A new season brings a new tournament director, Rocky Carden, to the Table Rock Division sponsored by Chompers. A strong warming trend preceded the kickoff event, and forecasted strong winds associated with an approaching front fueled the optimism for the 61 teams that launched at Ahoy’s in search of daily bragging rights and valuable qualifying points for the Joe Bass Invitational to be held Stockton Lake next fall.
Coming out on top of the season opener was the team of Blake Curtis and Matt Brown. Their bag pushed the scales to a staggering 21.26 pounds. Their limit was anchored by the second big bass of the event, a 6.94 toad. Blake and Matt shared their Chompers Key to Success involved working a jerkbait super slow on windy points up the White River. The pair culled through 9 keepers to amass their winning weight.
Blake Smith and Bryan Badock took the runner-up position. They brought 20.19 pounds to the weigh-in. Slinging an umbrella rig, Blake noted they had their limit by 7:30. Things slowed after the wind picked up, as it took the remainder of the day to glean through 8-9 keepers to upgrade to their final five fish limit. The duo padded their take home pay with Top Skeeter honors as they fished from Blake’s 2021 FXR21.
Local sticks Mark and Mike Fann rounded out the top three. With years’ worth of experience on which to formulate a game plan, they picked the umbrella rig as the tool of choice to boat a solid 18.52 tournament limit. They narrowed their search down to familiar areas, concentrating on what they dubbed a “deep-n-steep” pattern.
Marcus McCaffrey and Austin McCracken started the year off with a bang as they wrestled the Ozark Chevrolet Big Bass from Table Rock’s water. Their kicker, a giant 7.46 pound largemouth, fell to an umbrella rig worked slowly along a 12-15’ rock bank being hammered by the strong winds.
Special thanks to Catch Em All Bait & Tackle for signing on to the Joe Bass Save A Receipt program. An added bonus is they’ve offered a 10% discount for Joe Bass anglers presenting a Table Rock weigh-in slip to the Cape Fair tackle shop. Be sure and keep your receipts for a chance at $1000 at the Joe Bass Invitational this fall at Stockton.
The next Joe Bass Table Rock derby will be Saturday April 2nd with a 6:30 am takeoff from Ahoy’s.
Photos
Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout |
| 1 | Blake Curtis – Matt Brown | 5 | 6.94 | 21.26 | 220 | $2,690.00 |
| 2 | Jake Smith – Bryan Badock | 5 | 6.24 | 20.19 | 219 | $1,620.00 |
| 3 | Mike Fann – Mark Fann | 5 | 4.49 | 18.52 | 218 | $980.00 |
| 4 | Aaron Hodge – James Bailey | 5 | 4.31 | 18.43 | 217 | $500.00 |
| 5 | Justin Garner – Jacob Wade | 5 | 17.71 | 216 | $450.00 | |
| 6 | Brett Rider – Steve Rider | 5 | 5.5 | 17.37 | 215 | $400.00 |
| 7 | Jason Coley – Terry Hutchison | 5 | 17.27 | 214 | $350.00 | |
| 8 | Marcus McCaffrey – Austin McCracken | 5 | 7.46 | 17.1 | 213 | $670.00 |
| 9 | Mark Thompson – Timmy Newberry | 5 | 6.04 | 16.93 | 212 | $250.00 |
| 10 | Eric White – Gavin White | 5 | 5.9 | 16.61 | 211 | $200.00 |
| 11 | Matt Garrett – Kaleb Rook | 5 | 4.21 | 16.43 | 210 | $200.00 |
| 12 | Jared Essary – Nick Hass | 5 | 16.35 | 209 | $160.00 | |
| 13 | Mike Gold – Eric Olliverson | 5 | 15.91 | 208 | ||
| 14 | Justin Hayden – Shawn Freeman | 5 | 15.28 | 207 | ||
| 15 | Eddie McMasters – Jace McMasters | 5 | 4.73 | 15.27 | 206 | |
| 16 | Gregg Sapp – Robert Duffy | 5 | 15.16 | 205 | ||
| 17 | John Cates – Mike Edwards | 5 | 5.29 | 15.07 | 204 | |
| 18 | Rusty Darnell – *John Campbell | 5 | 4.27 | 14.91 | 203 | |
| 19 | Todd Choate – Kent Whitaker | 5 | 14.84 | 202 | ||
| 20 | David Rice – Justin Rice | 5 | 14.57 | 201 | ||
| 21 | Bobby Crockett – Adam Isaacs | 5 | 14.47 | 200 | ||
| 22 | Shane Harms – Dillon Harms | 5 | 14.31 | 199 | ||
| 23 | Dan Stone – Craig Smith | 5 | 13.85 | 198 | ||
| 24 | *fished aalone – Lucas Hudson | 5 | 4.5 | 13.72 | 197 | |
| 25 | Jay Henderson – Clay Henderson | 5 | 13.47 | 196 | ||
| 26 | Mark Jenkins – Chad Rosewicz | 5 | 13.44 | 195 | ||
| 27 | JR Bailey – Wade Miller | 5 | 13.25 | 194 | ||
| 28 | Mark Long – Nick Baker | 5 | 4.46 | 13.17 | 193 | |
| 29 | Brandon Bodd – Billy Miller | 5 | 6.22 | 12.9 | 192 | |
| 30 | Terry Letterman – Doug Smart | 5 | 12.8 | 191 | ||
| 31 | Shane Boyd – Daniel Pueppke | 5 | 4.05 | 12.51 | 190 | |
| 32 | Sam Grace – Blake Macamber | 5 | 12.42 | 189 | ||
| 33 | Mike Guidorzi – Andy Broyles | 5 | 12.37 | 188 | ||
| 34 | Craig Dort – Tony Johnston | 5 | 4.96 | 12.33 | 187 | |
| 35 | Tom Daegling – Dan Daegling | 4 | 4.95 | 12.24 | 186 | |
| 36 | Dan Hankinson – Korbin Hankinson | 5 | 11.79 | 185 | ||
| 37 | Matt Cesar – Ed Larson | 5 | 11.72 | 184 | ||
| 38 | Kavan Maybee – Josh Wray | 5 | 11.25 | 183 | ||
| 39 | Jeff Florke – Tyler Casey | 5 | 4.16 | 10.7 | 182 | |
| 40 | Chadd Bliss – Trey Patterson | 4 | 9.31 | 181 | ||
| 41 | Adan Ramirez – Logan Mills | 2 | 5.08 | 180 | ||
| 42 | Luke Downing – Larry Eby | 2 | 5.03 | 179 | ||
| 43 | Mike Utt – Mike Uttt | 2 | 4.75 | 178 | ||
| 44 | Jay Carden – Dustin Lowe | 2 | 4.52 | 177 | ||
| 45 | Kyle Wagner – John Wagner | 1 | 2.93 | 2.93 | 176 | |
| 46 | Randy Roustio – | 1 | 2.68 | 2.68 | 175 | |
| 47 | Doug Asher – David Ewing | 0 | 20 | |||
| Brandon Baker – Derrick Dickard | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Quenton Bear – Dale Bear | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Spencer Clark – Jeremy Blom | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Barb Cooper – Marc Cooper | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Jordan Dibben – Jason Conner | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Jeff Donovan – Trevor Donovan | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Brandon Dugan – Ethan Henry | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Michael Frye – Michael Landwehr | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Bill Hayford – Peyton Rose | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Brandon Holt – Jimmie Holt | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Doug Morrow – Steve Morrow | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Bryan Taylor – David Lombard | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Hunter Wallace – Devon Anderson | 0 | 20 | ||||
| John Williams – James Brown | 0 | 20 |
*alternate