Gunter & Williams win $9100.00!
The dogwood and redbuds are in full bloom. Water temperatures have warmed into the upper fifties to low sixties. Add in stable water levels and a full moon and one would have all the ingredients for a Truman Lake slugfest. The 64 teams that gathered at Shawnee Bend for the second Truman Division event didn’t disappoint, as half of the field weighed in with a five bass limit and over a three pound per fish average weight. Combined with a 70 degree sunny day with steady winds, the anglers had perfect conditions to vie for the 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.
The always stout team of Matt Gunter and Bobby Williams rocked their way to the top position with a 22.66 pound bag. It never hurts to have a kicker fish in your limit. Bobby and Matt did more than that as they dropped the Ozarks Chevrolet Big Bass of the event on the scales, a beautiful 7.11 largemouth. Matt explained their Sport Boats USA Keys to Success was to hit a variety of banks in their typical area as they had to deal with more than the normal crowd in a fairly limited area. Relying on a jig in 1-5’ of water, Matt noted they caught only 6 keepers throughout the day, but obviously they were the right bites as they rolled up to a great weight. In addition to their Joe Bass winnings Matt won an additional $7000.00 from the Phoenix 1st Flight program bringing their total to $9100.00
Another long time Truman team, Bryce Rieder and Mike Edrington relied on past experience to cross the finish line in second place with a 20.22 stringer. They also had to deal with the abnormally crowded waters, but hit the mark in their first spot of the day, a typical Truman spawning cove with a variety of rock banks and timber. Their arsenal included spinnerbaits and squarebill crankbaits worked through the thicker cedars which others tend to overlook.
Not to be outdone, veteran Truman anglers Bill Dennis and Steve Olive rounded out the top three with a strong 20.10 limit. Bill also noted the areas they normally fish were getting beat up with additional boats, so he and Steve made the call to abandon the “home waters” around noon with a 12-13 pound limit. Relocating to new water, Steve rolled a spinnerbait to catch several critical upgrades to the fish previously caught on Bill’s jig. Adding to their third place prize money, Bill and Steve also took home the Sport Boats USA Skeeter Bonus, as they fished from Bill’s Skeeter ZX225.
The next Truman Division event will launch from Shawnee Bend May 30th at 6:00am.
Photos
Final Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | Wgt | Pnlty | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout | |
| 1 | Matt Gunter – Bobby Williams | 5 | 22.7 | 7.1 | 22.66 | 110 | $2,100.00 | 1BB | |
| 2 | Bryce Rieder – Mike Edrington | 5 | 20.2 | 4.7 | 20.22 | 109 | $1,200.00 | ||
| 3 | Bill Dennis – Steve Olive | 5 | 20.1 | 4.7 | 20.1 | 108 | $1,250.00 | Top Skeeter | |
| 4 | Jerry McCutchen – Kevin Smith | 5 | 19.9 | 5.5 | 19.86 | 107 | $600.00 | ||
| 5 | Kevin Johnston – Roger Waters | 5 | 19.2 | 4.8 | 19.15 | 106 | $500.00 | ||
| 6 | Bryan Baker – Darren Baker | 5 | 19.1 | 4.4 | 19.11 | 105 | $374.00 | ||
| 7 | Donnie Reynolds – Mark Reynolds | 5 | 19 | 4.4 | 18.98 | 104 | $250.00 | ||
| 8 | Charley Thomas – Chris Thomas | 5 | 18.7 | 5.3 | 18.73 | 103 | $220.00 | ||
| 9 | James Macleod – Danny Johnson | 5 | 18.5 | 6 | 18.48 | 102 | $200.00 | ||
| 10 | Stephen Smith – Garen Hunt | 5 | 18.3 | 6.2 | 18.31 | 101 | $180.00 | ||
| 11 | Dan Weber – Robert Leininger | 5 | 18.1 | 6.1 | 18.13 | 100 | $150.00 | ||
| 12 | Marty Watson – Doug Long | 5 | 18.1 | 5.9 | 18.09 | 99 | $130.00 | ||
| 13 | Ron Peek – *Pat Deaton | 5 | 17.8 | 4.9 | 17.8 | 98 | |||
| 14 | John Bennett – Darrell Reach | 5 | 17.4 | 3.8 | 17.44 | 97 | |||
| 15 | Bob Jany – Dennis Schilb | 5 | 16.9 | 3.9 | 16.85 | 96 | |||
| 16 | Joseph Hull – Brett Fickle | 5 | 16.8 | 4.3 | 16.79 | 95 | |||
| 17 | Wayne Garrison – *Doug Zink | 5 | 16.3 | 3.8 | 16.29 | 94 | |||
| 18 | Phillip Schwartz – Colby Schwartz | 5 | 15.7 | 5.3 | 15.69 | 93 | |||
| 19 | Sean Bowling – Brandon Brown | 5 | 15.4 | 4.8 | 15.36 | 92 | |||
| 20 | John Krewson – Charles Sersch | 5 | 15.4 | 4.6 | 15.36 | 91 | |||
| 21 | Ronnie Rush – Rick Rush | 5 | 14.9 | 3.2 | 14.86 | 90 | |||
| 22 | Jay Carden – Lowe Dustin | 5 | 14.1 | 3.7 | 14.05 | 89 | |||
| 23 | Greg Askew – Terry Case | 5 | 13.8 | 3.3 | 13.78 | 88 | |||
| 24 | Jonathan Evans – Bradley Dillon | 5 | 13.7 | 3 | 13.7 | 87 | |||
| 25 | Kevin Love – | 5 | 13.7 | 13.69 | 86 | ||||
| 26 | Mark Thompson – Mark Thompson II | 5 | 13.4 | 13.38 | 85 | ||||
| 27 | Eric Zuk – Ben Zuk | 5 | 13 | 4.2 | 12.98 | 84 | |||
| 28 | Chris Callahan – Randy Lutjen | 5 | 12.7 | 4 | 12.72 | 83 | |||
| 29 | Tony Powers – John Brewer | 5 | 12.6 | 3.2 | 12.64 | 82 | |||
| 30 | Tom McGovern – Rick Saunders | 5 | 12.6 | 4 | 12.61 | 81 | |||
| 31 | Don Heiser – Jim Sells | 5 | 12.2 | 3 | 12.24 | 80 | |||
| 32 | Blake Felix – Keith Nickell | 4 | 12 | 5.1 | 11.95 | 79 | |||
| 33 | Kevin Carl – Desmon Carl | 5 | 11.2 | 3.3 | 11.23 | 78 | |||
| 34 | Rich Campbell – *Ashley Medley | 5 | 10.6 | 10.61 | 77 | ||||
| 35 | Ricky Clemen – Stacy Howell | 4 | 10.3 | 4.4 | 10.3 | 76 | |||
| 36 | Tim Hintenach – Dustin Hinkle | 4 | 8.83 | 8.83 | 75 | ||||
| 37 | Ken Mason – Michael Baker | 2 | 7.95 | 6.5 | 7.95 | 74 | $240.00 | 2BB | |
| 38 | Jimmie Snodgrass – Bobby Waggoner | 3 | 7.47 | 7.47 | 73 | ||||
| 39 | Randy Oliphant – Scott Oliphant | 2 | 7.08 | 4.8 | 7.08 | 72 | |||
| 40 | Mark Simmons – Terry Lawhon | 3 | 6.93 | 6.93 | 71 | ||||
| 41 | John Campbell – John M Campbell | 2 | 6.7 | 4.8 | 6.7 | 70 | |||
| 42 | Jack Young – Bill McAvoy | 4 | 5.43 | 5.43 | 69 | ||||
| 43 | Lennie Becker – Elmer Becker | 2 | 4.86 | 2.9 | 4.86 | 68 | |||
| 44 | Junior Fiedler – Cody Fielder | 2 | 4.59 | 2.5 | 4.59 | 67 | |||
| 45 | Glen McCrary – Sondra McCrary | 1 | 2.04 | 2 | 2.04 | 66 | |||
| 46 | Lyle Armstrong – Mitchell Armstrong | 0 | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Gary Arterberry – Gus Adkinson | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Chris Bridges – Steve Prince | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Mike Cashen – Tom Dunn | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Shawn Crabtree – Reece Crabtree | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Joseph DeSeure – Zach Ruether | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Kevin Duer – Dustin Young | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Scott Hankinson – Brandon Rowland | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Justin Hosler – *Keith Dugan | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Brad Jelinek – John Slavens | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Fred Jobe – Mike Spence | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| David McCormick – *Steve Vansant | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Greg Miller – Mike Rowland | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Edward Nelson – Tony Zaharsky | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Timmy Newberry – *Jim Smith | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Michael Simons – Jacob Simons | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Doug Wallace – Ozzie Wallace | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| John Williams – James Brown | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Jason Shifflett – Levi Cline | 0 | 0 | 10 |
*alternate