A cold rainy day made for dismal conditions for the 2023 Joe Bass Team Trails Table Rock division kickoff, but the fishing proved to be hot! Despite a topsy-turvy week leading up to the event that saw temps swap from 60-70s to 40’s, with bright skies switching to overcast and rain, 63 teams blasted off from Ahoy’s with hopes of a big bag to start the season. 34 limits were brought to the scales, with teams averaging over 9 pounds each, resulting in valuable qualifying points for the Joe Bass Invitational to be held Stockton Lake next fall.
Brett and Steve Rider picked up where they left last year by taking the win in the season’s debut event. The reigning T-Rock points champions brought a stout 21.12 pounds to the weigh-in scales, anchored by a 5.21 pound largemouth, the second place big bass of the day. Brett and Steve shared their Chompers Key to Success included slinging an A-rig around winding points. Boating 12 keepers throughout the day, Steve noted they had a flurry between 10 and 1 where they boated most of their winning weight.
Jay and Clay Henderson narrowly missed the winning, dropping a five fish limit on the scales that totaled 20.36 pounds. They also worked an A-Rig, but added in a swimbait that tricked a few of their key fish. They moved around a bit and caught scattered fish on an all-day bite.
Dustin and Eric Blevins ran uplake a short ways to find some deeper fish. Their bag pushed the scales to 18.79 pounds, good enough for third place on the day. Dustin echoed they leaned on a rig as they had to sort through around 20 keepers on an all-day bite.
Kavan Maybee and Josh Wray kicked of the season with the NAPA Big Bass of the event, a 6.00 lunker that solidified their 16.81 eighth place bag. The big fish hit an umbrella rigged crawled down a windy mainlake point.
Matt Cesar and Ed Larson added to their 7th place earnings by taking Top Skeeter honors for the event. They put a total of 16.83 pounds in Ed’s FX21 Skeeter.
Special thanks to Taylor Grubaugh Chevrolet, Buick & GMC in West Plains for sponsoring the live release boat, as well as Catch Em All Bait & Tackle for their support of the division.
The second event of the Table Rock Division will be April 1 with a 6:30 takeoff from Ahoy’s.
Photos
Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout |
| 1 | Brett Rider – Steve Rider | 5 | 5.21 | 21.12 | 220 | $3,700.00 |
| 2 | Jay Henderson – Clay Henderson | 5 | 5.14 | 20.36 | 219 | $1,270.00 |
| 3 | Dustin Blevins – Eric Blevins | 5 | 4.69 | 18.79 | 218 | $1,080.00 |
| 4 | Shawn Crabtree – Theresa Patterson | 5 | 4.76 | 18.3 | 217 | $850.00 |
| 5 | Eric White – Gavin White | 5 | 5.07 | 17.49 | 216 | $750.00 |
| 6 | Justin Garner – Jacob Wade | 5 | 4.56 | 17.24 | 215 | $300.00 |
| 7 | Matt Cesar – Ed Larson | 5 | 5.08 | 16.83 | 214 | $500.00 |
| 8 | Kavan Maybee – Josh Wray | 5 | 6 | 16.81 | 213 | $560.00 |
| 9 | Bill Edwards – Cody Ellison | 5 | 4.13 | 16.71 | 212 | $180.00 |
| 10 | Mike Fann – Mark Fann | 5 | 4.23 | 16.52 | 211 | $180.00 |
| 11 | Shane Harms – Dillon Harms | 5 | 4.47 | 16.44 | 210 | $180.00 |
| 12 | Billy Elmore – Trevor Donovan | 5 | 4.03 | 15.81 | 209 | $168.00 |
| 13 | Kyle Wagner – John Wagner | 5 | 4.31 | 15.49 | 208 | |
| 14 | Brian Thompson – Eric Hammond | 5 | 4.37 | 15.37 | 207 | |
| 15 | Michael Frye – *Fished Alone | 5 | 4.35 | 14.89 | 206 | |
| 16 | Brandon Holt – Jimmie Holt | 5 | 14.09 | 205 | ||
| 17 | David Mulkey – Leonard DeClue | 5 | 4.7 | 13.82 | 204 | |
| 18 | Tom Lloyd Jr. – Jacob Childress | 5 | 4.16 | 13.78 | 203 | |
| 19 | Jake Smith – Neil Booher | 5 | 13.54 | 202 | ||
| 20 | Jeff Epley – Kelly Greer | 5 | 13.43 | 201 | ||
| 21 | Todd Choate – Kent Whitaker | 5 | 13.39 | 200 | ||
| 22 | Jared Essary – Nick Hass | 5 | 13.05 | 199 | ||
| 23 | Cody Spetz – Landon Farquhar | 5 | 12.95 | 198 | ||
| 24 | Jeff Farquhar – *Fished Alone | 5 | 4.1 | 12.78 | 197 | |
| 25 | Matt Garrett – Will Isaac | 5 | 12.76 | 196 | ||
| 26 | Blair Cox – Zach Adamec | 5 | 12.74 | 195 | ||
| 27 | *Weley Hill – Brandon Hill | 5 | 12.7 | 194 | ||
| 28 | Adam Cook – Jeremy Hittler | 5 | 12.3 | 193 | ||
| 29 | Rodney Bowersox – Jamie Robinson | 5 | 12 | 192 | ||
| 30 | Bill Hayford – Wade Bryan | 5 | 11.94 | 191 | ||
| 31 | Patrick Beckham – Matt Dobrinic | 5 | 11.88 | 190 | ||
| 32 | John Cates – Mike Edwards | 5 | 11.8 | 189 | ||
| 33 | Bob Capps – Williams John | 4 | 3.89 | 11.34 | 188 | |
| 34 | Jacob Delong – Mike Eutsler | 5 | 11.27 | 187 | ||
| 35 | Ken Gross – Daniel Pueppke | 4 | 3.66 | 11.2 | 186 | |
| 36 | Charles Abbott – Tim Wells | 4 | 4.39 | 11.14 | 185 | |
| 37 | Jordan Dibben – Jason Conner | 5 | 10.78 | 184 | ||
| 38 | Jason Rikard – *Fished Alone | 4 | 3.31 | 10.07 | 183 | |
| 39 | Gregg Sapp – Robert Duffy | 4 | 9.11 | 182 | ||
| 40 | Michael Cross – William Beaver | 4 | 8.33 | 181 | ||
| 41 | Marcus McCaffrey – Austin McCracken | 3 | 7.67 | 180 | ||
| 42 | William Luethje – Danny Smith | 2 | 5.77 | 179 | ||
| 43 | Carl Goins – Timm Jones | 2 | 4.6 | 178 | ||
| 44 | Mark Thompson – Luke Thompson | 1 | 3.71 | 3.71 | 177 | |
| 45 | Randy Roustio – | 1 | 2.97 | 2.97 | 176 | |
| 46 | Tony Harp – Mike Rodgers | 1 | 2.47 | 2.47 | 175 | |
| 47 | Kyle Alsop – Thomas Alsop | 0 | 20 | |||
| Joe Beetz – Jake Landmann | 0 | 20 | ||||
| David Burks – Danny Collier | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Jay Carden – Dustin Lowe | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Justin Cline – Jessie Colt | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Blake Curtis – Matt Brown | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Rusty Darnell – *Tim Newberry | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Bill Floyd – *Fished Alone | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Brad Gaik – Ryan Gaik | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Sam Grace – Blake Macamber | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Chad Gunnett – *Fished Alone | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Lloyd Harris – Nathen Harris | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Aaron Hodge – James Bailey | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Terry Hutchison – Jason Coley | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Ethan Leisenring – *Fished Alone | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Justin Sanders – *Fished Alone | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Jack Stapleton – Shawn Read | 0 | 20 |
*alternate