06/24/18 Twain

Teams struggle as tough bite dominates Mark Twain Lake.

The weather leading up to the June 24th tournament had above normal temperatures and precipitation, making traditional summer fishing patterns the bet for success. However, a strong cold front pushed trough the area on Friday pushing temperatures into the mid 50’s for overnight lows and mid 70’s to low 80’s for weekend high temps. Nobody is quite sure what else may have contributed to the tough bite, but it was as tough as many have seen it in years.

Taking the top spot today was the team of Jason Huskey and Bryan Hulsey. The Karrenbrock Excavating sponsored team, started off slowly in the mid-lake area and with no keepers at 10 o’clock, made a move to the lower end of the lake. The move proved critical as the team quickly put their first keeper in the boat at 10:30. Jason and Bryan point hopped the lower end of the lake looking for active fish, their baits of choice were Brushogs and Senko style baits fished in 8 to 12 feet of water to finish their limit. At about 2 o’clock the team made a move back to the mid-lake area and upgraded their limit with a nice chunk that fell for the Brushog on a main lake point. Jason and Bryan needed every bit of the upgrade as their limit weighing a net 10.97 pounds was only a tenth of a pound bigger than the second-place team.

The second-place finish on this tough day belonged to Ken Young and John Drury. The Team had not been on Mark Twain in over a year and perhaps that fact alone helped the team find success as they had no pre-conceived idea of what the fish were doing. Ken and John fished worms and other soft plastics on a shakey head rig in 6 to 15 feet of water on points and channel swings. Included in their 10.87-pound limit was the second big bass of the tournament weighing 3.48 pounds.

Finding the third spot today was the team of Charlie Kunkle and Keith Williams. Big worms and a jig were the baits of choice for this team fishing mainly the lower end of the lake, focusing on timbered points and brush piles in 8 to 20 feet of water. Their 4 fish weighing 9.40 pounds was not only good enough for third place they were also the highest finishing Skeeter fishing out of Keith’s 2014 FX20.

Managing only 3 keeper bites on the day was the team of Jim Coyner and Keith Ostrander. Those fish weighing 9.38 pounds was good enough for a fourth-place finish and a Big fish of 4.65 pounds was good enough to be the Ozark Chevrolet Big Joe Bass.

Our next 154 Marine sponsored tournament at Mark Twain Lake is July 15th 6am take off Robert Allen Ramp.

27 Teams 2 Limits 40 fish weighed

Photos

Final Results

Place	Team Members	Fish	Pnlty	B/F	TotWgt	Pts	Payout
1	Jason Huskey – Bryan Hulsey	5	0.5		10.97	110	$1,200.00
2	Ken Young – *John Drury	5		3.48	10.87	109	$730.00
3	Charlie Kunkle – Keith Williams	4			9.4	108	$730.00
4	Jim Coyner – Keith Ostrander	3		4.65	9.38	107	$410.00
5	Mike Tucker – Cory Kunkle	3			9.12	106	$172.00
6	Keith Hendrix – Greg Zumwalt	3			6.76	105
7	Bill Kayser – Donnie Seabaugh	3			6.38	104
8	David Shelton – Rustin Hayes	3			6.2	103
9	David Kampschroeder – Dustin Kampschroeder	2			4.38	102
10	Deno Ek – Tad Richards	2			3.79	101
11	Steve Weber – Sam Phillips	2			3.53	100
12	Chad Denningmann – Kurt Denningmann	1		2.78	2.78	99
13	John Perotti – Dominic Perotti	1		2.45	2.45	98
14	Lonnie Franklin – *fished aalone	1		2.18	2.18	97
15	Kent Coffin – Kirk Coffin	1		2.06	2.06	96
16	*fished aalone – Rich Labarge	1		1.92	1.92	95
17	James Altman – Kevin Altman				0	10
	Randy Dameron – *fished aalone				0	10
	Tom Herndon – Paul Wiegand				0	10
	Todd Hessling – Tom Darnell				0	10
	Jeffery Hofmeister – Joe Chandler				0	10
	Steve Hoots – Robin Hessling				0	10
	Jason Kiser – Steve Schaefer				0	10
	Rick Larson – *Chris Klenke				0	10
	Rick McGuire – *Jimmie Greene				0	10
	*Michael Smith – Jim Lomax				0	10
	Phil J Zimmerman – Phil M Zimmerman				0	10

*alternate