34 teams gathered at the Ahoy’s ramp on sparkling Table Rock Lake for the culmination of the 2018 Joe Bass Tournament season. With no points on the line, it was an opportunity for teams to get in a final event for championship qualifying purposes, scout the lake prior to the championship, and enjoy a nice fall day on the lake. With over half of the field boating a five fish tournament limit, The Rock didn’t disappoint, with several mixed bags of largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass making their ways to the scales.
Closing out the 2018 regular season with a win, Wayne Fowler partnered with Mike Lafferty to best the field with a 15.39 pound stringer. Their 5.02 pound kicker, good enough for second place big bass, pushed them to the top. The pair caught their fish on slowly tapering points in 22’-25’ on Carolina Rigs, tubes, and spoon. Staying close to the take-off site, Wayne and Mike bolstered their take home check with the Sport Boats USA Skeeter Bonus by competing from their Skeeter bass boat.
Taking second place honors was the veteran Table Rock team of Jim Dopp and Harlin Husky. They also chose to focus on tapering gravel points to amass a 14.94 bag. Their weapon of choice was a big worm worked slowly across the points. Sticking with this approach, Jim and Harlin boated 6 keepers for the day, proving quality over quantity pays on tournament day.
Roger and Corey Cook rounded out the top three. They got away prior to pictures and interviews, but noted during weigh-in they worked jigs and shakey heads to catch their five fish limit that pushed the scales to 14.12 pounds.
The Ozarks Chevrolet Big Bass of the event, a 5.20 pound largemouth, was taken by Chris Jackson and Joe Breedlove. The big bass walloped a shakey head on a super shallow boat dock.
Photos
Final Results
| Place | Team Members | Fish | Pnlty | B/F | TotWgt | Payout | |
| 1 | Wayne Fowler – Mike Lafferty | 5 | 5.02 | 15.39 | $2,400.00 | Top Skeeter/2BB | |
| 2 | Jim Dopp – Harlin Husky | 5 | 4.24 | 14.94 | $960.00 | ||
| 3 | Roger Cook – Cory Cook | 5 | 3.42 | 14.12 | $710.00 | ||
| 4 | Mark Thompson – Luke Thompson | 5 | 4.08 | 13.16 | $340.00 | ||
| 5 | Ryan Butler – Dustin Lippe | 5 | 3.49 | 13.06 | $200.00 | ||
| 6 | Chris Jackson II – Joe Breedlove | 5 | 5.2 | 13.04 | $430.00 | 1BB | |
| 7 | Josh Busby – Tim Taylor | 5 | 3.68 | 12.95 | $150.00 | ||
| 8 | Timmy Newberry – Rusty Darnell | 5 | 3.54 | 12.93 | |||
| 9 | Jeff Epley – *fished aalone | 5 | 3.56 | 12.19 | |||
| 10 | Jay Carden – Lowe Dustin | 5 | 3.39 | 11.87 | |||
| 11 | Tom Statler – Dillon Statler | 5 | 2.91 | 11.45 | |||
| 12 | Tyler Bettinger – Shannon Perry | 4 | 4.05 | 11.03 | |||
| 13 | James Long – Jerry Rawlings | 5 | 2.7 | 10.98 | |||
| 14 | Jack Stack – Dick Moger | 5 | 3.22 | 10.92 | |||
| 15 | John Williams – *James Schweitzer | 5 | 10.54 | ||||
| 16 | Ernest Hearn – Forest Green | 4 | 0.5 | 3.95 | 10.51 | ||
| 17 | Andy Eutsler – Jared Essary | 5 | 10.49 | ||||
| 18 | Doc Seger – Matt Seger | 5 | 2.56 | 10.26 | |||
| 19 | Mark Patterson – Brandon Patterson | 5 | 10.12 | ||||
| 20 | Shawn Crabtree – Reece Crabtree | 5 | 0.5 | 2.71 | 10.06 | ||
| 21 | Jeremy Ealy – Mike Sutherland | 4 | 8.38 | ||||
| 22 | Bill Haas – Kathy Haas | 4 | 2.81 | 8.29 | |||
| 23 | Cox Blair – Keegan Barber | 4 | 7.69 | ||||
| 24 | John Cates – Mike Edwards | 3 | 3.04 | 7.12 | |||
| 25 | Lennie Becker – Elmer Becker | 3 | 6.83 | ||||
| 26 | Terry Kennedy – Matt Tambarello | 1 | 3.72 | 3.72 | |||
| 27 | John Campbell – *David Rogers | 0 | |||||
| 27 | Marc Czachowski – Mike Purse | 0 | |||||
| 27 | Kelton DeClue – Sean Mulkey | 0 | |||||
| 27 | David Dishman – Greg Dishman | 0 | |||||
| 27 | Scott Treece | 0 | |||||
| 27 | Ralph Laster – Michael Fiedler | 0 | |||||
| 27 | Leif Millican – Grant Aldridge | 0 | |||||
| 27 | Sam Morton – Dennis Edwards | 0 | |||||
| 27 | David Mulkey – *Mike Fann | 0 | 27 | Kyle Uptegrove – Anthony Alkire | 0 | 27 | Rory Preis | 0 |
*alternate