Truman anglers were greeted to the season opener with a cold front that lowered temps from the previous days, but the main weather item they had to deal with was a strong wind. For some, the wind sparked an aggressive bite while it made presentation a challenge for others. Still, 97 teams brought over 950 pounds of bass to the scales for nearly a 10 pound per team average! Just as importantly, 100% of the fish were released alive back to Truman Lake from the Taylor Grubaugh Chevrolet, Buick & GMC Live Release boat. As always, it’s not too early to be thinking ahead, solidifying the concept that every fish counts towards qualifying points for the Joe Bass Invitational to be held Stockton Lake next fall.
Long-time Truman sticks Marty Watson and Doug Long came out on top with a stout 18.43 pound stringer. Their bag was anchored by the NAPA Big Bass of the event. Their lunker pushed the scales to 6.14 pounds. Marty and Doug shared their Hobbytime Motorsports Key to Success centered on dragging a brush hog in 8’-10’ of water. They worked through 8 keepers with their weigh-in limit all coming before noon. Marty and Doug pegged the trifecta as they added Top Skeeter honors to their first place and big bass awards as they fished from their Skeeter bass boat.
Karl Schmidt paired with Dan Martinez to take second place honors. Their 18.11 pound stringer came up just short of a win, but provided a super start to the 2023 season nonetheless. They managed 9 keepers scattered throughout the day. Their strategy was crawling a jig in 5’-10’ of water.
John Prochko and Diego Segui rounded out the top three with a strong 17.70 limit. They also slow-worked brush hogs and jigs in the 8’-10’ range to catch their fish. They noted fishing was tough as they boated only 7 keepers on an all day bite.
Special thanks to Taylor Grubaugh Chevrolet/GMC/Buick in West Plains for sponsoring the live release boat.
The second event of the Truman Division will be May 21 with a 6:00 takeoff from Shawnee Bend. Be sure and show up early to ensure you have plenty of time to check in and launch prior to take-off.
Photo 1st Place Doug Long & Marty Watson
Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout |
| 1 | Doug Long – Marty Watson | 5 | 6.14 | 18.43 | 220 | $5,490.00 |
| 2 | Karl Schmidt – Dan Martinez | 5 | 6.03 | 18.11 | 219 | $2,404.00 |
| 3 | John Prochko – Diego Segui | 5 | 4.95 | 17.7 | 218 | $1,556.00 |
| 4 | David McCormick – Gary Shartzer | 5 | 5.8 | 17.59 | 217 | $900.00 |
| 5 | Ryan Tucker – *Anthony Dimaggio | 5 | 4.83 | 17.18 | 216 | $800.00 |
| 6 | Caleb Carr – Dustin Langston | 5 | 4.44 | 17.12 | 215 | $682.00 |
| 7 | Kevin Johnston – Roger Waters | 5 | 3.96 | 16.95 | 214 | $500.00 |
| 8 | Wayne Garrison – Billy Greenwell | 5 | 4.94 | 16.8 | 213 | $450.00 |
| 9 | Andrew Eisterhold – Kaden Zimmerman | 5 | 5.73 | 16.7 | 212 | $400.00 |
| 10 | Matt Gunter – Kelly Nunn | 5 | 4.69 | 16.69 | 211 | $350.00 |
| 11 | Rich Campbell – Travis Stevens | 5 | 4.01 | 16.44 | 210 | $300.00 |
| 12 | Kris Bollinger – Keven Bollinger | 5 | 5.03 | 16.31 | 209 | $250.00 |
| 13 | Charles Edgar – Steve Fowler | 5 | 4.72 | 16.25 | 208 | $250.00 |
| 14 | Tony Powers – Cindy Powers | 5 | 5.39 | 16.05 | 207 | $200.00 |
| 15 | Kevin Smith – Jerry McCutchen | 5 | 5.49 | 16.02 | 206 | $200.00 |
| 16 | Donald Clark – Brantley Clark | 5 | 4.24 | 15.96 | 205 | $200.00 |
| 17 | Barton Wines – Marshall Gregory | 5 | 4.27 | 15.63 | 204 | $180.00 |
| 18 | Gaige Blanton – Kody Mazur | 5 | 4.93 | 15.41 | 203 | $180.00 |
| 19 | Timmy Newberry – Rusty Darnell | 5 | 4.1 | 15.14 | 202 | $180.00 |
| 20 | Brett Fickle – Joseph Hull | 5 | 4.34 | 14.73 | 201 | |
| 21 | Chris LuAllen – Ben Sadler | 5 | 14.61 | 200 | ||
| 22 | Joddy Dungan – John Matousek | 4 | 5.49 | 14.6 | 199 | |
| 23 | Darrin Lankford – Sean Bowling | 5 | 14.54 | 198 | ||
| 24 | John Bennett – Darrell Reach | 5 | 3.41 | 14.52 | 197 | |
| 25 | Greg James – Doug Hoeppner | 5 | 14.51 | 196 | ||
| 26 | John Krewson – Brad Territo | 5 | 13.79 | 195 | ||
| 27 | Chet Douthit – Kent Campbell | 5 | 3.64 | 13.63 | 194 | |
| 28 | Wyatt Miller – Kolin Rogers | 5 | 13.56 | 193 | ||
| 29 | William Oehring – Dan Laboube | 5 | 3.87 | 13.43 | 192 | |
| 30 | Robert Hime – Paul Huse | 5 | 4.18 | 13.39 | 191 | |
| 31 | Jay Roe – John Bollinger | 5 | 13.26 | 190 | ||
| 32 | Tyler Eagan – James Eagan | 5 | 4.55 | 13.25 | 189 | |
| 33 | Chris Thomas – Charley Thomas | 5 | 4.08 | 13.19 | 188 | |
| 34 | Austin Pate – Jordan Reffitt | 5 | 4 | 13.19 | 187 | |
| 35 | Todd Miller – Cameron Miller | 5 | 13.08 | 186 | ||
| 36 | *fished alone – Phil McKinney | 5 | 12.99 | 185 | ||
| 37 | Kenny Sloan – Brendon Mick | 5 | 3.29 | 12.83 | 184 | |
| 38 | Ralph Laster – Glenn Batson | 5 | 3.21 | 12.82 | 183 | |
| 39 | Roy Butler – Gary Maxwell | 5 | 12.73 | 182 | ||
| 40 | Donnie Reynolds – Travis Williams | 5 | 3.22 | 12.71 | 181 | |
| 41 | Nick Leggett – Logan Carter | 5 | 3.61 | 12.57 | 180 | |
| 42 | Chris Callahan – Billy Daleske | 5 | 12.43 | 179 | ||
| 43 | John Hodson – Kelvin Charles | 5 | 3.2 | 12.41 | 178 | |
| 44 | Brandon Brown – Steve Prince | 5 | 3.69 | 12.4 | 177 | |
| 45 | Bill Jared – Rich Carpenter | 5 | 3.65 | 12.38 | 176 | |
| 46 | Blake Price – Travis Glenn | 5 | 12.26 | 175 | ||
| 47 | Bryce Rieder – Mike Edrington | 5 | 3.2 | 12.25 | 174 | |
| 48 | Paul Hager – Phil Allen | 5 | 3.87 | 12.08 | 173 | |
| 49 | Troy Hendrick – Chad Hendrick | 5 | 11.1 | 172 | ||
| 50 | John Wixson – Michael Wixon | 5 | 11 | 171 | ||
| 51 | Ron Rush – Rick Rush | 5 | 10.98 | 170 | ||
| 52 | John Campbell – David Rogers | 5 | 10.9 | 169 | ||
| 53 | Matt Hare – Jake Hare | 4 | 10.21 | 168 | ||
| 54 | Lennie Becker – Elmer Becker II | 5 | 3.59 | 10.18 | 167 | |
| 55 | Jordan Williams – Riley Hill | 5 | 9.9 | 166 | ||
| 56 | Mike Bennett – Gabe Bennett | 5 | 9.89 | 165 | ||
| 57 | Justin Hosler – Brandon Heimericks | 5 | 2.69 | 9.87 | 164 | |
| 58 | Bryan Baker – Darren Baker | 4 | 3.11 | 9.78 | 163 | |
| 59 | Tom McGovern – Larry Wright | 4 | 4.03 | 9.27 | 162 | |
| 60 | Aaron Foglesong – Jeff Wilkins | 4 | 9.11 | 161 | ||
| 61 | Jonathan Evans – Bradley Dillon | 4 | 9.04 | 160 | ||
| 62 | Mark Thompson – Mark Thompson II | 4 | 5 | 8.91 | 159 | |
| 63 | Stephen Smith – *Ben King | 3 | 8.3 | 158 | ||
| 64 | Kerry Kirkpatrick – Jeff Hamilton | 4 | 8.16 | 157 | ||
| 65 | Corey Besgrove – Eddie Brown | 5 | 3.4 | 8.14 | 156 | |
| 66 | Cole Dempsey – Anthony Thurman | 3 | 8.08 | 155 | ||
| 67 | Doug Blum – Tyler Bone | 4 | 8.06 | 154 | ||
| 68 | Dennis Dahlke – | 3 | 7.78 | 153 | ||
| 69 | Dennis Whitaker – Mike Tibbs | 3 | 3.28 | 7.33 | 152 | |
| 70 | Jim Sloan – Jeff Stout | 4 | 7.03 | 151 | ||
| 71 | Travis Poretta – Robert Daniels | 3 | 6.77 | 150 | ||
| 72 | Terry Bradley – Jason Swanigan | 3 | 6.56 | 149 | ||
| 73 | Duane Limbery – Tom LeBlanc | 3 | 5.56 | 148 | ||
| 74 | Troy Everly – Dylan Limback | 2 | 5.18 | 147 | ||
| 75 | Drake Fredrick – David Crabill | 3 | 5 | 146 | ||
| 76 | David Moore – Bob Moore | 2 | 4.68 | 145 | ||
| 77 | Larry Lagsding – Kevin Davis | 4 | 4.65 | 144 | ||
| 78 | Glen McCrary – Sondra McCrary | 2 | 4.22 | 143 | ||
| 79 | John Hewkin – Frank Meyer | 1 | 2.92 | 2.92 | 142 | |
| 80 | Dene White – Joe Dorcy | 2 | 2.85 | 141 | ||
| 81 | Casey Flood – Dan Flood | 1 | 2.47 | 2.47 | 140 | |
| 82 | Vincent Baugh – Sandra Davis | 1 | 1.81 | 1.81 | 139 | |
| 83 | Greg Askew – Terry Case | 0 | 20 | |||
| Justin Borum – Jake McKinnis | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Shawn Crabtree – Theresa Patterson | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Richard Evans – Terry Close | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Jason Fulton – Russell Fisher | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Dan Hirstein – Chris Hirstein | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Mike Long – Marvin Kinyon | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Josh Louiselle – Roger Umbarger | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Kevin Love – | 0 | 20 | ||||
| JR Loyd – Matthew Poling | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Ron Peek – Grieg Engel | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Adam Procter – *Cody Campbell | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Luke Routh – Tyler Weaver | 0 | 20 | ||||
| John Williams – Jim Williams | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Eric Zuk – Ben Zuk | 0 | 20 |
*alternate