Whether you determine to use the original military version or the more contemporary definition, the term snafu accurately reflects the conditions that have dominated the spring fishing derbies in the 2022 Joe Bass Team Trails season. Whether it is post front conditions, radical temperature swings, or the horrendous winds that have plagued many events, anglers have had to deal with ever-changing conditions. The second event of the Truman Division sponsored by Everharts Outdoor Store followed weekday temps in the 90’s followed by a horrendous midmorning storm with 70mph local winds, torrential rain and hail. Oh, one probably noticed the lake jumped 12’ in a matter of days as well, leading to confusion on how the late spawners would react. It has become cliché to say that somebody always figures them out, as was the case as 107 teams launched in search of daily bragging rights and valuable qualifying points for the Joe Bass Invitational to be held Stockton Lake next fall.
Topping the field on a tough day was Steve Vanzant and Cameron Rieder. Their five fish limit came in at 17.93 pounds. Steve shared their Everharts Keys to Success involved working brush hogs and senkos in deeper bushes with the 8’-10’ range being the depth. Steve also noted they leaned on their forward looking sonar to target fish on specific bushes. Steve and Cameron added to their first place prize money as they landed the daily Top Skeeter honors as they fished from Steve’s 2020 ZXR20.
Just behind the leaders was the team of John Bennett and Darrell Reach. Their tournament limit weighed in at 17.11 pounds. John said they caught a few keepers on a lizard but did the lion’s share of the damage with a frog. In an attempt to not get lost in a jungle of flooded brush, Darrell explained they targeted shallow banks with very isolated cover to coax the frog bite.
The defending Truman points champions, Matt Gunter and Kelly Nunn, rounded out the top three with a solid 15.88 pound limit. They relied on a black and blue jig coupled with a painted blade spinnerbait to get their bites. Their bag included the Ozark Chevrolet Big Bass, a 6.05 lunker which fell to the spinnerbait.
Special thanks to Everharts Outdoor Store, Lakes Inn, and Anglers Port Marine for their outstanding support of the division.
The third stage of the Joe Bass Truman season will take place Sunday June 12th 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 | Pnlty | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout |
| 1 | Steve Vanzant – Cameron Rieder | 5 | 5.81 | 17.93 | 220 | $5,340.00 | |
| 2 | John Bennett – Darrell Reach | 5 | 0.5 | 4.09 | 16.61 | 219 | $2,380.00 |
| 3 | Matt Gunter – Kelly Nunn | 5 | 6.05 | 15.88 | 218 | $1,750.00 | |
| 4 | Greg James – Doug Hoeppner | 5 | 4.77 | 15.26 | 217 | $700.00 | |
| 5 | Dene White – Joe Dorcy | 5 | 4.94 | 14.39 | 216 | $500.00 | |
| 6 | Ronnie Kane – Cory Steckler | 5 | 3.94 | 14.38 | 215 | $400.00 | |
| 7 | Rich Campbell – Travis Stevens | 5 | 3.71 | 14.13 | 214 | $300.00 | |
| 8 | Chris Thomas – Charley Thomas | 5 | 4.27 | 14.03 | 213 | $300.00 | |
| 9 | Nicholas Leggett – Logan Carter | 5 | 3.99 | 13.97 | 212 | $300.00 | |
| 10 | Dennis Dahlke – Joe Riley | 5 | 3.31 | 13.89 | 211 | $250.00 | |
| 11 | Wyatt Miller – Kolin Rogers | 5 | 3.16 | 13.63 | 210 | $250.00 | |
| 12 | William Orhring – Dan LaBouke | 5 | 3.61 | 13.56 | 209 | $200.00 | |
| 13 | Greg Askew – Terry Case | 5 | 3.24 | 13.26 | 208 | $200.00 | |
| 14 | John Hodson – Kelvin Charles | 5 | 4.35 | 13.25 | 207 | $180.00 | |
| 15 | Kenny Sloan – Brendon Mick | 5 | 3.6 | 13.17 | 206 | $180.00 | |
| 16 | Charles Edgar – Steve Fowler | 5 | 1.5 | 13.17 | 205 | $180.00 | |
| 17 | Steve Gwadera – Jake Desselle | 5 | 3.68 | 13.1 | 204 | $180.00 | |
| 18 | Jim Sloan – Jeff Stout | 5 | 5.3 | 13.05 | 203 | $160.00 | |
| 19 | Brad Jelinek – Brock Reinkemeyer | 5 | 4.1 | 12.93 | 202 | $160.00 | |
| 20 | Doug Blum – Tyler Bone | 5 | 3.3 | 12.93 | 201 | $160.00 | |
| 21 | Bryce Rieder – Mike Edrington | 5 | 3.14 | 12.85 | 200 | $160.00 | |
| 22 | Corey Besgrove – Eddie Brown | 5 | 3.49 | 12.66 | 199 | ||
| 23 | Justin Borum – Jake McKinnis | 5 | 12.46 | 198 | |||
| 24 | Donnie Reynolds – *Wade Taylor | 5 | 3.4 | 12.14 | 197 | ||
| 25 | Cody Campbell – Quinten Carr | 5 | 3.56 | 11.95 | 196 | ||
| 26 | John Prochko – Diego Segui | 5 | 11.85 | 195 | |||
| 27 | Kris Bollinger – Coty Baldwin | 5 | 0.5 | 11.72 | 194 | ||
| 28 | Tony Powers – | 5 | 2.81 | 11.71 | 193 | ||
| 29 | Karl Schmidt – Dan Martinez | 5 | 0.5 | 11.6 | 192 | ||
| 30 | Mark Riegel – JR Shinn | 5 | 5.33 | 11.57 | 191 | ||
| 31 | Justin Miller – Mathew Miller | 5 | 11.44 | 190 | |||
| 32 | Mike Bennett – Gabe Bennett | 5 | 3.19 | 11.39 | 189 | ||
| 33 | Mark Thompson – Mark Thompson II | 5 | 3.61 | 11.14 | 188 | ||
| 34 | Dan Weber – Robert Leininger | 4 | 3.25 | 11.13 | 187 | ||
| 35 | Aaron Foglesong – Jeff Wilkins | 5 | 11.1 | 186 | |||
| 36 | Jonathan Evans – Bradley Dillon | 5 | 10.99 | 185 | |||
| 37 | Riley Hill – *Payton Tollivar | 5 | 10.85 | 184 | |||
| 38 | Jeremy Olson – Travis Waxmonski | 5 | 2.6 | 10.71 | 183 | ||
| 39 | Ricky Clemen – Phil McKinney | 5 | 10.62 | 182 | |||
| 40 | Kerry Moore – Tom Terrell | 5 | 3.41 | 10.52 | 181 | ||
| 41 | Danny Carter – Chris Carter | 4 | 3.59 | 10.43 | 180 | ||
| 42 | Michael Dugger – Tim Goliglee | 5 | 10.38 | 179 | |||
| 43 | Mark Simmons – Terry Lawhon | 5 | 10.16 | 178 | |||
| 44 | Justin Hosler – Keith Dugan | 5 | 9.97 | 177 | |||
| 45 | Joe Bennett – | 5 | 3.01 | 9.84 | 176 | ||
| 46 | Kevin Whightsil – Darren Lofts | 3 | 3.95 | 9.6 | 175 | ||
| 47 | Randy Oliphant – Scott Oliphant | 5 | 9.43 | 174 | |||
| 48 | Brett Fickle – Joseph Hull | 5 | 9.4 | 173 | |||
| 49 | Tim Brennan – Cole Wiggs | 5 | 0.5 | 9.36 | 172 | ||
| 50 | Cole Dempsey – Chris Gaines | 3 | 4.67 | 9.21 | 171 | ||
| 51 | Roy Butler – Gary Maxwell | 5 | 9.21 | 170 | |||
| 52 | Jerry McCutchen – Kevin Smith | 5 | 2.68 | 9.18 | 169 | ||
| 53 | Brock Schuld – Phillip Montano | 5 | 8.91 | 168 | |||
| 54 | Richard Johnson – Charles Cadenhead | 3 | 3.34 | 8.69 | 167 | ||
| 55 | Jack Young – Bill MacAvoy | 4 | 8.28 | 166 | |||
| 56 | Ryan Tucker – Ryan Heise | 4 | 0.5 | 8.16 | 165 | ||
| 57 | Edward Nelson – Tony Zaharsky | 4 | 8.03 | 164 | |||
| 58 | Eric Zuk – Ben Zuk | 3 | 7.68 | 163 | |||
| 59 | Shawn Crabtree – Theresa Patterson | 5 | 2.45 | 7.67 | 162 | ||
| 60 | Phillip Schwartz – Steve Kleihauer | 3 | 7.48 | 161 | |||
| 61 | Stephen Smith – Garen Hunt | 4 | 7.27 | 160 | |||
| 62 | Kevin Johnston – Roger Waters | 5 | 7.17 | 159 | |||
| 63 | *fished aalone – Bill Barsotti | 5 | 6.59 | 158 | |||
| 64 | Blaze Bullard – *Timmy Bullard | 3 | 6.58 | 157 | |||
| 65 | Tim Hintenach – Travis Williams | 3 | 6.46 | 156 | |||
| 66 | Bryan Baker – Darren Baker | 3 | 6.12 | 155 | |||
| 67 | Chadd Bliss – *Colby Bliss | 3 | 5.9 | 154 | |||
| 68 | Troy Hendrick – Chad Hendrick | 3 | 5.89 | 153 | |||
| 69 | Barton Wines – Domonique Palma | 3 | 5.77 | 152 | |||
| 70 | Lennie Becker – Elmer Becker II | 2 | 4.15 | 5.76 | 151 | ||
| 71 | Aaron Vaughn – Parrish Vaughn | 3 | 5.7 | 150 | |||
| 72 | Ricky York – Ed Gilbert | 3 | 5.53 | 149 | |||
| 73 | Doug Long – Marty Watson | 2 | 3.42 | 5.28 | 148 | ||
| 74 | John Williams – *Rocky Carden | 2 | 3.44 | 5.23 | 147 | ||
| 75 | Gaige Blanton – Garret Cates | 2 | 0.5 | 5.09 | 146 | ||
| 76 | Troy Thomas – Mike Eickmann | 2 | 4.13 | 145 | |||
| 77 | Bill Jared – Rich Carpenter | 2 | 3.93 | 144 | |||
| 78 | John Hewkin – Frank Meyer | 2 | 3.76 | 143 | |||
| 79 | Glen McCrary – Sondra McCrary | 2 | 3.1 | 142 | |||
| 80 | Chad Karns – Austin Karns | 1 | 2.32 | 2.32 | 141 | ||
| 81 | Glenn Batson – Ralph Laster | 0 | 20 | ||||
| Jeff Bear – Quenton Bear | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Brandon Brown – Steve Prince | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Kevin Duer – Dustin Young | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Troy Everly – | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Logan Farrimond – | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Junior Fiedler – Chris Fiedler | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Tyler Frahm – Austin Frahm | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Mike Fusaro – | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Troy Hardie – Tommie Hutchenson | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Matt Hare – Jake Hare | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Patrick Hatfield – Chad Housh | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Dan Hirstein – Chris Hirstein | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Jon Lengel – Les Gillett | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Kevin Love – | 0 | 20 | |||||
| *Tim Sadler – Ben Sadler | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Sam Maggio – Terry Cooper | 0 | 20 | |||||
| David McCormick – Gary Shartzer | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Edward Merriman – David Smart | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Todd Miller – Cameron Miller | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Greg Miller – Ayden Scott | 0 | 20 | |||||
| *John Campbell – Rusty Darnell | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Ron Peek – Pat Deaton | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Larry Stoafer – | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Mike Ward – Peyton Jackson | 0 | 20 | |||||
| Lance Blevins – | 0 | 20 |
*alternate