Another round of winter weather, highlighted by subzero temperatures, forced the cancellation of the February 23 event. With much of the lake frozen, the aftermath continued for the March 2 makeup tournament. Cold water and a continuing shad die-off had the bass locked into low gear while also providing a smorgasbord of dead and dying baitfish. The results of the LOZ Toyota Series event proved the tough bite as only one angler out of the entire field was able to boat 15 keepers over the 3 day event. As such, the mantra of “every fish counts” rang true not only for Invitational qualifying points, but also a necessity to find one’s name on the Window World leaderboard.
Joe Bass Team Trail Pro Staff Mark Thompson paired with his daughter Rachel to scratch out a win on a tough day. With only one bite on Saturday’s practice, Team Thompson decided to hunker down on a pair of channel swing banks and keep an A-Rig in the water. Their Window World approach eventually gave them five keeper bites for the day and total of 15.33 pounds. Mark’s Impel Union big bass of the event, a 4.96 pounder, anchored their bag. They also landed the Top Skeeter award as they fished from their 2023 ZXR20 Skeeter.
Jeff Schultz and Chris Baryliski took the runner up spot with the only other 5 fish limit. Their fish pushed the scales to 12.81 pounds. They reported a bite that was scattered throughout the day. Their lure of choice was also an A-rig. Jeff and Chris stayed shallow with their bites coming from the 6’-8’ range.
Kevin Altman, fishing solo for the day, landed the second place big bass that locked the scales at 4.23 pounds. Kevin said the fish was fooled by a Wigglewart in back of a spring fed cove.
Take note!!! Clear Cast Fish Finder Repair Service is now supporting Joe Bass Team Trail. Be sure and visit the Joe Bass website for details for your repair and setup needs!
Peyton Stumpf of Trippple P Custom’s will award a replica fishmount valued at $500 to the winner of the big bass award at this fall’s Truman Invitational. Check out Trippple P for custom painted swimbaits, crankbaits and more!
The final event of the Lake of the Ozarks Division will take place on Sunday March 9 with a 7:30am takeoff from Alhonna Resort. Don’t forget the time change on tournament weekend!
Like us on Facebook & Instagram.
Check out this read from Joe Bass Team Trail’s Bob Capps. You will be glad you did.
Photos
Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout |
| 1 | Mark Thompson – *Rachel Thompson | 5 | 4.96 | 15.33 | 220 | $1,680.00 |
| 2 | Jeff Schultz – Chris Baryliski | 5 | 3.37 | 12.81 | 219 | $518.00 |
| 3 | *fished aalone – Kevin Altman | 1 | 4.23 | 4.23 | 218 | $100.00 |
| 4 | Kason Henderson – Joe Dougherty | 1 | 3.57 | 3.57 | 217 | |
| 5 | Matt King – Cody Yates | 1 | 2.05 | 2.05 | 216 | |
| 6 | Christopher McCellan – Andrew Messina | 1 | 2.03 | 2.03 | 215 | |
| 7 | Mike Smith 2 – Brent Basler | 1 | 1.92 | 1.92 | 214 | |
| 8 | Dallas Stamper – Jason Hollandsworth | 1 | 1.77 | 1.77 | 213 | |
| 9 | Tyler Hermes – Richard Hermes | 0 | 20 | |||
| *Gary StClair – Ryan Jordan | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Joe St.Clair – *fished aalone | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Mike Thomas – Dirk Thomas | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Greg West – *Joey Scott | 0 | 20 |
*alternate