This past weekend, the Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s Texas Team Trail presented by Progressive completed it’s 2025 regular season on Belton Lake in central, TX. Following the trend that’s occurred throughout the 2025 season, anglers were met with another dose of weather obstacles. Friday, right before the tournament registration opened at Belton Lake Outdoor Recreational Area, a late spring cold front with heavy rain and winds hit the area. Before the front rolled through on Friday afternoon, reports from anglers were that the fishing was very good and big weights were expected. However, like most post-frontal conditions, the anglers were faced with a difficult bite and bigger bites were hard to come by on tournament day.

1st Place: Cole Moore & Cody Pitt, 19-03

One of the more consistent teams in 2025, Louisiana anglers Cole Moore and Cody Pitt brought to the scales a Rapala ‘Crush City’ bag worth 19-03 of Belton Lake smallmouth and largemouth. For Moore and Pitt, this victory is coming off the momentum they gained at Toledo Bend Reservoir back in March where they earned another Top 3 finish.

“Taking home the win back to Louisiana is really special,” said Moore. “We did have to miss one tournament this season, so winning this event should get us into the [TXTT] Championship next month on Sam Rayburn. That is a lake we do not live too far from and have a lot of history on.”

During the final interview, the team noted that practice was really good, and not much changed for them during the tournament. However, it did seem to be more difficult to catch better-quality fish.

“We caught probably 20-30 keepers today”, said Pitt. “It was a fun day for never being here. We got on a little milk run and everywhere we ran to we would upgrade little by little to find the weight we did.”

Alabama Rigs and Crankbaits were what the team reported doing catching all their fish on.

For the win, the team took home a 2025 Nitro Z-18 boat package, Angler’s Advantage side pot, and the $200 T-H Marine Atlas Jack Plate contingency bonus: totaling $52, 890.00 in cash and prizes. Most importantly, the win moved the team to 28th place in 2025 Progressive Team of the Year points and qualifies them for the 2025 TXTT Championship on Sam Rayburn Reservoir in June.

The team wanted to give a shout out to Shimano rods and reels for all of their support.

Burns & Nash Take Second with 16-09

Going into the final regular season event of the 2025 TXTT season on Belton Lake, the young Texas team of Ben Burns and Ian Nash were leading the 2025 Progressive Team of the Year race. They left the lake by growing that lead by finishing in 2nd Place at Belton Lake.

Belton Lake did not seem to present as much of a challenge to the young Texas team of Burns and Nash who reported catching multiple fish throughout the day, and their five quality bites were the ones they needed to take the Top 3 finish.

“We honestly caught fish all day, we found an area we knew we could get bites in during practice, and we just stuck to it throwing baits that we knew would generate a lot of bites,” said the SFA college angler Ben Burns.

“I primarily focused on fishing brush piles and trees with the Garmin LiveScope, but Ian scooped several bites behind me finesse fishing and just throwing out. And then we caught a bonus big fish on a 6th Sense Flush 5.2”.

The team reported their primary baits were a 6th Sense Strobe Minnow on a dropshot, 6th Sense Flush 5.2, and Neko rig with a 6th Sense Bamboosa worm.

For second place the team takes home a total of $6,672.00 in cash. The team would also like to thank Falcon Rods ands 6th Sense for the support they give, in addition to their friends and family.

Whited & Larson Finish in Third

Living not too far away from Belton Lake, Charles Whited and JJ Larson came to the TXTT scales with a five fish limit worth 16-03 and took home a payday worth $4,004.00 for their efforts.

“Shad spawn, shad spawn, shad spawn,” report Whited. “We are pretty much locals to Belton [Lake] and we have been fishing tournaments almost every weekend up until the TXTT. We’ve taken a win, this tournament gives us another Top 5 finish, and I think our lowest finish thus far this year is 20th, so the lake is treating my partner and I well”.

Charles reported that he and JJ related to the strong shad spawn happening throughout the area they were in. They didn’t move to many locations, but stayed where they saw lots of bait because they knew the quality fish were there.

“It wasn’t too hard to catch fish today, but the shad were the key. We did not really have to utilize electronics much. We were able to just go fishing,” said Whited.

The team reported catching one big fish on a 6th Sense Hangover Swimbait, and then caught the rest of their fish on a creature bait and 6th Sense 400DD all rigged on Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon. The team wanted to thank 6th Sense, Waterland Sunglasses, Pecos Outdoors, and JKS Cattle & Land for their support and helping them stay on the water.

Power-Pole Big Bass (TIE): Gunner Durrett & Randy Despino/ Bo Fea & Wyatt Withers – 5-08

The Power-Pole ‘Big Bass’ Award ended in a tie with both teams Gunner Durrett & Randy Despino along with Bo Fea & Wyatt Withers landing a 5-08 Belton Lake bass. Each team goes home with a Power-Pole Pro Series II shallow water anchor system.

Garmin Contingency Bonus: Steve Daniels & Jason Brunett – $500 Garmin Trolling Motor, Calan Cameron & Jake Inderman – $500 Garmin Exclusive Electronics

5th place team of Steve Daniels & Jason Brunett took home an extra $500 for being the highest finishing team that had a Garmin Trolling Motor on their boat.

7th place team Calan Cameron & Jake Inderman cashed in on an additional $500 check for being the highest finishing team with exclusive Garmin graphs

Nitro Rewards Contingency Bonus: Calan Cameron & Jake Inderman – $500

Nitro Boats owner Calan Cameron and his partner Jake Inderman took home $500 in Nitro Rewards cash for capturing a Top-10 finish at Belton Lake. Calan is the owner of a 2025 Nitro Z20XL and reported during the end-of-tournament interviews that the Nitro Rewards, Ranger Cup, and Triton Gold contingency program at TXTT is a major reason why he ultimately bought a Nitro this season.

The Nitro Rewards, Ranger Cup, and Triton Gold Contingency Bonus program awards all anglers fishing the TXTT tournaments owning a 2022 or newer Nitro, Ranger, or Triton boat with a 200hp+ motor up to $10,000 for a tournament win, $500 for finishing 2nd-10th, and $125 for finishing 11th-25th.

Final Notes:

# of Teams Fished: 143

# of Five-Bass limits weighed in: 88

Total amount of Cash & Prizes awarded: $89,512.02

Full results from Belton Lake can be found here.

The next event is the 2025 TXTT Championship on Sam Rayburn Reservoir. The Top 75 teams from Progressive Team-of-the-Year points will qualify for the event. Teams at the championship will be competing for a 2025 Nitro Z-18 boat package for the tournament, and a 2025 Ranger Z-520 boat package for the Team of the Year title. In addition, TXTT will award cash and prizes to the Top 25 team in TXTT Progressive Team of the Year points.

About Texas Team Trail

Texas Team Trail is a part of the Outdoor TeamWorks family of fishing tournaments. The OTW brand offers a wide range of fishing events from professional tournaments to grassroots fishing derbies. All events are supported by some of the top companies in the nation and include on-site activation and activities, as well as extensive media support. For additional live updates and information, follow TXTT on Facebook and Instagram

2025 Proud Sponsors

Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Progressive, Nitro Boats, Ranger Boats, Triton Boats, Mercury Marine, Aftco, Garmin, Power-Pole, TH Marine, Sunline, Gamakatsu, VMC, Rapala ‘Crush City”, Gemini G2, BeatDown Outdoors