind of old-school guys if you think about it. Although I have won some big tournaments and put myself in a position to be seen as an angler that can be a threat at any tournament, my goal is to just go fishing and have fun. I work during the week to support my family and help fuel the fire of what I like to do on the weekend, which is fish. If I’m not fishing, I’m with my family, life is simple”, said Webb during weigh-in.

Heck & Adams Take 3rd with 23-06

No stranger to coming to the TXTT scales with 20 plus pound limits and cashing checks thanks to those catches is Hayden Heck. This time on Sam Rayburn, he and his partner Milton Adams came to the scales with a five-fish limit weighing 23–06. This was good enough for a 3rd place finish and another TXTT Top 5 for Hayden.

“Last year I got a Top 5 finish at a TXTT event on Rayburn using a big glide bait. But right now, the fish are just a little bit deeper, and we were catching them doing what people consider now to be old school, but something you never want to be on an east Texas lake without, and that is a deep crankbait.”

Hayden and Milton reported catching their fish on a 6th Sense Crush DD series crankbait and a Berkley Dredger crankbait.

“I am truly happy with how the day played out, this lake is a special place and it’s getting right out there.”

They take home a check worth $4,846.00

Rest of the Top 10:

4.) KELSEY THOMPSON & COLE MOORE              22-14     $3,777.00

5.) WYATT FRANKENS & SHAINE CAMPBELL       22-09     $3,123.00

6.) ANTHONY FERDINANDO & SHANE LOGAN      21-15.  $2,585.00

7.) MICHAEL CLEMENTS & BJ TARR                      21-07     $2,315.00

8.) JEFF BRIDGES & GARRETT HILTON                 21-04     $1,776.00

9.) BRETT TAYLOR & BRUCE TAYLOR                   20-05     $1,647.00

10.) BRIAN SCHOTT & JIM SMITH                           20-00     $1,479.00

10.) CLAYTON BOULWARE-CHRIS MCCALL         20-00     $1,479.00

Full results can be found by clicking this link.

7th Place team Michael Clements & BJ Tarr won an additional $250 bonus in Nitro Rewards Cash for having a Nitro Contingency Bonus eligible Nitro ZXL 21.

The next stop of the 2025 Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s Texas Team Trail presented by Progressive is on Lake Texoma in Kingston, OK on Saturday, March 8. Registration is still open for teams wishing to enter. The cost is $275 plus a $50 membership fee for each team member participating. Teams will need to pay memberships who did not fish the first event this past weekend on Sam Rayburn Reservoir. In addition, anglers can join the additional anglers advantage side pot. Registration can be done here.

The TXTT event on Lake Texoma will be hosted by West Bay Casino and resort. A special room discount Is being offered to anglers fishing the event using the code BASS25 and registering through this website. Limited rooms are available, so anglers are encouraged to book their rooms in advance now!!!

2025 Texas Team Trail Schedule:

  • February 8th – Brookeland, TX | Sam Rayburn Reservoir

  • March 8th – Kingston, OK | Lake Texoma

  • March 29th – Many, LA | Toledo Bend Reservoir

  • May 3rd – Belton, TX | Belton Lake

  • June 7-8th – *CHAMPIONSHIP* Brookeland, TX | Sam Rayburn Reservoir