There was no catching Keith Combs on the final day of the Tawakoni PAA Tournament Series in Texas. The 3-year FLW Tour pro, fishing in his home state, caught a final-day bag that threatened to surpass his tournament-best day-1 haul and prevailed by more than 14 pounds.
The Del Rio resident caught a 22.43-pound stringer for a final total of 60.48 (a new Series record). Todd Auten, who started the day trailing Combs by a little more than 4 pounds, finished a distant 2nd after a 12.27 sack boosted his total to 46.25.
Randall Tharp boxed 18.97 to move up eight places into the No. 3 slot with 43.88. Takahiro Omori dropped one spot to 4th after a 13.25 bag left him with a 43.42 aggregate.
Edwin Evers, the winner of last month's PAA event at Norman, completed the Top 5 with an 11.96 sack today and a 40.63 total.
Here's a look at the final Top 10:
1. Keith Combs: 60.48
2. Todd Auten: 46.25
3. Randall Tharp: 43.88
4. Takahiro Omori: 43.42
5. Edwin Evers: 40.63
6. Bryan Thrift: 40.33
7. Bradley Hallman: 38.87
8. Gary Clouse: 37.81
9. Mark Menendez: 37.21
10. Tommy Biffle: 35.08
The event was the third on the four-tournament schedule, but represented the final chance for anglers to qualify for next month's Toyota Texas Bass Classic via the Series. The TTBC guarantees berths to the Top 15 from the PAA Series, the Bassmaster Elite Series and the FLW Tour.
Combs said his substantial lead allowed him to fish more methodically, and that was important.
The big bags caught by Combs and Tharp not withstanding, overall weights were down today – likely due to the immense pressure the fish have received over the past week. Tawakoni isn't all that big to begin with (slightly over 36,500 acres) and fished smaller than that due to a shortage of available cover brought on by low-water conditions.
Great Week for Combs
The tournament was sort of a dreamlike-experience for Combs, who notched the biggest win of his career. If his day-2 weight were thrown out, he still would've won by about half a pound.
"It's been an awesome week for me," he said. "I didn't expect to have that kind of weight the first day (24.40), or again today. I didn't get many bites, but the ones I did get were big.
"It's especially nice because it came against a very tough field – guys from the (FLW) Tour, the Elites and all the top sticks from north Texas. It's my biggest payday ever and it feels good that it came against this caliber of fishermen."
There were no giants in his bag today, but he weighed nothing under 3 1/2 pounds. The quintet he brought to the scale were all enticed by a black and blue Oldham's jig.
He finished off his limit at 11:30 and culled one time after that.
"I didn't have a lot of water to fish so I keyed in on docks, and there ended up being about five good ones with deeper water around them and a lot of brush. I just stayed with the places where I was getting bites and kept going back again and again and fishing very slow.
"The big lead I had allowed me to fish slowly, and I think that was important."
Details of his winning pattern will be posted soon.
2nd: No Gripes from Auten
Partly because he was beaten so soundly, Auten had no complaints about his runner-up finish.
Todd Auten started and ended the day in 2nd place, but his deficit grew considerably due to Combs' huge bag.
"I feel pretty good," he said. "Keith whacked them pretty hard today, and I'd rather get beat real bad like that than by ounces. He just had a phenomenal week, with two bags over 20 pounds."
He'd been catching about 10 keepers a day, but was limited to six today. His bag was topped by a 4-pounder.
"I fished points and stuff down the lake – any kind of isolated structure. Out of the 10 points I was mainly fishing, three or four had rock and a couple had stumps, and on the second day I caught five keepers off one dock."
His primary bait was a half-ounce Santone Trembler vibrating jig with a Zoom Speed Craw trailer.
"If you found an area where you got a good bite, you could usually come back later and catch another fish or two."
3rd: Late Rally by Tharp
Tharp didn't do much differently than on the other 2 days, but he got more bites and put more of them in the boat. He connected with 15 fish and landed all of them.
"It had been taking me until 9:00 to catch my first fish, and today I was culling by that time," he said. "I got off to a good start and just kind of rolled with it."
His first fish was a 5 1/2-pounder and he added a 4 at his second stop. The smallest fish he weighed was about 3 pounds.
"I'm pleased because I was not on the fish to compete with Keith – he was dialed in. I thought 15 pounds a day would have a chance to win this thing, and I think a lot of us were shocked by what he caught the first day."
Randall Tharp moved up eight places today with a bag that was just shy of 19 pounds.
He concentrated on docks and isolated wood. He caught one weigh-in fish on a crankbait and the others all bit a green-pumpkin Big Bite Baits YoMama.
4th: Omori Feels Good
Omori was happy about his finish on his first visit to a venue that lies just a half-hour's drive from his home in Emory.
"I'll take it," he said. "I feel good about it. I didn't expect to do very good this week, according to my practice."
He caught 10 keepers today, which was more than either of the previous 2 days. One was a 4-pounder and he lost one about that same size.
"That was the only fish I lost in 3 days. I feel good because I fished a clean tournament."
He worked docks, points, lily pads and any isolated wood he could find with Lucky Craft RC 2.5 and RC 1.5 crankbaits in sexy shad or chartreuse perch.
5th: Evers Missed Chances
Evers followed up his Norman win with a Top 5 here. But from an execution standpoint, it wasn't pretty.
"I had a chance to do real good, but I lost some good fish," he said. "I'm a little disappointed about that, but that's part of the game when you're flipping docks.
He caught four of his five weigh-in fish on day 1 off a single stump, but all the rest for the tournament came off docks in 3 feet of water or less. He threw the new XCalibur XCS 300 square-billed crankbait and flipped a Yum Mighty Bug.
The Final Top 30
1. Keith Combs -- 60.48
2. Todd Auten -- 46.25
3. Randall Tharp -- 43.88
4. Takahiro Omori -- 43.42
5. Edwin Evers -- 40.63
6. Bryan Thrift -- 40.33
7. Bradley Hallman -- 38.87
8. Gary Clouse -- 37.81
9. Mark Menendez -- 37.21
10. Tommy Biffle -- 35.08
11. Jeremy Grandstaf -- 35.05
12. Craig Dowling -- 34.03
13. Cody Bird -- 33.46
14. Sean Hoernke -- 33.22
15. Jason Christie -- 33.20
16. Harley Brigman -- 32.21
17. Lance Vick -- 31.66
18. Stephen Johnston -- 31.24
19. Rob Burns -- 30.40
20. Greg Hackney -- 30.22
21. Dave Lefebre -- 30.01
22. Patrick Pierce -- 29.90
23. Duke Jenkel -- 27.98
24. Aaron Martens -- 27.71
25 -- Paul Elias -- 26.64
26. John Crews -- 25.87
27. Gary Klein -- 24.98
28. Brian Travis -- 24.50
29. Joe Gerard -- 24.43
30. Todd Faircloth -- 22.69
