Fickle spring weather has a way of tossing anglers major-league curve balls, and the Truman Division season opener proved to be no exception. With nearly a 30 degree shift in temperatures between Saturday morning and takeoff on Sunday, the 54 boat field left Shawnee Bend with the task of adjusting to the changing conditions. Although dock talk centered on a nearly complete absence of bites in practice, the skill of the Truman Division anglers rang through loud and clear as there were 19 four pound plus fish weighed for big bass alone, not counting the fact that several teams had multiple big fish in their sacks. From a fishing standpoint, anglers faced cold, cloudy windy conditions and a stained lake while gunning for a season ending win and qualifying points for the Joe Bass Team Trails Championship at Table Rock Lake in October. The strength of Joe Bass anglers is becoming recognized nationally as the Trail is proud to send an angler to the BASSMASTER Classic for the second year in a row, with Ryan Butler winning the 2018 honors on the heels of Scott Clift’s visit in 2017.
Kicking the 2018 division season off with a thunderous bang was Justin Pace. Fishing alone, Justin dropped 23.31 pounds on the scales to take a convincing win. The huge limit was topped off with the second big bass of the event, a 5.95 brute that shows how stout the remaining fish in Justin’s take proved to be. Sharing his Sport Boats USA Keys to Success, Justin noted he fished a discontinued jerkbait in a pearl/white color through standing timber along steep banks, with the boat positioned in 18-20’ of water.
Mark Riegel and JR Shinn anchored second place with a solid bag weighing 18.81. They also leaned on the jerkbait bite, choosing lures in a Tennessee Shad pattern. Their key areas centered on channel swing banks with the bites coming in 5-10’ of water along windy main-lake locations.
Rounding out the top three was Todd and Cameron Miller. Joining the stickbait crowd, Todd explained their bites came from flooded trees in stained water, similar to the first place pattern. Their bait of choice was a Dave’s Custom Baits Blackmarket 110 suspending stickbait.
Jerry McCutchen teamed with Kevin Smith to catch the Ozarks Chevrolet Big Bass of 6.90 pounds. Although reluctant to share too much information, threats of an article suggesting the Truman legend caught the big fish on a spinning rod rigged with a spy bite produced an offering that they also used jerkbaits to catch their fish, including the big bass of the event.
Taking another Sport Boats USA Skeeter Bonus, Ozzie and Doug Wallace took the highest finishing Skeeter award by catching their 5th place weight of 15.26 pounds from their Skeeter bass boat.
The next Truman Division event will launch from Shawnee Bend April 29th at 6:30am.
Photos
Final Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout | |
| 1 | Justin Pace – | 5 | 5.95 | 23.31 | 110 | $1,720.00 | 2BB |
| 2 | JR Shinn – Mark Riegel | 5 | 5.28 | 18.81 | 109 | $1,128.00 | |
| 3 | Todd Miller – Cameron Miller | 5 | 5.47 | 16.92 | 108 | $886.00 | |
| 4 | Jerry McCutchen – Kevin Smith | 4 | 6.9 | 16.41 | 107 | $900.00 | 1BB |
| 5 | Doug Wallace – Ozzie Wallace | 5 | 4.97 | 15.26 | 106 | $650.00 | Top Skeeter |
| 6 | Wayne Garrison – Robbie Plowman | 5 | 3.16 | 15.04 | 105 | $250.00 | |
| 7 | Kevin Duer – Dustin Young | 4 | 4.94 | 14.8 | 104 | $200.00 | |
| 8 | Blake Felix – Keith Nickell | 5 | 3.56 | 14.51 | 103 | $180.00 | |
| 9 | Tom McGovern – Rick Saunders | 5 | 5.03 | 14.24 | 102 | $150.00 | |
| 10 | Bryan Baker – Darren Baker | 5 | 3.91 | 14.14 | 101 | $130.00 | |
| 11 | Bryce Rieder – Mike Edrington | 4 | 3.95 | 14.11 | 100 | ||
| 12 | Chris Bridges – Steve Prince | 4 | 4.85 | 13.68 | 99 | ||
| 13 | Charley Thomas – Chris Thomas | 4 | 2.93 | 10.39 | 98 | ||
| 14 | Glen McCrary – Sondra McCrary | 2 | 5.74 | 9.87 | 97 | ||
| 15 | Mathew Miller – Wyatt Miller | 3 | 4.77 | 8.92 | 96 | ||
| 16 | John Bennett – Darrell Reach | 3 | 3.08 | 8.76 | 95 | ||
| 17 | Fred Jobe – Mike Spence | 3 | 4.23 | 8.68 | 94 | ||
| 18 | John Krewson – Charles Sersch | 3 | 4.83 | 8.06 | 93 | ||
| 19 | Shawn Crabtree – Reece Crabtree | 2 | 4.9 | 7.81 | 92 | ||
| 20 | Jim Waggoner – | 2 | 5.31 | 7.58 | 91 | ||
| 21 | Justin Hosler – Logan Carter | 3 | 4.55 | 7.47 | 90 | ||
| 22 | Gary Arterberry – Gus Adkinson | 2 | 4.15 | 6.25 | 89 | ||
| 23 | John Campbell – John M Campbell | 2 | 4.12 | 5.9 | 88 | ||
| 24 | Bob Jany – Dennis Schilb | 3 | 5.63 | 87 | |||
| 25 | John Williams – James Brown | 1 | 4.74 | 4.74 | 86 | ||
| 26 | Don Heiser – Jim Sells | 1 | 4.64 | 4.64 | 85 | ||
| 27 | Matt Garrett – Kaleb Rook | 1 | 2.75 | 2.75 | 84 | ||
| 28 | Edward Nelson – Tony Zaharsky | 1 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 83 | ||
| 29 | Mark Thompson – Mark Thompson II | 1 | 2.56 | 2.56 | 82 | ||
| 30 | Kevin Johnston – Roger Waters | 1 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 81 | ||
| 31 | Ronnie Rush – Rick Rush | 1 | 2.21 | 2.21 | 80 | ||
| 31 | Jack Young – Bill McAvoy | 1 | 2.21 | 2.21 | 80 | ||
| 33 | Sean Bowling – Brandon Brown | 1 | 2.17 | 2.17 | 78 | ||
| 34 | Lennie Becker – Elmer Becker | 1 | 2.03 | 2.03 | 77 | ||
| 35 | Phillip Schwartz – Colby Schwartz | 1 | 1.85 | 1.85 | 76 | ||
| 36 | Rich Campbell – Marvin Decker | 1 | 1.79 | 1.79 | 75 | ||
| 37 | Lyle Armstrong – Mitchell Armstrong | 0 | 10 | ||||
| Greg Askew – Terry Case | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Justin Borum – Jake McKinnis | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Kevin Carl – Desmon Carl | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Jonathan Evans – Bradley Dillon | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Richard Evans – *Lorne Shepard | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Junior Fiedler – Cody Fielder | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Matt Gunter – Bobby Williams | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Ronnie Kane – Cory Steckler | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Kevin Love – | 0 | 10 | |||||
| James Macleod – Danny Johnson | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Ed Matthews – Bill Hall | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Jason Meadors – Jerry M Jones | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Timmy Newberry – Rusty Darnell | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Randy Oliphant – Scott Oliphant | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Tony Powers – John Brewer | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Donnie Reynolds – Mark Reynolds | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Stephen Smith – Garen Hunt | 0 | 10 |
*alternate