AUSTIN, Texas – Put 400 of the world’s best bass fishermen on a 19,000-acre lake, which just happens to be 35 feet below normal level, for a week of tour-level tournament fishing, and the inevitable happens: fishing pressure becomes a factor.
This year, in a departure from the annual January opener on Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, FLW Outdoors has headed deep into the heart of Texas in mid-February to kick off the 2007 Wal-Mart FLW Tour season on Lake Travis near Austin.
The change in venue has done its part in keeping FLW Tour pros and co-anglers on their toes.
The water is cold – in the low 50s – and currently Lake Travis is some 35 feet low, which by some estimates has cut much of the fishable water by as much as a third.
And while low water concentrates the fish, it concentrates the fishermen, too.
“Travis normally produces plenty of fish year round,” said Kellogg’s pro Clark Wendlandt. “But fishing pressure is going to be the big X factor this week. I’ve never seen this lake under a siege of 200 boats for an extended period. Exactly how that affects the lake will play a huge role in this tournament.”
Wendlandt himself is feeling just about as much pressure as Lake Travis for this event.
The Texas pro hails from Leander, located just a few miles from the lake. He has fished Travis all his life, and the eyes and ears of his family, friends and fans will be especially attentive to his performance this week.
Normally Wendlandt would take full advantage of his local knowledge, but due to a unique combination of rare conditions, he feels his home-court advantage has vanished into Travis’ dwindling waters.
“I’ve never seen the lake this low, so it’s like a new lake to me,” Wendlandt said Wednesday morning as he sampled Travis’ waters one last time before Thursday’s official competition. 
“Most of my `secret’ spots are 20 feet up on the bank, high and dry,” he quipped.
In addition, Wendlandt says 200-boat tournaments are an abnormal occurrence on Travis.
“Occasionally, there are 50- to 100-boat tournaments on the lake for a one-day event, but nothing like 200 boats fishing it hard for an entire week,” he added. “Combine the extreme low water, making fishing options limited, with the extreme fishing pressure, and I’m looking at a lake I hardly recognize.”
But Wendlandt is not crying the blues about losing his home-lake advantage.
“In a way, it’s been good for me,” he said. “It’s kept me from resting on my home-lake laurels, so to speak. If it was normal pool, I’d be more inclined to take it easy and count on my good spots to produce. But since those areas are squirrel habitat now, I’ve been forced to get out here and put in the hours on the lake during practice like everyone else.”
Despite the low water, pressure and cold, wintry conditions, Wendlandt contends that Lake Travis bass still pattern as well as any bass in the country and that plenty of fish will be caught.
“Travis is a highland impoundment. From a physical-appearance standpoint, it looks like a Beaver Lake without the timber. It has a lot of steep, chunk-rock banks and clear water, and as a result, fish position and pattern with weather changes rather than just using one area no matter the conditions. Varying wind, sun and cloud conditions will position and reposition these fish.”
One look at the steep ledge rock that plunges down some 30 to 40 feet into Travis’ waters, and it’s easy to imagine that a heavy football-head jig, which was a red-hot lure on the FLW Tour last year, will be a factor this week.
“Dragging deep jigs and shaky-head type worms are going to produce,” Wendlandt noted. “But there will also be a fair share of cranking and jerkbaiting going on, too. The key is going to be, being able to read the weather at the present time and knowing what to be doing to fit those conditions.”
“And that’s what I’m struggling with right now,” Wendlandt said, pausing a moment to take in a deep breath of 34-degree air.
“Weather-wise, we’re going to get a little bit of everything over the next few days – cold, clouds, sun and wind – and the pressure is on to get in the groove with such rapidly changing conditions.”