Wieberg and Kleffner Solve Cold Water Delima for 1st!
Rogers and Crist invade LOZ, take 2nd!
Bueltmann and Verhoef cap big weekend in 3rd!
After a prolonged cold snap, keeping temperatures under freezing for several straight days and nights, the weather moderated just in time to melt enough ice for Joe Bass Team Trail to have its third of six regular season tournaments at beautiful Lake of the Ozarks.
Conditions were at their extreme as water temps were in the high 30’s with ice covering much of the 54,000-acre reservoir. This limited the 26 teams to fishing the lower portion of the lake, with many of the north facing coves in the lower end, also being covered with ice. The teams also had to contend with a two-hour fog delay, shortening their time on the water to just 6.5 hours. Given all that mother nature threw at them, this is Lake of the Ozarks, one of the premier fisheries in the country and quite possibly the best winter time Bass fishery around!
Taking the top spot today was the team of Joe Wieberg and Walon Kleffner. The Mercury Ranger sponsored team, like everyone else, had very little pre-fishing time before Sunday’s derby, so Joe and Walon relied on their knowledge of the lake and the quality of their equipment to solve the “Green Fish Puzzle”. Joe and Walon fished from the six mile marker to the dam, finding fish that were willing to bite a Dirk’s jig with a Zoom Critter Craw trailer and a Crock O Gator shakey head with a green pumpkin Zoom Finesse Worm in 25 to 30 feet of water. The Duo relied on their electronics to find fish on transition banks that had not moved shallow, catching over 20 keepers on the day, the teams best 5 weighed in at 17.73 pounds.
Mike Rogers and Donnie Crist made the trip over to Lake of the Ozarks to find fishable waters, as their home lake Pomme de Terre reservoir was frozen solid. The Mercury, Bass Cat, Dave’s Custom Baits, Lyback’s Marine sponsored team traveled down lake below the toll bridge and “slung that A-rig all day” The team was quiet about the baits on the A-rig but the team said they focused on larger rock near deep water. Like the winning team, they culled through 20 plus keepers on the day with their best 5 weighing 16.97 pounds. included in their bag was the Ozark Chevrolet Big Joe Bass weighing 7.02 pounds.
After winning the Bassing Bob Winter Challenge tournament Saturday, the Duo of Rob Bueltmann and Ben Verhoff jumped at the chance to “Sweep” the weekend. The Mercury Phoenix Sponsored team fished from the toll bridge to Dam area focusing on rock transition banks with brush. Rob said you had to fish as slow as you could stand it then slow down some more, but if you could get one to bite you could duplicate the cast and catch several more, as the fish were stacked up.
The team of Rick Fishback and Terry Blankeship had a tough day on the pond but their one fish weighing 3.09 pounds was worth $500.00 for being the Highest finishing Skeeter team fishing out of Rick’s 2017 FX20. Yes, it does pay to fish from a Skeeter!
Our Next Bassingbob.com Lake of the Ozarks tournament is February 18th PB2 7am take off. Host lodging for Joe Bass Team Trail at Lake of the Ozarks is Robin’s Resort (573)348-2275
Photos
Final Results
Place | Team Members | Fish | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout | |
1 | Joe Wieberg – Walon Kleffner | 5 | 17.73 | 110 | $1,190.00 | ||
2 | Mike Rogers – Donnie Crist | 5 | 7.02 | 16.97 | 109 | $660.00 | 1BB |
3 | Robert Bueltmann – Ben Verhoef | 5 | 16.47 | 108 | $460.00 | ||
4 | Scott Danek – Scott Danek Jr | 5 | 16.36 | 107 | $225.00 | ||
5 | David McCormick – Gary Shartzer | 4 | 5.37 | 14.95 | 106 | $341.00 | 2BB |
6 | Chris D’Aquila – Denny D’Aquila | 5 | 4.27 | 13.24 | 105 | ||
7 | Tom McKinnon – Roger Krull Jr | 3 | 5.21 | 10.02 | 104 | ||
8 | Eric Dearduff – *Ed Vasel | 2 | 6.13 | 103 | |||
9 | Brad Jelinek – *Joey Jelinek | 2 | 5.92 | 102 | |||
10 | Corey Fritz – Tim Gallatin | 2 | 3.32 | 5.35 | 101 | ||
11 | Rick Fishback – Terry Blankenship | 1 | 3.09 | 3.09 | 100 | $500.00 | Top Skeeter |
12 | Deno Ek – Eric Lewis | 1 | 1.42 | 1.42 | 99 | ||
13 | Kobe Asberry – William Francis | 0 | 10 | ||||
Bob Bueltmann – Bob Renken | 0 | 10 | |||||
Rusty Darnell – John Campbell | 0 | 10 | |||||
Chris Embry – *Justin Minx | 0 | 10 | |||||
Tim Jones – Jerry Jones | 0 | 10 | |||||
Tim Kube – Steve Galceynski | 0 | 10 | |||||
David Mulkey – Sean Mukley | 0 | 10 | |||||
Edward Nelson – Tony Zaharsky | 0 | 10 | |||||
Nathan Oliver – Jamie Eynard | 0 | 10 | |||||
Nick Polanowski – Kevin Winiger | 0 | 10 | |||||
Bobby Roberts – Cody Carl | 0 | 10 | |||||
*fished alone – Greg Miller | 0 | 10 | |||||
*Josh Bolin – Corey Stewart | 0 | 10 | |||||
Roger Wilson – Andrew Rowe | 0 | 10 |
*alternate