As normal, Truman Division anglers faced far from normal conditions, this month in the form of a lake that is 20 feet above normal pool coupled with the effects of a passing front that saw a shift from cloudy skies and light rain on Saturday to clear skies and high winds on tournament day. After launching from the high-water ramp at Shawnee Bend and battling a crowded parking lot and no docks, anglers set out to attack the conditions. The skill of the Truman Division anglers was tested again as only 8 five-fish limits were brought to the scales by 55 teams. Nonetheless, many teams weighed at least a keeper Kentucky bass with the goal of stockpiling points and the chance to qualify for the Joe Bass Team Trails Championship at Table Rock Lake in October.
Experience proves to be a stellar quality in events held under atypical conditions, and no team has more years of experience on Truman than Steve Olive and Bill Dennis. The pair used a boat malfunction during practice that forced them to stay on the trolling motor to get back to the truck where they ran into what would prove to be the winning stringer of bass, a 20.37 pound stringer at that! Bill noted they flipped ¾ ounce jigs with Brush Hog trailers to flooded willows on flat banks in 6-8’ of water to catch their bag. Included in their sack was the Ozarks Chevrolet big bass of the event, a 5.76 pound lunker. Bill joked that their Sport Boats USA Key for Success was running out of gas in practice which caused them to fish their way back to their launch site.
Chris Cooley and Desmon Carl brought 15.78 pounds of Truman bass to the scales to take second place. On what was a tough day for the field overall, Desmon noted they culled four times on their way to their final weight. After zeroing on Saturday, the pair ran to the clearer waters of the Grand and pitched jigs super shallow to catch their bass.
Rounding out the top three was John Bennett and Darrell Reach. They alternated between spinnerbaits and flipping jigs in the mid-Osage to amass a 14.78 pound bag. They reported fishing fairly shallow as their fish came from 4-6’ of water.
Once again proving it pays to run a Skeeter, Mark Thompson and Mark Thompson II eked out the highest finishing Skeeter bonus as they put 8.73 pounds of bass into Mark’s 2016 Skeeter ZX225.
The next event in the Truman Division is June 25th at 6:00 am, Shawnee Bend Ramp.
Photos
Final Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | Pnlty | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout |
| 1 | Bill Dennis – Steve Olive | 5 | 5.76 | 20.37 | 110 | $1,830.00 | |
| 2 | *Chris Cooley – Desmon Carl | 5 | 4.49 | 15.78 | 109 | $1,125.00 | |
| 3 | John Bennett – *Darrell Reach | 5 | 4.17 | 14.78 | 108 | $850.00 | |
| 4 | Jay Hulsey – Kyle Hulsey | 5 | 5.11 | 14.2 | 107 | $500.00 | |
| 5 | Don Heiser – *Gary Martin | 5 | 3.54 | 12.76 | 106 | $400.00 | |
| 6 | Charley Thomas – Chris Thomas | 5 | 3.18 | 12.59 | 105 | $250.00 | |
| 7 | Justin Miller – Mathew Miller | 5 | 11.61 | 104 | $220.00 | ||
| 8 | Ronnie Rush – Rick Rush | 4 | 4.38 | 11.24 | 103 | $200.00 | |
| 9 | Michael Simons – Jacob Simons | 5 | 9.53 | 102 | $180.00 | ||
| 10 | Junior Fiedler – Cody Fielder | 4 | 9.44 | 101 | $150.00 | ||
| 11 | Mark Thompson – Mark Thompson II | 5 | 4.03 | 8.73 | 100 | $630.00 | |
| 12 | Eric Zuk – Ben Zuk | 4 | 3.69 | 8.68 | 99 | ||
| 13 | Brian Foster – Neil Sword | 4 | 7.44 | 98 | |||
| 14 | John Williams – James Brown | 3 | 3.52 | 7.04 | 97 | ||
| 15 | Stephen Smith – Garen Hunt | 3 | 6.14 | 96 | |||
| 16 | Denis Repa – Alec Repa | 3 | 5.9 | 95 | |||
| 17 | Sean Bowling – Brandon Brown | 2 | 5.88 | 94 | |||
| 18 | Greg Askew – Terry Case | 3 | 5.78 | 93 | |||
| 19 | Timmy Newberry – Rusty Darnell | 2 | 0.5 | 5.23 | 92 | ||
| 20 | Mark Riegel – JR Shinn | 1 | 5.12 | 5.12 | 91 | $200.00 | |
| 21 | Todd Miller – Cameron Miller | 2 | 5.12 | 90 | |||
| 22 | *Gage Key – Bob Bradley | 2 | 4.7 | 89 | |||
| 23 | Shawn Crabtree – *Dallas Crabtree | 3 | 4.58 | 88 | |||
| 24 | Wayne Garrison – Robbie Plowman | 2 | 3.61 | 4.47 | 87 | ||
| 25 | Matt Gunter – *Terry Bradley | 2 | 4.31 | 86 | |||
| 26 | Mike Thomas – Bob Thomas | 2 | 2.6 | 4.26 | 85 | ||
| 27 | Justin Hosler – Kyle McAdams | 2 | 4.03 | 84 | |||
| 28 | Kevin Johnston – Roger Waters | 2 | 3.98 | 83 | |||
| 29 | Ed Matthews – Gus Beitz | 2 | 3.84 | 82 | |||
| 30 | Greg Miller – *fished alone | 2 | 3.81 | 81 | |||
| 31 | Tim Hintenach – Dustin Hinkle | 2 | 3.5 | 80 | |||
| 32 | Doug Wallace – Ozzie Wallace | 2 | 3.4 | 79 | |||
| 33 | Jason Swarnigan – Carl Scott | 2 | 2.94 | 78 | |||
| 34 | Tony Powers – *Adam Singleton | 1 | 2.66 | 2.66 | 77 | ||
| 35 | Glen McCrary – Sondra McCrary | 1 | 2.55 | 2.55 | 76 | ||
| 36 | Jonathan Evans – Bradley Dillon | 1 | 2.43 | 2.43 | 75 | ||
| 37 | Michael Baker – Kennith Mason | 1 | 2.29 | 2.29 | 74 | ||
| 38 | Russell Potter – Rick Potter | 1 | 2.17 | 2.17 | 73 | ||
| 39 | Jack Young – Bill McAvoy | 1 | 1.99 | 1.99 | 72 | ||
| 40 | Richard Johnson – Charles Cadenhead | 1 | 1.93 | 1.93 | 71 | ||
| 41 | Jesse Gardner – Mark Glover | 1 | 1.29 | 1.29 | 70 | ||
| 42 | Edward Robinson – Kyle Morse | 1 | 1.09 | 1.09 | 69 | ||
| 43 | Bryan Baker – Darren Baker | 1 | 0.92 | 0.92 | 68 | ||
| 44 | Lennie Becker – Elmer Becker | 0 | 10 | ||||
| *Berry Scoma – Anthony Scoma | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Chris Callahan – Justin Wasmer | 0 | 10 | |||||
| John Campbell – Chuck Roberts | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Danny Carter – Chris Carter | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Joseph DeSeure – Kyle Lund | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Richard Evans – Terry Close | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Tyler Matlock – Connie Matlock | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Patrick ONeal – John Driver | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Ron Peek – Grieg Engel | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Michael Powell – Mike Perry | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Kris Schroeder – Everett Becker | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Phillip Schwartz – Colby Schwartz | 0 | 10 |
*alternate