The early tournaments of the 2022 Joe Bass season have all dealt with huge swings in conditions, and the kick-off for the Truman Division sponsored by Everharts Outdoor Store was greeted with more of the same. In the week leading up to the event, temperatures, were moderate before tanking with freeze warnings and flurries for Thursday and Friday. With the passage of the front, tournament day brought temps in the mid 70’s but horrific winds out of the south, making long runs brutal while staying close forced anglers to deal with boats from another big event. However, the skill level of the Truman anglers shown through bright and clear as 95 teams launched in search of daily bragging rights and valuable qualifying points for the Joe Bass Invitational to be held Stockton Lake next fall.
Starting the season off right was the long-time Truman team of Chris and Charley Thomas. Their best five fish limit from the seven keepers they caught pushed the scales to a winning 17.75 pounds. Team Thomas shared their Everharts Keys to Success involved working jerkbaits anywhere they could find a spot to fish given the number of boats on the lake. They did note they fished a variety of banks from bluff end points, flat pockets, and mixed rock, choosing to stay on the trolling motor and keeping a bait in the water.
Just behind the leaders was another veteran Truman team, John Bennett and Darrell Reach. Their tournament limit weighed in at 17.63 pounds. John shared that they stayed fairly close due to the predicted winds, which proved to be a wise move. Working swimbaits in areas they would typically throw their tournament-tested combo of a jig fished behind a spinnerbait brought their bites. John also noted the afternoon bite seemed to improve, as they had only two fish at 11:45.
Maintaining the vast Truman experience model, Ricky Clemen and Phil McKinney rounded out the top three with a solid 17.28 pound limit. Phillip said they caught fish on a variety of baits including a jig, spinnerbait, and a beaver-style bait, but admitted Ricky’s touch with a jerkbait proved to be a key to their success.
Jonathon Evans and Bradley Dillon padded their 6th place check for four fish weighing 16.17 pounds by boating the Ozark Chevrolet Big Bass, a 6.51 lunker. The kicker hit a jerkbait fished shallow along a windy mainlake point.
Marty Watson and Doug Long also took home some bonus money as they put a 15.72 pound limit in Doug’s FXR Skeeter boat, good enough to qualify for the daily Top Skeeter honors in addition to an 11th place check.
Special thanks to Everharts Outdoor Store, Lakes Inn , Truman Lake Fishing Intel, and Anglers Port Marine for their outstanding support of the division.
The second Joe Bass Truman derby will be Sunday May 15th with a 6:00 am takeoff from Shawnee Bend. Please note the monthly takeoff time and be sure to show up early for check-in in order to ensure a timely takeoff.
Photos
Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout |
| 1 | Chris Thomas – Charley Thomas | 5 | 4.63 | 17.75 | 220 | $4,770.00 |
| 2 | John Bennett – Darrell Reach | 5 | 4.38 | 17.63 | 219 | $1,420.00 |
| 3 | Ricky Clemen – Phil McKinney | 5 | 4.19 | 17.28 | 218 | $1,080.00 |
| 4 | Dene White – Joe Dorcy | 5 | 6.07 | 16.89 | 217 | $1,050.00 |
| 5 | Steve Gwadera – Jake Desselle | 5 | 5.7 | 16.78 | 216 | $600.00 |
| 6 | Jonathan Evans – Bradley Dillon | 4 | 6.51 | 16.17 | 215 | $1,100.00 |
| 7 | David McCormick – *Gary Shartzer | 5 | 16.11 | 214 | $400.00 | |
| 8 | Dennis Dahlke – Joe Riley | 5 | 5.09 | 16.04 | 213 | $300.00 |
| 9 | Doug Blum – Tyler Bone | 5 | 4.1 | 15.83 | 212 | $250.00 |
| 10 | Sam Maggio – Terry Cooper | 5 | 5.11 | 15.8 | 211 | $250.00 |
| 11 | Doug Long – Marty Watson | 5 | 3.92 | 15.72 | 210 | $450.00 |
| 12 | Matt Gunter – Kelly Nunn | 5 | 4.7 | 15.67 | 209 | $200.00 |
| 13 | John Prochko – Diego Segui | 5 | 4.98 | 15.64 | 208 | $180.00 |
| 14 | Karl Schmidt – Dan Martinez | 5 | 4.61 | 15.61 | 207 | $180.00 |
| 15 | Brett Fickle – Joseph Hull | 5 | 5.16 | 15.56 | 206 | $180.00 |
| 16 | Aaron Foglesong – Jeff Wilkins | 5 | 5.32 | 15.45 | 205 | $160.00 |
| 17 | Darrin Lankford – *Sean Bowling | 5 | 14.9 | 204 | $160.00 | |
| 18 | Jerry McCutchen – Kevin Smith | 5 | 4.45 | 14.73 | 203 | $160.00 |
| 19 | Mark Riegel – JR Shinn | 5 | 14.09 | 202 | ||
| 20 | Bryce Rieder – Mike Edrington | 5 | 3.47 | 14.05 | 201 | |
| 21 | Wyatt Miller – Kolin Rogers | 4 | 5.99 | 13.9 | 200 | |
| 22 | Dan Weber – Robert Leininger | 5 | 13.71 | 199 | ||
| 23 | Patrick Hatfield – Chad Housh | 5 | 3.61 | 13.67 | 198 | |
| 24 | Roy Butler – Gary Maxwell | 5 | 13.44 | 197 | ||
| 25 | Brandon Brown – Steve Prince | 5 | 3.78 | 13.43 | 196 | |
| 26 | Ricky York – Ed Gilbert | 5 | 3.6 | 13.33 | 195 | |
| 27 | Kris Bollinger – Coty Baldwin | 5 | 13.27 | 194 | ||
| 28 | Kenny Sloan – Brendon Mick | 5 | 3.63 | 12.89 | 193 | |
| 29 | Brad Jelinek – Brock Reinkemeyer | 5 | 12.88 | 192 | ||
| 30 | Kevin Johnston – Roger Waters | 5 | 3.07 | 12.29 | 191 | |
| 31 | John Hodson – Kelvin Charles | 5 | 12.1 | 190 | ||
| 32 | Bryan Baker – Darren Baker | 5 | 3.1 | 12.07 | 189 | |
| 33 | Ronnie Kane – *Mark Horton | 4 | 11.52 | 188 | ||
| 34 | Bobby Roberts – Wesley Myers | 5 | 3.62 | 11.48 | 187 | |
| 35 | Jordan Williams – Riley Hill | 4 | 11.21 | 186 | ||
| 36 | Angelo Barsotti – Bill Barsotti | 4 | 11.06 | 185 | ||
| 37 | Kevin Duer – Dustin Young | 4 | 4.06 | 10.72 | 184 | |
| 38 | Greg Askew – Terry Case | 4 | 10.67 | 183 | ||
| 39 | Matt Hare – Jake Hare | 4 | 10.47 | 182 | ||
| 40 | Lennie Becker – Elmer Becker II | 3 | 3.84 | 9.86 | 181 | |
| 41 | Roger Umbarger | 4 | 9.66 | 180 | ||
| 42 | Justin Miller – Mathew Miller | 4 | 9.62 | 179 | ||
| 43 | Ron Peek – Pat Deaton | 4 | 9.58 | 178 | ||
| 44 | Charles Edgar – Steve Fowler | 4 | 9.37 | 177 | ||
| 45 | Gaige Blanton – Garret Cates | 3 | 9.23 | 176 | ||
| 46 | Barton Wines – Domonique Palma | 3 | 4.91 | 9.08 | 175 | |
| 47 | Nicholas Leggett – *Jessica Leggett | 4 | 9.03 | 174 | ||
| 48 | Jeremy Olson – Travis Waxmonski | 5 | 4 | 8.92 | 173 | |
| 49 | Timmy Newberry – Rusty Darnell | 3 | 8.42 | 172 | ||
| 50 | Mark Thompson – Mark Thompson II | 3 | 8.05 | 171 | ||
| 51 | Tim Hintenach – Travis Williams | 3 | 7.93 | 170 | ||
| 52 | Jim Sloan – Jeff Stout | 3 | 3.39 | 7.75 | 169 | |
| 53 | Jay Roe – John Bollinger | 3 | 7.71 | 168 | ||
| 54 | Troy Thomas – Mike Eickmann | 2 | 3.63 | 6.64 | 167 | |
| 55 | Eric Zuk – Ben Zuk | 3 | 6.52 | 166 | ||
| 56 | Ronnie Rush – Rick Rush | 2 | 6.17 | 165 | ||
| 57 | *Riley Phillips – Gus Adkinson | 2 | 3.93 | 6.12 | 164 | |
| 58 | Michael Dugger – Tim Goliglee | 2 | 5.8 | 163 | ||
| 59 | Mike Fusaro – | 2 | 5.57 | 162 | ||
| 60 | Phillip Schwartz – Steve Kleihauer | 2 | 5.18 | 161 | ||
| 61 | Mike Thomas – Jeff Lane | 2 | 5.08 | 160 | ||
| 62 | Aaron Vaughn – Parrish Vaughn | 2 | 5.01 | 159 | ||
| 63 | Kenneth Mitchell – | 1 | 4.93 | 4.93 | 158 | |
| 64 | John Williams – Jim Williams | 2 | 4.87 | 157 | ||
| 65 | Greg Miller – Brett Miller | 1 | 4.83 | 4.83 | 156 | |
| 66 | Greg James – Doug Hoeppner | 1 | 4.59 | 4.59 | 155 | |
| 67 | Chad Karns – Austin Karns | 1 | 4.47 | 4.47 | 154 | |
| 68 | Glen McCrary – Sondra McCrary | 1 | 3.27 | 3.27 | 153 | |
| 69 | Stephen Smith – Garen Hunt | 1 | 2.77 | 2.77 | 152 | |
| 70 | Matt Manhart – Chris Banks | 1 | 2.31 | 2.31 | 151 | |
| 71 | Glenn Batson – Ralph Laster | 0 | 20 | |||
| Corey Besgrove – Eddie Brown | 0 | 20 | ||||
| James Bokonich – Trenton Cantrell | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Blaze Bullard – | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Rich Campbell – Travis Stevens | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Danny Carter – Chris Carter | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Louis Collier – Sam Huesgen | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Joddy Dungan – John Matousek | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Junior Fiedler – Chris Fiedler | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Casey Flood – Dan Flood | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Wayne Garrison – Doug Zink | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Troy Hendrick – Chad Hendrick | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Justin Hosler – Keith Dugan | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Richard Johnson – Charles Cadenhead | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Kerry Kirkpatrick – Jeff Hamilton | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Joel Klonowski – | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Greg Lampton – Jim Sells | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Nathan Murawski – Jeremy Fuston | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Edward Nelson – Tony Zaharsky | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Randy Oliphant – Scott Oliphant | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Brandon Rowland – Russel Nigh | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Brock Schuld – Phillip Montano | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Jacob Sloan – Jon Lengel | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Larry Wright – Doug Wallace | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Jack Young – Bill MacAvoy | 0 | 20 |
*alternate