day-3 The third time was the charm for Willis, Texas pro Russell Cecil, who returned to Sam Rayburn Lake after two previous disappointing tournaments and cashed the winner's check. (Photo by Vince Meyer)This one didn't get away Despite a tough final day, Cecil hangs on for Stren Series win By Vince Meyer - 21.Mar.2009 JASPER, Texas – Twice before Russell Cecil saw victory vanish on the final day of a tournament on Sam Rayburn Lake. This year he made sure the big one didn’t get away. The seven-year pro from Willis, Texas took a 7 pound, 4 ounce lead into the final day of the second Stren Series Texas Division tournament of the season and made it hold up despite a shaky final. But Russell doesn’t care how he got the job done, just that he finally got it done. “Funny,” he said, “last year on the last day I caught 20 pounds and didn’t win. This year on the last day I caught 11 pounds and won. You just never know with fishing.” Russell’s three-day weight of 58 pounds, 11 ounces earned him a check for $25,000 and a fully-rigged Ranger boat worth $65,000. He held off a hard charge by Scotty Villines of Ponca, Ark., who couldn’t overcome a tough first day (14-3) despite a massive 25-pound sack on day two and a 14-9 sack on day three. Had Villines overcome his lead Russell might well have chalked it up to a his typical Rayburn luck. Before losing here last year to Dicky Newberry by 1 pound, 12 ounces, he was disqualified in 2007 for bringing six fish to the docks. This year he got redemption, but it wasn’t easy. “I sure didn’t catch ’em today,” Cecil said. “It got tough on me. I guess I didn’t make the right adjustments today.” So didn’t a lot of other guys as the tournament wore on. Despite a warming trend and massive in-shore movements by bass, many anglers reported a tough bite. None of the pros topped the 20 pound mark, which was the standard to be measured by on the first two days. For some reason, the water near shore got murkier, despite a complete lack of rainfall. Some theorized that an algae bloom is underway. For a sight fisherman that makes it tough, and Cecil was intent on sight fishing at this tournament. He did it for the first two days, but changed gears on Saturday when he thought the near-shore fish had been worked over too hard. So he threw a Rattle Trap instead and brought 11 pounds, 14 ounces to the scales, seventh best among pro contestants. So he won the tournament on the first two days with a combined weight of 46 pounds, 13 ounces, which was too much for the others to overcome. Cecil said his primary area got crowded as the week went on. He pulled his limit early the first day and got out of there to avoid drawing a crowd, but others soon found the spot, including, Cody Bird, who finished 20th, and Scotty Villines, who finished second. “It was murderers row in there,” Cecil said. “I thought, ‘This isn’t good.’ ” But the spot effectiveness was illustrated by the fact that he returned on Day 2 and had 18 pounds in the livewell by 10:30 a.m. He finished the day with 23 pounds, 9 ounces. “But when I saw what Scotty weighed (25 pounds, 6 ounces) I thought it was over,” Cecil said. His best bait all week was a Big Bite swimming minnow. Villines makes it close Scotty Villines of Ponca, Ark. started the day in second place and that’s where he finished, though he did make a good run at Cecil with a 14 pound, 9 ounce bag on Day 3. “I knew I was around the fish, but I just wish I could have gotten them to go the first day,” said Villines, whose three-day bag totaled 54 pounds, 2 ounces. In practice he used a Wacky Worm and found a lot of big fish near stumps. But on the first day they were gone. But his co-angler that day was fishing the other side of the boat in deeper water and pulled 16 pounds, which Villines used to his advantage. “I tied on a fluke and and put the hurt on ’em,” he said, referring to his 25-pound sack on Day 2. “I did some sight fishing when I saw a good one, but mostly I was fan casting while looking for fish.” A white baby fluke was his best bait. Johnston’s best-day bag isn’t enough Stephen Johnston of Hemphill, Texas admits he’s not much of a sight fisherman. He spent the entire tournament working away from the bank and that may have cost him a few pounds. But on Saturday he weighed the heaviest bag among all pros, 17 pounds, 13 ounces, which he caught using a Carolina rig with a 6-inch lizard. He finished the tournament with 52 pounds, 4 ounces. “I really like a Texas rig,” he said, “ but I had to put it down today and drag that Carolina rig. I got on my butt seat, slowed down and took my time. It was a struggle today.” Another sight fisherman takes fourth Andy Gaia of Tomball, Texas sight fished all week and said caught 30 keepers during the week using a craw worm. He said in some instances he spent too much time working individual fish and probably should have kept moving. “My biggest fish I lost yesterday with about 10 minutes to go,” he said. “So I went back there this morning and caught it in the dark.” He wrapped up the tournament with 51 pounds, 15 ounces. Lupe Garcia makes the most of long trip here “This lake is great,” said fifth-place finisher Lupe Garcia, who weighed 51 pounds, 10 ounces in three days. “I just wish I didn’t live nine hours away.” The Springdale, Ark. pro made the most of the long journey to Sam Rayburn by cashing a check for $6,000. He also picked up an additional $450 for the big bass of the tournament, a 9 pound, 3 ounce behemoth he caught on Day 2. On Day 3 if he could have had one half that size it would have improved his finish considerably, as he weighed 13 pounds, 4 ounces and finished fifth. “When I got here everybody said the Rattle Trap bite was over,” said Garcia, who used the bait almost exclusively this week. “But I caught almost 25 pounds with it yesterday. But I’m not fishing bank fish. I’m fishing ridges.” Rest of the best 6th: Todd Castledine, Nacogdoches, Texas, 50-9 7th: Charles Bebber, Willis, Texas, 48-12 8th: Toby Hartsell, Livingston, Texas, 46-11 9th; Wade Grooms, Bonneau, S.C., 45-14 10th: Robert Baney, Montgomery, Texas, 45-4 Co-angler winner calls win “magical” After a top 10 finish here last year, Randy Hicks of Lumberton, Texas won his first tournament with a three-day weight of 46 pounds, 3 ounces, 15 ounces better than Rusty Harvey’s second place weight. By the time Hicks took the stage he needed 8 pounds, 9 ounces to win, and his Day 3 catch of 9 pounds, 7 ounces made it a lot closer than anybody expected. It was his Day 2 catch of 26 pounds, 9 ounces that won the tournament. For that he used a red Excalibur Rattle Trap he’s had in his tackle box for years. “It’s old school,” Hicks said, but after years of trying all other colors I thought, ‘You know, I’m going back to what I used 20 years ago.’ ” But everybody was throwing Rattle Traps, and probably more than a few were using red. It was Hicks’ special technique that he credits for its effectiveness. “You had to hold your rod tip high,” he explained, “and just reel it across the top of the grass. When you felt something you had to jerk it to get it out of the grass. And that’s when I got the bites.” His other good lure was a splitshot-rigged fluke he calls “my beggin’ rig. If I’m throwin that I’m beggin’ for a fish,” he said. Hicks, who works as an insurance agent in Lumberton, Texas, rigged all his baits on Stren Magnathin monofilament line. Rest of the best 2nd: Rusty Harvey, Nederland, Texas, 45-4 3rd: Keith Honeycutt, Temple, Texas, 38-6 4th: Stephen Francis, Brookeland, Texas, 37-6 5th: Kevin Carter, Spring, Texas, 35-11 6th: Will Welch, San Angelo, Texas, 32-12 7th: Joe Embry, Tyler, Texas, 30-10 8th: Claude Rabb, Vidalia, La., 30-5 9th: Steve Hope, Ovilla, Texas, 29-7 10th: Bob Snyder, Marion, Ind., 28-2