Posted: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 07:42 PM - 11,039 Readers

By: Ray Austin

Welcome to another week of Anglin’ with Austin. I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather we’re having this week.

Van Dam is the man. Kevin Van Dam just pulled the win at another Bass Master Classic. Advanced fishing technologies combined with record setting numbers of anglers has created new challenges in fishing tournaments. Winning a tournament is the ultimate challenge and Van Dam has just won another Classic. His check for the day? Half a million dollars. His career earnings? Over four million dollars. His Bass Master Angler of the Year awards? Five. That makes me want to put glitter all over my boat and start chunking lures again.

In the Bass Champs tournament this past weekend at Falcon, the winning team brought in a five-fish total of 41.9 pounds.

Imagine the nerves at the weigh in of the tournament when the other teams all finished above 40 pounds for five fish.

Four spots, $20K to the winner and $5K to second place and just .34 ounces between the them. I think I’d be the guy at the back of the line that keeps asking to reweigh my fish.

This past full moon weekend, three more share lunkers were added to the Toyota Share Lunker program. The three fish were hauled in on the same day on three different lakes.

The first toad of the day came off of Lake Austin and weighed in at 13.1 pounds. The second fish of the day came from one of my favorite road trips, Lake Amistad. The Amistad lunker weighed in at 13.02 pounds, barely clearing the 13-pound mark and entry into the program. The third monster of the day was hauled in at O.H. Ivie, near San Angelo, and weighed in at 13.03 pounds.

According to reports, the Amistad fish beat my state record largemouth bass by .25 inches in length, measuring 27.5 inches.

Our own Canyon Lake is a good example. It does carry some nice largemouth bass but an angler has to be determined, smart, or just plain lucky to land anything over eight pounds. I’d like to encourage anyone that catches one of these to do CP&R – catch, photo and release. I’ll even put my money where my mouth is.

Between now and August, I’m offering a TopCat-Canyon Lake Largemouth Bass Award to anyone who catches a verifiable largemouth bass that weighs more than eight pounds. Those that qualify will receive an unofficial but official-looking certificate of achievement and (drum roll please) $25 gift certificate from Canyon Tackle Box.

Please visit my Web Site www.TopCatFishing.net for the fine print details and entry information.

Canyon Lake will never be able to match the records set at the Forks, Amistads and Ivies of the state but I’d like to recognize the effort and dedication that goes into catching an equivalent eight pounder. Make sure you have a cloth tape measure in your tackle box because you never know when that monster will tie on.

Caught anything lately? I need pictures of your catches emailed to Ray(at)TopCatFishing.net. These pictures can be of any size or species caught on Canyon, Dunlap, or Placid. Send me your grandson’s three-ounce perch picture - fishing is about smiles, not size.

Canyon Lake

Largemouth bass: Fair throughout the day in 10-18 feet of water over secondary lake points and submerged grasses, using watermelon and green pumpkin colored soft plastics fished Texas or wacky rig and 3⁄8 ounce white and white/chartreuse spinners baits in the back of coves on the upper end of the lake.

Smallmouth bass: Fair through out the day in 6-20 feet of water over rock piles and ledges jigging watermelon seed or pumpkin yabbies (crawfish) and 1⁄2 ounce green pumpkin orange football head jigs with craw or creature trailer is producing up to three pounds.

Striped bass: Good trolling white and shad colored deep crankbaits (DD22, hot lips express) around Jacobs Creek and Potters Creek.

White bass: Good trolling medium running silver or bleeding crankbaits (shad rap, Rapala DT6, DT10) and live minnows in the back of coves and toward the mouth of the river, chartreuse jigs seem to be the dominant color right now.

Crappie: Good through out the day using live minnows and jigs in timber and brush piles in 10-25 feet of water toward the mouth of the river.

Channel catfish: Fair on the edge of creek and river channels using stink bait and cut shad in 5-25 feet of water.

Blue and yellow catfish: Good in river and creek channels using live perch, cut shad, and shad gizzards in 5-30 feet of water.

Lake Dunlap and Placid

Largemouth bass: Fair on Carolina and Texas rigged soft plastics and crank baits.

Channel and blue catfish: good on chicken liver, cheesebait, and cut shad.