What was scheduled to be the season finale in the Joe Bass Team Trails Truman Division turned into in the penultimate event due to rescheduling due to COVID restrictions in the spring. Perhaps multiple years of high water provided protection for recently spawned fish as its obvious there have been several strong year classes as witnessed by 72 limits and a nearly 11.5 pound average per team. Mild temperatures and mostly cloudy skies provided tolerable conditions for an August tournament with 103 teams departing Shawnee Bend in search of daily accolades and valuable qualification points for the October Invitational to be held out of beautiful Bucksaw Resort.
Topping the field was Dene White and Joe Dorcy who wrestled a 20.77 pound limit to the scales. Joe noted their SportBoats USA Key to Success included a few topwater bites early, but their bag was anchored by fishing big worms in 3’-8’ of water with the size of their weight being critical, as they rotated between 3/8 and ½ ounce weights depending on location. Most of their good bites came in a flurry between 10:00 and 12:00, with the bite being “soft”, as Dene said their lines would just slowly swim off.
Mark Dunbar and Johnny Bell dropped a stout 19.23 pounds on the scale to secure second place. Mark echoed Joe’s description as he and Johnny also fished big worms in the 3’-8’ depths. Mark also described how they had to work their worms super slow, with it taking “2-3 minutes per cast”.
Team Smith, Jeff and Jeff A, were only 4 ounces shy of second place finish with their 19.00 pound stringer. They fished a variety of baits including buzzbaits, squarebills and soft plastics. A Googan Baits soft plastic craw delivered the bulk of their weigh-in fish.
On a day with 15 five pounders weighed in, one had to truly earn the Ozark Chevrolet Big Bass of the day. Corey Besgrove and Eddie Brown proved they were up to the task, as they brought a 5.71 toad to Shawnee Bend to take top honors. Corey explained the big fish hit a J. Corwin prototype softplastic craw flipped to shallow cover.
John Krewson and Tony Powers added to their 5th place take home pay with the Sport Boats USA Highest Finishing Skeeter bonus as they fished big worms and crankbaits in the 7’-12’ range from John’s ZX250 Sport Boats USA Skeeter.
Winning comes in all shapes and sizes. Joe Bass Team Trail Pro Staff anglers Mark Thompson and Markie Thompson also take a victory lap with the tournaments smallest stringer. The 7.43lb limit won them the Trophy Bass Co Pro pack donated by Darrell Reach.
Per the norm SportsBoats USA provided catch & release pontoon was on hand protecting the resource for future anglers.
The fifth and final event in the 2020 Truman Division will be September 13th at Shawnee Bend Ramp with a 7:00am takeoff. With the large turnouts, be sure and show up early to get checked in and launched prior to the scheduled take-off time.
The Last Chance event will be held on Truman 09/27/20 taking off at 7am. Use this tournament to get a necessary event for Invitational qualification or a day of practice on Truman.
Photos
Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | Pnlty | B/F | TotWgt | Pts | Payout | |
| 1 | Dene White – Joe Dorcy | 5 | 5.14 | 20.77 | 110 | $3,500.00 | ||
| 2 | Mark Dunbar – Johnny Bell | 5 | 4.47 | 19.23 | 109 | $2,610.00 | ||
| 3 | Jeffery Smith – Jeffery A Smith | 5 | 5.47 | 19 | 108 | $1,360.00 | ||
| 4 | Bryce Rieder – Mike Edrington | 5 | 5.35 | 18.99 | 107 | $970.00 | ||
| 5 | John Krewson – Tony Powers | 5 | 4.98 | 18.6 | 106 | $1,500.00 | $keeter | |
| 6 | Larry Wright – Doug Wallace | 5 | 4.57 | 18.36 | 105 | $400.00 | ||
| 7 | John Bennett – Darrell Reach | 5 | 4.15 | 18.12 | 104 | $400.00 | ||
| 8 | Matt Gunter – *Kelly Nunn | 5 | 4.09 | 17.74 | 103 | $400.00 | ||
| 9 | Eric Zuk – Chet Douthit | 5 | 0.5 | 4.57 | 17.71 | 102 | $300.00 | |
| 10 | Wesley Myers – Steve Kelley | 5 | 4.61 | 17.25 | 101 | $300.00 | ||
| 11 | Jon Gillotte – Matt Rogers | 5 | 4.04 | 17.15 | 100 | $300.00 | ||
| 12 | Brandon Morris – Logan Carter | 5 | 4.19 | 17.14 | 99 | $200.00 | ||
| 13 | Brett Fickle – Joseph Hull | 5 | 5.41 | 17.07 | 98 | $200.00 | ||
| 14 | Ron Peek – Pat Deaton | 5 | 4.71 | 17.07 | 97 | $200.00 | ||
| 15 | Ricky York – Ed Gilbert | 5 | 5.07 | 17.06 | 96 | $180.00 | ||
| 16 | Lyle Armstrong – Mitchell Armstrong | 5 | 5.27 | 17 | 95 | $180.00 | ||
| 17 | Kennedy Schwartzburg – Andrew Rogers | 5 | 4.81 | 16.87 | 94 | $180.00 | ||
| 18 | Marvin Griffen – Kevin Griffen | 5 | 4.73 | 16.53 | 93 | $160.00 | ||
| 19 | Todd Miller – Cameron Miller | 5 | 5.46 | 16.49 | 92 | $160.00 | ||
| 20 | Kevin Rogers – Hunter Bowling | 5 | 5.04 | 16.36 | 91 | $160.00 | ||
| 21 | David Hughes – Lucas Fornelli | 5 | 4.73 | 16.35 | 90 | |||
| 22 | Ozzie Wallace – | 5 | 3.86 | 15.91 | 89 | |||
| 23 | Jerry McCutchen – Kevin Smith | 5 | 0.5 | 5.36 | 15.82 | 88 | ||
| 24 | Don Heiser – Jim Sells | 5 | 5.31 | 15.49 | 87 | |||
| 25 | Greg Askew – Terry Case | 5 | 4.01 | 15.46 | 86 | |||
| 26 | Mark Riegel – JR Shinn | 5 | 4.87 | 15.45 | 85 | |||
| 27 | Russell Oliphant – *Donnie Goodman | 5 | 4.55 | 15.36 | 84 | |||
| 28 | Bob Jany – Dennis Schilb | 5 | 5.63 | 15.28 | 83 | $400.00 | 2BB | |
| 29 | David McCormick – Gary Shartzer | 5 | 3.71 | 15.14 | 82 | |||
| 30 | Brad Jelinek – Brock Reinkemeyer | 5 | 4.16 | 14.89 | 81 | |||
| 31 | Michael Dugger – Jeff Lang | 5 | 1 | 14.87 | 80 | |||
| 32 | Kevin Johnston – Roger Waters | 5 | 3.7 | 14.76 | 79 | |||
| 33 | Sean Bowling – Brandon Brown | 5 | 14.74 | 78 | ||||
| 34 | Steve Gwadera – Jacob Desselle | 5 | 4.92 | 14.72 | 77 | |||
| 35 | Brandon Rowland – Russel Nigh | 5 | 14.58 | 76 | ||||
| 36 | Ronnie Rush – Rick Rush | 5 | 3.81 | 14.51 | 75 | |||
| 37 | Kolin Rogers – Wyatt Miller | 5 | 3.34 | 14.38 | 74 | |||
| 38 | Troy Hendrick – Chad Hendrick | 5 | 5.56 | 14.11 | 73 | |||
| 39 | Ricky Clemen – Phil McKinney | 5 | 3.77 | 14.1 | 72 | |||
| 40 | Joddy Dungan – John Matousek | 5 | 3.7 | 13.98 | 71 | |||
| 41 | Bryan Baker – Darren Baker | 5 | 4.03 | 13.96 | 70 | |||
| 42 | Stephen Smith – Garen Hunt | 5 | 0.5 | 3.85 | 13.59 | 69 | ||
| 43 | Mike Thomas – *Jeff Lane | 5 | 4.25 | 13.4 | 68 | |||
| 44 | Justin Hosler – Kyle McAdams | 5 | 4.59 | 13.35 | 67 | |||
| 45 | Bill McAvoy – Jack Young | 5 | 4.11 | 13.28 | 66 | |||
| 46 | Edward Nelson – Tony Zaharsky | 5 | 0.5 | 13.28 | 65 | |||
| 47 | Mark Adkins – Chris Nichols | 5 | 5.26 | 13.18 | 64 | |||
| 48 | Justin Miller – Mathew Miller | 5 | 13.13 | 63 | ||||
| 49 | Doug Long – Marty Watson | 5 | 12.97 | 62 | ||||
| 50 | Tom McGovern – Chris McGovern | 5 | 3.56 | 12.85 | 61 | |||
| 51 | Shawn Crabtree – *Theresa Patterson | 5 | 3.8 | 12.8 | 60 | |||
| 52 | Charley Thomas – Chris Thomas | 5 | 12.54 | 59 | ||||
| 53 | Josh Shirley – Don Sanders | 5 | 3.31 | 12.53 | 58 | |||
| 54 | Dan Hirstein – Chris Hirstein | 5 | 3.52 | 12.33 | 57 | |||
| 55 | Jared Knuth – *fished aalone | 5 | 3.93 | 12.3 | 56 | |||
| 56 | Paul Hager – Phil Allen | 4 | 4.61 | 12.17 | 55 | |||
| 57 | Kevin Duer – Dustin Young | 5 | 2.95 | 12.05 | 54 | |||
| 58 | Glen McCrary – Sondra McCrary | 5 | 4.54 | 12.01 | 53 | |||
| 59 | Ted Daniels – | 5 | 12.01 | 52 | ||||
| 60 | Robert Hime – Paul Huse | 5 | 3.64 | 11.91 | 51 | |||
| 61 | John Williams – *fished aalone | 5 | 11.91 | 50 | ||||
| 62 | Sam Maggio – Troy Ladenhoff | 5 | 11.74 | 49 | ||||
| 63 | Tony Habiger – Fabricio Toledo | 5 | 2.91 | 11.58 | 48 | |||
| 64 | Corey Besgrove – Eddie Brown | 4 | 5.71 | 11.5 | 47 | $640.00 | 1BB | |
| 65 | *Josh Pladies – Keith Pflumm | 5 | 3.4 | 11.5 | 46 | |||
| 66 | Chris Callahan – Justin Wasmer | 5 | 11.39 | 45 | ||||
| 67 | John Stewart – Corey Stewart | 4 | 4.42 | 11.38 | 44 | |||
| 68 | Donnie Reynolds – Mark Reynolds | 4 | 4.15 | 11.36 | 43 | |||
| 69 | Rocky Carden – Darryl Robinson | 5 | 4.42 | 11.27 | 42 | |||
| 70 | Kenny Shinn – John Hodson | 5 | 0.5 | 11.1 | 41 | |||
| 71 | Andre Dickniete – Noah Dickneite | 5 | 0.5 | 10.89 | 40 | |||
| 71 | Wayne Garrison – Billy Greenwell | 5 | 10.89 | 40 | ||||
| 73 | JC Beckett – Austin Coleman | 4 | 4.23 | 10.72 | 38 | |||
| 74 | Zane Penley – Shane Boone | 5 | 10.19 | 37 | ||||
| 75 | Gary Arterberry – Gus Adkinson | 4 | 4.38 | 10.08 | 36 | |||
| 76 | Marvin Kinyon – Mike Long | 4 | 3.4 | 10.05 | 35 | |||
| 77 | Roger Umbarger – Josh Louisville | 5 | 9.66 | 34 | ||||
| 78 | Kenneth Peters – Chris Johnson | 5 | 9.2 | 33 | ||||
| 79 | Randy Oliphant – *fished aalone | 4 | 0.5 | 8.53 | 32 | |||
| 80 | Justin Borum – Jake McKinnis | 4 | 0.5 | 8.3 | 31 | |||
| 81 | Ben Saubers – Nick Saubers | 4 | 8.22 | 30 | ||||
| 82 | Lennie Becker – Elmer Becker II | 4 | 8.02 | 29 | ||||
| 83 | Scott Triplett – Todd Shaw | 4 | 0.5 | 2.19 | 7.82 | 28 | ||
| 84 | Mark Thompson – Mark Thompson II | 5 | 7.43 | 27 | ||||
| 85 | Aaron Vaughn – Parrish Vaughn | 2 | 4.79 | 7.28 | 26 | |||
| 86 | Bill Jared – Rich Carpenter | 4 | 6.72 | 25 | ||||
| 87 | Karl Schmidt – Bret Stracke | 2 | 5.15 | 24 | ||||
| 88 | Junior Fiedler – Chris Fiedler | 1 | 5.12 | 5.12 | 23 | |||
| 89 | Aaron Foglesong – Ben Redwing | 2 | 4.85 | 22 | ||||
| 90 | Charles Abbott – Timothy Wells | 0 | 10 | |||||
| Rich Campbell – *Travis Stevens | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| John Campbell – David Rogers | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Danny Carter – *John Bannon | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Jonathan Evans – Bradley Dillon | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Roger LaBarge – Keith LaBarge | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Ralph Laster – Steve Helms | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Kevin Love – *fished aalone | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Gary Lower – Jason Bates | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| David Moore – Bob Moore | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Timmy Newberry – Rusty Darnell | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Kenny Sloan – Brendon Mick | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Steve Teske – Jon Wall | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| Mike Ward – Peyton Jackson | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| * alternate |