The Light and Champion (Center, Tex.), Vol. 138, No. 91, Ed. 1 Friday, November 13, 2015 Page: 14 of 20
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After completing a clean sweep of three Texas Division events earlier in the year,
Texan Ray Hanselman of Del Rio pulled off the unimaginable last weekend when he
won the Rayovac Championship on the Ohio River. Hanselman relied heavily on an
Alabama rig to exploit big smallmouths that were laid up in slack water adjacent to
the strong current of the Tennessee River tailrace below the Kentucky Lake dam.
FLW Photos
by a cushion of more
than seven pounds. When
asked to explain how he
managed to piece togeth-
er a fairy tale tournament
season that played out like
something straight out
of a pipe dream, Hansel-
man said he got back to
the basics, paid attention
to detail and fished his
strengths.
‘To win, you’ve got to
put yourself in position to
win,” he said. “I’ve been
close several times before
this year but I never got
it done. I’ve been fishing
since I was two and guid-
ing 200 days a year for 23
years and I’ve asked my-
self several times why I
struggled so much to win.
This year the schedule set
up so I could really fish my
strengths (power fishing
for big fish). I used good
equipment, kept things
organized, kept my hooks
sharp, didn’t have any me-
chanical failures and I did
my best to be prepared in
every way possible before
every tournament. There
are so many things out
there that you can’t con-
trol, so I did everything
possible to control every-
thing I could.”
Furthermore, Hansel-
man said he fished every
tournament to win and
made a point to steer clear
of dock talk chatter.
“I try not to get in-
volved in all the dock
talk,” he said. “That’s dis-
tracting to me. The key
is to have confidence in
what you are doing and to
execute.”
Not only did Hansel-
man execute. He got on
a big time roll and rode
his hot streak farther than
any other angler before
him. What’s spooky to
think about is the run may
not be over with just yet,
either.
By virtue of his cham-
pionship victory Hansel-
man earned an automatic
bert the 2016 FLW Cup on
Wheeler Lake in Hunts-
ville, Ala. The winner of
that tournament wins
$300,000.
If there is indeed a pot
of gold at the end of the
rainbow, Reelin’ Ray is a
good prospect to find it.
Only a fool would count
him out at his point.
Matt Williams is a
freelance writer based in
Nacogdoches. He can be
reached by e-mail, matt-
willwrite4u@yahoo. com.
r~
7 5-.\ - ■•••
■ 1 «
.... ■"
following his third consec-
utive victory,
“I was blessed,”
Hanselman said follow-
ing the Texoma victory.
“Somehow all of the stars
lined up and everything
went just right at every
tournament. It has to in
order to win against these
guys.”
Amazingly, Hansel-
man kept the mojo flow-
ing right on through sum-
mer leading up to the fall
championship. Interest-
ingly, he did it by keeping
his name off of tourna-
ment rosters and focusing
his mind on taking care of
his family and running his
guide business.
“I just took some family
vacations and fished close
to home,” he said. “There
was a tournament at ‘Ray-
burn that I really wanted
to fish, but I didn’t want to
do anything to risk break-
ing my streak. One of the
things about tournament
fishing is you don’t always
catch ‘em. I didn’t want to
risk having a bad tourna-
ment or doing anything
that might mess with my
head or break my confi-
dence. When you have all
that momentum rolling
you never second guess
your decisions. If you
have bad tournament, it
ruins it. And it seems like
it takes a while to get back
in the groove again.”
Obviously, Hansel-
man’s strategy worked
like a charm. The veteran
angler went to Kentucky
with the same mindset
he tries to carry into ev-
ery tournament - fishing
strictly for big fish and
figuring out a way to fool
them that other anglers
might not catch onto.
Actually, his plan
starting coming together
months earlier when he
purchased a jet drive riv-
er boat so he learn more
about tailrace fishing be-
low the dam at Lake Amis-
tad. Although the Ohio
River and Rio Grande fish-
eries are more than 1,000
miles apart, they have
three things in common
-- lots of current, tons of
rock and plenty of small-
mouth bass.
“I knew we were go-
ing to be fishing a lot cur-
rent, so I wanted to learn
more about how the fish
relate to it,” Hanselman
said. ‘The time I spent
below the dam at Amistad
helped me a lot.”
Hanselman said he
had heard the Tennessee
River tailrace at the base
of Kentucky Lake dam
had a rich history of pro-
ducing big sacks of small-
mouths. He decided to
check it out when he first
visited the river before it
went off limits ahead of
the tournament.
“I wasn’t there five
minutes when I had a big
smallmouth cold trail my
a big swim bait back to
the boat and I immediate-
ly thought, hmmm.....,”
Hanselman said. “I had
another one do it a few
casts later.”
Big smallmouths
weren’t the only thing he
found in the tailrace. He
also found plenty of cur-
rent, some it rushing so
strong that he was unable
to hold his Skeeter steady
with his Minn Kota troll-
ing motor kicked on high
speed.
Thinking he might be
on to something, Hansel-
man returned to area
several weeks later on
the first morning of of-
ficial practice. His part-
ner, Buck Hux of New
Braunfels, caught a five
pounder on the fourth
cast with an Alabama rig.
“We got out of there
immediately and came
back real early the next
morning,” he said. “Buck
caught another five
pounder. At that point we
got out of there for good.”
Still not realizing the
full potential of swift tail-
race system, Hanselman
chose to start the tour-
nament elsewhere. He
didn’t make his way to the
Kentucky Lake dam until
around 9 a.m.
“I honestly didn’t
know what I’d found,” he
said. “I knew there were
a few big fish hanging
around, but I figured I
would need some other
places to just catch some
keepers.”
Hanselman’s opinion
of the tailrace potential
changed on his second
cast of the morning, when
he sacked three plump
smallmouths on his um-
brella rig simultaneously.
Together they weighed
about 10 pounds.
“That’s when I realized
there was a bunch of fish
out there, not just a few,”
Hanselman said.
In the days that fol-
lowed Hanselman nar-
rowed his search area
to three different spots
where underwater rock
outcroppings created cur-
rent breaks flanked by
slack water. That’s where
the thick shouldered
smallmouths would lay
in wait to ambush small
asian carp and other bait
flushed out by the cur-
rent.
“The ideal spot had two
current breaks with slack
water between them,”
Hanselman said. “The
current was really swift.
When that A-rig would
slide off into the slack wa-
ter is when my hair would
stand up. That’s when
they would annihilate it.”
In three days Hansel-
man milked the area for
15 bass that together
weighed 46 pounds, 11
ounces to seal his fourth
consecutive Rayovac win
ML
I
I
ml*
By Matt Williams
Outdoors Writer
Reelin’ Ray Hanselman
is back in the news again
these days, but not just be-
cause of the spanking he
dished out to the 171-an-
gler field in the 2015 Ray-
ovac Championship held
Oct. 29-31 on the Ohio
River in Paducah, KY.
Hanselman, a 42-year-
old big bass specialist
from Del Rio, has been
fishing off the charts all
year long. So far off the
charts, in fact, that tour-
nament buffs around the
globe are having to dig
deep in their encyclope-
dias to find an angler who
has put together a single
season performance more
dominant than Hansel-
man’s recent stint on the
Rayovacs.
Most are still digging.
Hanselman’s champi-
onship win, which earned
him $50,000 in cash,
marked his fourth con-
secutive Rayovac tourna-
ment victory of 2015. It’s
particularly noteworthy
because it placed a bold
exclamation point at the
end what may be the most
phenomenal season ever
recorded since the dawn
of bass fishing tourna-
ments.
Here’s a recap:
Hanselman is an ami-
cable fishing guide who
cut his bass fishing teeth
on Lake Amistad and com-
petes in a few bass derbies
on the side. He has anted
up for nearly three dozen
FLW events on the Tri-
ple A level since the early
2000s and notched Top 10
finishes in 12 of them. Up
until this season, howev-
er, he had never been able
to close the deal and grab
the winner’s trophy.
Then something
clicked.
Then it clicked again.
And again after that.
Hanselman made
headlines all around the
country in 2015 as he ran
the table on the Rayovac
Texas Division field and
put together an unprec-
edented perfect tourna-
ment season, winning
three consecutive regular
season events en route to
qualifying for last month’s
year-end championship.
The dream season got
underway last January
when he won the season
opener on Lake Amistad
with a seven-pound cush-
ion. He followed it up
with another dominating
performance on Sam Ray-
burn in April and earned
his third consecutive win
on Lake Texoma in May.
His total winnings af-
ter three events -- $99,546
- would have more than
doubled with contingency
bonuses had he been run-
ning a Ranger bass boat
instead of his flagship
Skeeter.
Anyone who follows
bass tournaments knows
how hard it is win at this
level, much less string to-
gether several wins back-
to-back, all in the same
season. Hanselman was
understandably shocked
The Light and Chair
Reelin’Ray Hanselman pulls off four-peat with Rayovac Championship win
Outdoors
www.lightandchampion.com
Dream season:
A Nacogdoches Select
11U baseball team
will be holding tryouts for the upcoming
2016 Spring Season on
Dec. 13,2015, starting at 3:00.
Will be looking for all positions on the field, a great
attitude, display of leadership, eagerness to learn and
respect for the game and each other. All players and
parents will be held to a higher standard of excellence.
For more information, please contact Jason
with either a text or call to
936-552-9934
2BI Friday, Nov. 13,20U
East Texas
fishing report
hitting
See FISHING REPORT, Page 3B
By Matt Williams
Outdoors Writer
CEDAR CREEK-Wa-
ter level is at full pool
and stained. Water temp
in the low 70s.
Fishing guide Ja-
son Barber says blue
cat and channel cat are
good up the creeks in
skinny water using cut
shad, punch bait and
night crawlers. Also
some fish hanging on
main lake humps.
Black bass are fair
on jigs, cranks and Tex-
as rigs fished around
docks with brush. Crap-
pie are good around
deeper docks with
brush and offshore
brush piles. Humps
and points are giving
up decent numbers of
hybrids and whites on
slabs.
TOLEDO BEND -
Water level is about
three feet low and
stained. Water temp in
the low 70s.
Charlie Shivley at
Bill’s Landing says cat-
fishing has been good
on stump hooks and tro-
tlines. Several flatheads
in the 40-50 pound range
reported. Rod and reel-
ers are picking up good
numbers of channel cat
along the edges of the
river.
Fishing guide Ste-
phen Johnston says
the best bite has been
shallow around flooded
torpedo grass, mostly
on frogs, swim jigs and
spinnerbaits. In deeper
water try spoons and
drop shots in 20-28 feet
of water. Crappie fish-
ing has been slow with
rising muddy water.
PALESTINE - Water
level is about a foot high
and muddy up north
with lots of inflow. Wa-
ter temp in the low 70s,
upper 60s.
Fishing guide Ricky
Vandergriff says bass
are fair up north around
the islands using spin-
nerbaits and Texas rig
brush hogs. Best bite
down south is com-
ing on Carolina rigs,
square bill cranks and
jigs worked on points
and around docks with
brush. Crappie are fair
under the Highway 155
and 315 bridges. Catfish
are good on punch bait
soaked around baited
holes and on jugs tipped
with perch.
NACOGDOCHES
- Water level is about
2.75 feet low and clear to
stained. Water temp in
the low 70s.
Bass are
cranks, frogs, spin-
nerbaits and swim jigs
worked around shallow
grass up north. Also
some fish taking drop
shots and Carolina rigs
on main lake structure
in deeper water.
Crappie fishermen
reporting partial limits
on shiners around brush
piles.
FORK - Water level is
at full pool and stained to
clear. Water temp in the
low 70s.
Tony Parker at the
Minnow Bucket bass
anglers are reporting a
few fish on square bills
and topwaters fished in
skinny water early. A 12
pounder reported on a
deep crank at the High-
way 154 bridge.
Crappie fishing is ex-
cellent on shiners fished
around bridge pilings,
suspended at 15 feet.
Also some fish showing
up on points around the
dam. No report on cat-
fish or white bass.
SAM RAYBURN-Wa-
ter level is 2.43 feet low
and clear to stained. Wa-
ter temp in the low 70s.
A 13.2 pounder re-
ported last week on a
crankbait in deep water.
Good numbers of fish
still reported shallow
on Texas rigs, Senkos,
frogs and topwaters
worked around shore-
line torpedo grass and
new growth hydrilla,
according to Ann Wil-
son at Ann’s Tackle.
Also some fish reported
around main lake points
and other offshore stuff
in deeper water.
Crappie fishermen
reporting limits around
brush piles using live
shiners.
RICHLAND CHAM-
BERS - Water level is
three inches high and
stained. Water temp in
the low 70s.
Larry Winters at
Midway Landing says
catfish are fair on windy
shorelines using punch
bait. Winters says all
other fishing has been
slow due to fluctuating
water levels.
T
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Snyder, Steve. The Light and Champion (Center, Tex.), Vol. 138, No. 91, Ed. 1 Friday, November 13, 2015, newspaper, November 13, 2015; Center, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1278959/m1/14/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Fannie Brown Booth Memorial Library.