Truman Lake continues to show its strength as nearly 700 pounds of bass were brought to the scales in the fourth event of the Joe Bass Truman Division. Following a day of high skies and high humidity, 63 teams dealt with the change up to overcast and rain for tournament day by averaging just shy of 11 pounds per team, with 42 limits caught by the field. Good fishing conditions only heightened the fight for 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.
Topping the field was Truman legend Jerry McCutchen and Kevin Smith. The duo’s best 5 bass for the day pushed the scales to 20.45, an outstanding result for a summer event! What makes their bag even more impressive is their big fish weighed 4.39 pounds, indicating the other four were clones of the big fish. Jerry and Kevin offered their Boats USA Keys to Success centered on working jigs, brush hogs, and a 10” worm in the 6-10’ range for an early limit followed by a few critical culls with suspended fish.
The veteran team of Greg Askew and Terry Case missed the win by just over a .25 pound. Fishing crowded conditions, Greg and Terry amassed their second place weight with a mix of jigs, buzzbaits and spinnerbaits. Their stringer was topped with the Ozark Chevrolet Big Bass of the event, a stud 5.60 lunker!
Sticking with the veteran theme, John Bennett and Darrell Reach rounded out the top three. Under normal conditions, a 19.30 pound sack would take bragging rights, but John and Darrell were forced to be content with a third place run for the day. The pair relied on a variety of presentations including a Whopper Plopper, buzzbait, squarebill, and spinnerbaits, all fished on shallow wood cover.
John Krewson and Charles Sersch took home the Sport Boats USA Skeeter Bonus. Their 18.60 pound bag, which placed them in 5 overall,w as taken from John’s Skeeter bass boat.
The next Truman Division event will launch from Shawnee Bend July 29th at 6:00am.
Photos
Final Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | Wgt | Pnlty | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout | |
| 1 | Jerry McCutchen – Kevin Smith | 5 | 20.5 | 4.39 | 20.45 | 110 | $1,600.00 | ||
| 2 | Greg Askew – Terry Case | 5 | 20.2 | 5.6 | 20.16 | 109 | $1,430.00 | 1st BB | |
| 3 | John Bennett – Darrell Reach | 5 | 19.3 | 4.6 | 19.3 | 108 | $900.00 | ||
| 4 | Chris Callahan – Randy Lutjen | 5 | 18.7 | 5.43 | 18.65 | 107 | $600.00 | ||
| 5 | John Krewson – Charles Sersch | 5 | 18.6 | 4.02 | 18.6 | 106 | $1,500.00 | Top Skeeter | |
| 6 | Matt Gunter – Bobby Williams | 5 | 17.6 | 4.56 | 17.58 | 105 | $400.00 | ||
| 7 | Ed Matthews – Bill Hall | 5 | 17.5 | 5.5 | 17.54 | 104 | $530.00 | 2BB | |
| 8 | Bryce Rieder – Mike Edrington | 5 | 16.6 | 4.67 | 16.61 | 103 | $250.00 | ||
| 9 | Brad Jelinek – John Slavens | 5 | 16.5 | 3.84 | 16.45 | 102 | $200.00 | ||
| 10 | David McCormick – Gary Shartzer | 5 | 15.9 | 15.86 | 101 | $180.00 | |||
| 11 | Charley Thomas – Chris Thomas | 5 | 15.4 | 3.99 | 15.42 | 100 | $150.00 | ||
| 12 | Tom McGovern – Rick Saunders | 5 | 15.4 | 3.72 | 15.4 | 99 | $130.00 | ||
| 13 | Robert Hime – Paul Huse | 5 | 15.4 | 4.36 | 15.36 | 98 | |||
| 14 | Wayne Garrison – Robbie Plowman | 5 | 15.3 | 4.32 | 15.34 | 97 | |||
| 15 | Joseph Hull – Brett Fickle | 5 | 15.3 | 4.57 | 15.28 | 96 | |||
| 16 | Jonathan Pimentel – Christopher Cross | 5 | 14.7 | 14.7 | 95 | ||||
| 17 | David Hathaway – Dustin Hall | 5 | 14.5 | 3.87 | 14.54 | 94 | |||
| 18 | Mike Rowland – *Dave Epema | 5 | 14.5 | 4.11 | 14.48 | 93 | |||
| 19 | Kevin Carl – Desmon Carl | 5 | 14.3 | 4.31 | 14.31 | 92 | |||
| 20 | Kevin Johnston – Roger Waters | 5 | 14.1 | 4.74 | 14.11 | 91 | |||
| 21 | Eric Zuk – *Chet Douthit | 5 | 14.1 | 3.94 | 14.08 | 90 | |||
| 22 | Todd Miller – Cameron Miller | 5 | 14 | 4.83 | 14.03 | 89 | |||
| 23 | Ronnie Rush – Rick Rush | 5 | 13.4 | 5.05 | 13.43 | 88 | |||
| 24 | Kevin Duer – Dustin Young | 5 | 13.4 | 3.48 | 13.41 | 87 | |||
| 25 | Justin Miller – Mathew Miller | 5 | 13.1 | 13.08 | 86 | ||||
| 26 | Bill Dennis – Steve Olive | 5 | 12.9 | 3.71 | 12.88 | 85 | |||
| 27 | Tim Hintenach – Dustin Hinkle | 5 | 12.6 | 12.64 | 84 | ||||
| 28 | Blake Felix – Keith Nickell | 5 | 12.1 | 12.12 | 83 | ||||
| 29 | Junior Fiedler – *Chris Fielder | 5 | 12 | 2.65 | 12.04 | 82 | |||
| 30 | Karl Schmids – Ysabel Arias | 5 | 12 | 4.28 | 12.02 | 81 | |||
| 31 | Shawn Crabtree – Reece Crabtree | 5 | 11.9 | 11.92 | 80 | ||||
| 32 | Mark Thompson – Mark Thompson II | 5 | 11.8 | 11.82 | 79 | ||||
| 33 | Tony Powers – *fished aalone | 5 | 11.2 | 11.23 | 78 | ||||
| 34 | Bryan Baker – Darren Baker | 5 | 11.2 | 5.13 | 11.17 | 77 | |||
| 35 | Sean Bowling – Brandon Brown | 5 | 10.9 | 10.86 | 76 | ||||
| 36 | Ron Peek – *fished aalone | 4 | 10.7 | 3.43 | 10.65 | 75 | |||
| 37 | Stephen Smith – Garen Hunt | 5 | 10.3 | 10.28 | 74 | ||||
| 38 | Chris Bridges – Steve Prince | 5 | 9.89 | 2.61 | 9.89 | 73 | |||
| 39 | Billy Greenwell – Kelley Greenwell | 5 | 9.84 | 9.84 | 72 | ||||
| 40 | Bob Jany – Dennis Schilb | 4 | 9.78 | 4.77 | 9.78 | 71 | |||
| 41 | Justin Hosler – Kyle McAdams | 5 | 9.75 | 9.75 | 70 | ||||
| 42 | Russ Hughes – Ronald Parker | 5 | 9.52 | 9.52 | 69 | ||||
| 43 | Phillip Schwartz – Colby Schwartz | 5 | 8.35 | 2.36 | 8.35 | 68 | |||
| 44 | Doug Wallace – Ozzie Wallace | 3 | 8.34 | 5.12 | 8.34 | 67 | |||
| 45 | Ricky Clemen – Stacy Howell | 5 | 7.76 | 7.76 | 66 | ||||
| 46 | Denis Repa – Alec Repa | 4 | 7.75 | 7.75 | 65 | ||||
| 47 | Jimmie Snodgrass – Jim Waggoner | 4 | 7.67 | 0.5 | 7.17 | 64 | |||
| 48 | Michael Simons – Jacob Simons | 3 | 7.08 | 3.55 | 7.08 | 63 | |||
| 49 | Don Heiser – Jim Sells | 2 | 7.04 | 3.55 | 7.04 | 62 | |||
| 50 | Ken Mason – Michael Baker | 3 | 7.01 | 4.71 | 7.01 | 61 | |||
| 51 | Randy Oliphant – Scott Oliphant | 2 | 6.86 | 4.1 | 6.86 | 60 | |||
| 52 | James Macleod – Danny Johnston | 4 | 6.57 | 2.54 | 6.57 | 59 | |||
| 53 | *David Rogers – Rusty Darnell | 4 | 6.23 | 6.23 | 58 | ||||
| 54 | David Moore – Bob Moore | 3 | 4.76 | 4.76 | 57 | ||||
| 55 | Glen McCrary – Sondra McCrary | 2 | 3.29 | 3.29 | 56 | ||||
| 56 | Jack Young – Bill McAvoy | 1 | 2.58 | 2.58 | 2.58 | 55 | |||
| 57 | Lennie Becker – Elmer Becker | 2 | 2.37 | 2.37 | 54 | ||||
| 58 | Lyle Armstrong – Mitchell Armstrong | 0 | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Nicholas Leggett – Alec Mueller | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Edward Nelson – Tony Zaharsky | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Luke Routh – Deven Kauffman | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Ted Vick – *fished aalone | 0 | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| John Williams – James Brown | 0 | 0 | 10 |
*alternate