The news of the passing of Truman veteran Bobby Williams cast a somber tone on a rainy takeoff of the inaugural event of the Joe Bass Team Trails Truman Division. Bobby, a quiet man with a sly country smile and a firm handshake will be sorely missed by all the Truman anglers. With the first two events of the divisional season postponed by the COVID-19 crisis, the 108 teams that gathered at Shawnee Bend were ready to get the season going! With angler safety first and foremost, special consideration was given for registration and weigh-in which included minimizing contact at check-in, social distancing, and masks and/or Joe Bass hoorags in use at the angler’s discretion. All of that combined with a myriad of unstable weather conditions leading up to derby day set the stage for the kick-off event.
Topping the field was the reigning points champions, Jerry McCutchen and Kevin Smith. Their 23.25 stringer gave them a 2 ½ margin over the runner up position. They anchored their bag with the second big bass of the event, a 6.12 toad. Kevin noted their Sport Boats USA Key to Success was Jerry fishing his trademark black and blue Chompers jig while he followed up with a green pumpkin Chompers Boss Hawg. They concentrated on the 2’- 6’ range, targeting prespawn fish while catching around two dozen keepers for the day. Chompers offering 20% discount to Joe Bass members.
The runner-up position was taken by Kenny Sloan and Brandon Mick. They alternated between swim jigs and Senkos in the 2’-8’ range to boat 20.62 pounds. Kenny and Brandon worked through 15 keepers to amass their second place weight.
Matt Gunter paired with Kelly Nunn to round out the top three. Matt and Kelly also put the jig to good use as they flipped shallow stumps to bag a solid 20.04 limit. Matt added they didn’t catch a lot of fish but what they caught were the rights ones.
Todd and Cameron Miller wrested the Ozark Chevrolet Big Bass of the day to the scales. Their 6.65 lunker hit a jig flipped to a stump in a foot and half of water. Cameron quipped the stump was “1 of 4000” they fished for the day!
Mark Thompson and Mark Thompson II netted the Sport Boats USA Highest Finishing Skeeter bonus. They culled through 25 keepers on an all-day Chompers spinnerbait/topwater bite to put 19.65 pounds of bass in Mark’s 2020 Sport Boats USA ZX225 Skeeter.
Adding to their fourth place overall and highest Skeeter bonus, Mark was the monthly winner of the Rapala/VMC/ Suffix/Storm package. All it takes is turning in your cartons/containers to be eligible for the monthly drawing!
The next event in the 2020 Truman Division will be June 14th at Shawnee Bend Ramp with a 6:00am takeoff. With the large turnouts, be sure and show up early to get checked in and launched prior to the scheduled take-off time.
Photos
Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | Pnlty | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout | |
| 1 | Jerry McCutchen – Kevin Smith | 5 | 6.12 | 23.25 | 110 | $3,990.00 | 2BB | |
| 2 | Kenny Sloan – Brendon Mick | 5 | 5.18 | 20.62 | 109 | $2,000.00 | ||
| 3 | Matt Gunter – *Kelly Nunn | 5 | 5.54 | 20.04 | 108 | $1,372.00 | ||
| 4 | Mark Thompson – Mark Thompson II | 5 | 4.58 | 19.65 | 107 | $2,148.00 | Skeeter $ | |
| 5 | Brett Fickle – Joseph Hull | 5 | 4.59 | 18.81 | 106 | $600.00 | ||
| 6 | John Campbell – David Rogers | 5 | 6.05 | 18.74 | 105 | $600.00 | ||
| 7 | Charley Thomas – Chris Thomas | 5 | 5.18 | 18.73 | 104 | $500.00 | ||
| 8 | Jeffery Smith – Jeffery A Smith | 5 | 0.5 | 5.87 | 18.68 | 103 | $400.00 | |
| 9 | Roger Fitzpatrick – Chase Fitzpatrick | 5 | 4.89 | 18.23 | 102 | $300.00 | ||
| 10 | Greg Askew – Terry Case | 5 | 5.1 | 18.12 | 101 | $250.00 | ||
| 11 | Luke Routh – Tyler Weaver | 5 | 4.59 | 17.91 | 100 | $250.00 | ||
| 12 | Danny Johnston – James Macleod | 5 | 4.97 | 17.84 | 99 | $250.00 | ||
| 13 | Kevin Rogers – Hunter Bowling | 5 | 4.67 | 17.68 | 98 | $200.00 | ||
| 14 | Justin Miller – Mathew Miller | 5 | 4.61 | 17.47 | 97 | $200.00 | ||
| 15 | Bill Dennis – Steve Olive | 5 | 6.03 | 17.39 | 96 | $200.00 | ||
| 16 | *Fred Jobe – Jamie Edge | 5 | 0.5 | 4.5 | 17.36 | 95 | $180.00 | |
| 17 | Dennis Berhorst – Greg Berhorst | 5 | 17.35 | 94 | $180.00 | |||
| 18 | John Bennett – Darrell Reach | 5 | 17.17 | 93 | $180.00 | |||
| 19 | David McCormick – Gary Shartzer | 5 | 5.11 | 17.01 | 92 | $160.00 | ||
| 20 | Timmy Newberry – Rusty Darnell | 5 | 4.86 | 16.93 | 91 | $160.00 | ||
| 21 | Ronnie Kane – Cody Paxton | 5 | 5.66 | 16.81 | 90 | $160.00 | ||
| 22 | Donnie Reynolds – Mark Reynolds | 5 | 5.1 | 16.67 | 89 | |||
| 23 | Danny Burns – Ival Hannah | 5 | 5.26 | 16.55 | 88 | |||
| 24 | Brandon Morris – Logan Carter | 5 | 4.39 | 16.28 | 87 | |||
| 25 | Andre Dickniete – Noah Dickneite | 5 | 16.25 | 86 | ||||
| 26 | Shawn Crabtree – *Theresa Patterson | 5 | 3.53 | 16.2 | 85 | |||
| 27 | Kolin Rogers – Wyatt Miller | 5 | 4.32 | 16.16 | 84 | |||
| 28 | Mark Riegel – JR Shinn | 5 | 4.4 | 16.15 | 83 | |||
| 29 | Kevin Johnston – Roger Waters | 5 | 4.41 | 15.69 | 82 | |||
| 30 | Bryce Rieder – Mike Edrington | 5 | 3.52 | 15.6 | 81 | |||
| 31 | Ronnie Rush – Rick Rush | 5 | 15.51 | 80 | ||||
| 32 | Todd Miller – Cameron Miller | 5 | 6.65 | 15.46 | 79 | $700.00 | 1BB | |
| 33 | Andrew Gwilliams – Brenden Williams | 5 | 5.78 | 15.31 | 78 | |||
| 34 | Brock Schuld – | 5 | 15.26 | 77 | ||||
| 35 | Ron Peek – Pat Deaton | 5 | 4.19 | 15.23 | 76 | |||
| 36 | Wayne Garrison – Doug Zink | 5 | 4.3 | 15.09 | 75 | |||
| 37 | Joel Klonowski – | 5 | 15.02 | 74 | ||||
| 38 | Russell Oliphant – *Brody Boone | 5 | 14.8 | 73 | ||||
| 39 | Troy Hendrick – Chad Hendrick | 5 | 14.79 | 72 | ||||
| 39 | Dene White – Joe Dorcy | 5 | 14.79 | 72 | ||||
| 41 | Larry Wright – Doug Wallace | 5 | 3.68 | 14.76 | 70 | |||
| 42 | Bryan Baker – Darren Baker | 5 | 3.95 | 14.63 | 69 | |||
| 43 | Bob Jany – Dennis Schilb | 5 | 3.41 | 14.55 | 68 | |||
| 44 | Brandon Rowland – Russel Nigh | 5 | 14.46 | 67 | ||||
| 45 | Michael Dugger – Jeff Lang | 5 | 14.23 | 66 | ||||
| 46 | Kevin Duer – Dustin Young | 5 | 3.77 | 14.14 | 65 | |||
| 47 | Scott Hill – Brandon Hill | 5 | 14.1 | 64 | ||||
| 48 | Denis Repa – Alec Repa | 5 | 14.07 | 63 | ||||
| 49 | Clay Messmer – Chris Klenke | 5 | 14.02 | 62 | ||||
| 50 | Roger Umbarger – Josh Louisville | 5 | 3.99 | 13.91 | 61 | |||
| 51 | Mike Rogers – *Jason Crist | 5 | 13.88 | 60 | ||||
| 52 | Charles Abbott – Timothy Wells | 5 | 13.8 | 59 | ||||
| 53 | Ricky Clemen – Phil McKinney | 5 | 4.04 | 13.73 | 58 | |||
| 54 | Jay Roe – John Bollinger | 5 | 13.62 | 57 | ||||
| 55 | Lennie Becker – Elmer Becker II | 5 | 3.39 | 13.41 | 56 | |||
| 56 | Mike Scott – Jack Uxa | 5 | 13.33 | 55 | ||||
| 57 | John Krewson – Tony Powers | 5 | 13.21 | 54 | ||||
| 58 | Mark Dunbar – Johnny Bell | 5 | 4.43 | 13.17 | 53 | |||
| 59 | Sean Bowling – Brandon Brown | 5 | 12.96 | 52 | ||||
| 60 | Rich Campbell – *Kelan Raines | 5 | 12.88 | 51 | ||||
| 61 | Eric Zuk – Chet Douthit | 5 | 12.79 | 50 | ||||
| 62 | Edward Nelson – Tony Zaharsky | 5 | 4.07 | 12.64 | 49 | |||
| 63 | Lyle Armstrong – Mitchell Armstrong | 5 | 12.62 | 48 | ||||
| 64 | Michael Simons – Jacob Simons | 5 | 3.24 | 12.6 | 47 | |||
| 65 | Dan Weber – Robert Leininger | 5 | 0.5 | 12.51 | 46 | |||
| 66 | Tom McGovern – Chris McGovern | 5 | 3.91 | 12.41 | 45 | |||
| 67 | Ricky York – Ed Gilbert | 5 | 12.33 | 44 | ||||
| 68 | Tim Hintenach – Travis Williams | 5 | 12.29 | 43 | ||||
| 69 | Greg Seiner – R Keeney | 5 | 12.06 | 42 | ||||
| 70 | Randy Oliphant – Scott Oliphant | 4 | 11.82 | 41 | ||||
| 71 | Don Heiser – Jim Sells | 5 | 11.71 | 40 | ||||
| 72 | Gary Arterberry – Gus Adkinson | 5 | 11.57 | 39 | ||||
| 73 | Jared Knuth – David Knuth | 4 | 11.29 | 38 | ||||
| 74 | *Rick Bowman – Garen Hunt | 5 | 1.5 | 4.57 | 11.26 | 37 | ||
| 75 | Justin Hosler – Kyle McAdams | 5 | 3.27 | 11.11 | 36 | |||
| 76 | *Eric Englehart – Steve Prince | 5 | 11.08 | 35 | ||||
| 77 | Tony Habiger – Fabricio Toledo | 5 | 11.02 | 34 | ||||
| 78 | Kevin Love – Parker Love | 4 | 10.84 | 33 | ||||
| 79 | Bill McAvoy – Jack Young | 5 | 10.78 | 32 | ||||
| 80 | Chris Callahan – Justin Wasmer | 5 | 10.41 | 31 | ||||
| 81 | Troy Thomas – *Troy Paretta | 4 | 0.5 | 10.35 | 30 | |||
| 82 | Doug Long – Marty Watson | 5 | 10.07 | 29 | ||||
| 83 | Corey Besgrove – Eddie Brown | 5 | 9.95 | 28 | ||||
| 84 | Joddy Dungan – John Matousek | 3 | 4.91 | 9.75 | 27 | |||
| 85 | Scott Triplett – Todd Shaw | 4 | 9.39 | 26 | ||||
| 86 | Karl Schmidt – Bret Stracke | 3 | 9.19 | 25 | ||||
| 87 | Danny Carter – Chris Carter | 4 | 8.85 | 24 | ||||
| 88 | Junior Fiedler – Chris Fiedler | 3 | 4.3 | 8.66 | 23 | |||
| 89 | Bill Jared – Rich Carpenter | 4 | 0.5 | 7.75 | 22 | |||
| 90 | Glen McCrary – Sondra McCrary | 3 | 7.08 | 21 | ||||
| 91 | Roy Butler – Michael Butler | 3 | 6.93 | 20 | ||||
| 92 | Aaron Vaughn – Parrish Vaughn | 2 | 5 | 19 | ||||
| 93 | Paul Redmond – Craig Honnywell | 2 | 4.94 | 18 | ||||
| 94 | Nick Hargis – Samantha Hargis | 2 | 4.08 | 17 | ||||
| 95 | Ozzie Wallace – | 1 | 2.65 | 2.65 | 16 | |||
| 96 | Kenny Bogner – Justin Bogner | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Jeff Bradford – Bryan Vote | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Rocky Carden – Jacob Delong | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Jonathan Evans – Bradley Dillon | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Brandon Flood – | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Kirk Holland – | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Brad Jelinek – Brock Reinkemeyer | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Marvin Kinyon – Mike Long | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Sam Maggio – Troy Ladenhoff | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Roger Norton – Brian Shull | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Jason Swarnigan – Carl Scott | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Mike Thomas – Debbie Thomas | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| John Williams – James Brown | 0 | 10 |
*alternate