The 2025 Joe Bass Team Trail season kicked off with the Bull Shoals and Lake of the Ozarks divisions, sponsored by Mid America RV and Window World respectively, with teams battling cold weather and LoZ freezing over, followed by the start of the Table Rock season, sponsored by Blackbeard Marine that also had to dodge some winter weather to start then transitioning to the big boat traffic later on. By springtime, the Truman Division, sponsored by C&C Valley Transmission and Pomme de Terre, sponsored by TNT Quick Stop were in gear, dealing with highwater to begin with then low water to conclude those divisions. The Stockton Division anglers, sponsored by Albers Marine, had relatively stable water conditions but had to deal with radical changes in the weather, as did the Antique Division, sponsored by Maybee Insurance and T-Bone Trucking. The Mark Twain folks, sponsored by 154 Marine, tackled the weird weather which produced a stingy bite for much of the season. The only Division that didn’t have issues with the weather, lake levels, or boat traffic was the Open Division sponsored by Championship Marine Repair! These 40 events, plus the Last Chance derby on Truman in September, produced a stout group of teams that descended on Bucksaw Resort and Marina to battle it out at the season-concluding Invitational event. The event started with demo rides by the Skeeter Boats Demo Team that resulted in a cash drawing for taking the ride. The Bucksaw crew provided a great dinner. The evening festivities included a tremendous hand-out courtesy of Lucas Marine Products, a cash drawing via the Save a Receipt program, and a Rapala products (Rapala, VMC, Storm, Sufix and Crush City) drawing for cash and product. The giveaway produced thousands of dollars in cash and product that went directly to the anglers in attendance. The 2025 Invitational concluded with the biggest drawing of all, a dazzling Skeeter Boat equipped with Minnkota power up front and Yamaha on the stern, which went to none other than Kevin Love, a gentleman that partnered with his father Howard to outfit hundreds of anglers with Skeeter Boats through their dealership in days past. With the staggering support of the sponsors listed above, it’s time to reciprocate and support the companies that support the trail. Without them, there would be no Joe Bass circuit, no drawings, no give-aways. Take a minute to visit the website for links to all the business that support your circuit and reach out to let them know of your appreciation!
The talent of the Joe Bass anglers rang out loud and clear with 752 bass weighed over the two-day event. Given the radical change in the weather, that’s quite an accomplishment! What’s just as amazing is the 2.5 pound average weight per fish, again quite a feat given the number of smaller spotted fish weighed. Most importantly, all but two of the 752 bass, over 1968 pounds of fish, was released alive via the Taylor Grubaugh Chevrolet, Buick & GMC release boat. That’s the result of your fish care throughout the day and the support facilities provided by Taylor Grubaugh. Now, on to the fishing!
Taking top honors for the Invitational was local sticks Brad Jelink and Brock Reinkemeyer. Brad and Brock’s winning stringer of 10 Truman bass locked the scales at 37.21 pounds. With a 5.28 pounder for their biggest fish, they averaged over 3.5 pounds a fish for the balance, showing the overall quality of their fish. Despite the ever-present mention of a crappie bomb as their lure of choice, Brad and Brock noted they caught their fish on Six Sense Devine worms along with the Truman standard 10” worm. They focused shallow, targeting small rock piles on flats. Brad noted he tried to fill the lake in by breaking off a ton of Brock’s tungsten jigs and went through a bunch of line tying on new ones!
In an event that saw day one weather consisting of high winds, hail, and drenching rain, followed by stronger winds, high skies, and a drop in temperatures on day two, experience can manifest itself in making the adjustments to produce bites during the chaotic conditions. No team in the derby has more experience on the lake than Chris Bridges and Steve Prince. The longtime team dropped a two day total of ten fish that weighed 35.44 pounds on the scales to take the runner up position. Just as Brad and Brock’s total included a 5.28 big fish, Chris and Steve also anchored their bag with a 5.28 bass, again showing the strength of the rest of their fish. To no one’s surprise, their weapons of choice was a spinnerbait teamed with a Dave’s Custom Baits squarebill. Chris and Steve noted they moved super deep (for them!), catching their fish in 6’-10’ of water. They also noted bites were tough to come by, as their fishing resulted in quality over quantity.
Rounding out the podium positions was Jordan Willams and Trevor Bartlett. After a tough start to the Truman Division season, Jordan and Trevor mounted a comeback once the lake dropped to a super low level. Jordan and Trevor brought a ten fish limit to the scales that weighed a total of 34.10 pounds. Mimicking the other top teams, their entire bag each day was built from quality fish as their big for the event was just a tick over 4.5 pounds, meaning the remaining nine fish averaged over 3 pounds apiece. Jordan and Trevor caught the majority of their fish on jigs pitched to shallow wood cover, with a few topwater fish added in for good measure on day 1. They mentioned catching good numbers of fish under the overcast skies on Saturday with fishing pushing tighter to the cover and getting tougher to trigger under Sunday’s bluebird skies.
The event’s Impel Union big bass award went to Clay and Jay Henderson. Their 6.77 pound monster anchored their 23.19 pound total. Clay and Jay shared the brute bit a spinnerbait on day 1.
Peyton Stumpf of Trippple P Custom’s will award Clay and Jay a replica of their big bass, a value of $500!
There were several special derbies taking place in parallel with the main event. These included the Blackbeard Marine Skeeter shootout that pitted anglers that purchased a new Skeeter from Blackbeard during the 2025 season for a sidepot consisting of $500 per Skeeter purchased throughout the season. The $4000 shootout winner was Jeff Epley who teamed with Danny Burns. They used spinnerbaits and squarebills to put bass in Jeff’s 2025 FXR21 Skeeter boat.
The top three points teams in each division competed for the Clear-Cast Marine Tournament of Champions prize. The contest places all the points champions against each other, the same for the second place teams and finally the third place teams. Taking the top Team of Champions honors for the 1st place points leaders was Billy Greenwell and Wayne Garrison. The C&C Valley Transmission Truman Points champions threw chatterbaits and spinnerbaits in the rain on day 1 and switched to their stalwart big worm presentation on Day 2.
The runner-up team in the Lake of the Ozarks Window World division, Mark and Markie Thompson, inched out the other 2nd place points team by slinging spinnerbaits and buzzbaits to shallow wood.
Matthew Rogers and Connor Cunningham, third place points finishers in the Championship Marine Repair Open Division, topped the remaining 3rd place teams. They used a jig and worm combination to catch their fish.
As a means to recognize the efforts put forth throughout the year, Joe Bass staffers participated in a side derby for paid entries into their primary division for 2026. Mark and Markie Thompson eked out the other staffers to take the Staff Shootout honors.
The Top Skeeter award went to Mark and Markie Thompson. They padded their 12th place overall finish by keeping a spinnerbait wet followed with a buzzbait and squarebill to put a total of 27.73 pounds in Mark’s 2023 ZXR20 Skeeter.
The 2026 Joe Bass season will kick off with a back-to-back weekend starting with the Table Rock Winter Division opener on Saturday November 22 from Mill Creek followed on Sunday November 23 at LoZ based out of Alhonna Resort.
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Photos
Final Results
| Location | Team Members | Fish | B/F | TotWgt | Payout | |
| 1 | Brad Jelinek – Brock Reinkemeyer | 10 | 5.3 | 37.21 | $9,390.00 | |
| 2 | Chris Bridges – Steve Prince | 10 | 5.3 | 35.44 | $3,710.00 | |
| 3 | Jordan Williams – Trevor Bartlett | 10 | 4.6 | 34.1 | $2,000.00 | |
| 4 | Desmon Carl – Tyler Glenn | 9 | 6.1 | 33.06 | $2,080.00 | |
| 5 | John Bennett – Austin Morris | 10 | 5 | 32.55 | $800.00 | |
| 6 | Wayne Garrison – Billy Greenwell | 10 | 6.2 | 30.89 | $700.00 | |
| 7 | Chris Macy – Tim Lawyer | 10 | 4.3 | 30.87 | $600.00 | |
| 8 | Matthew Rogers – Connor Cunningham | 9 | 5.5 | 29.94 | $960.00 | |
| 9 | Robert Hime – Paul Huse | 10 | 4.6 | 29.49 | $400.00 | |
| 10 | Blake Felix – Chesney Felix | 9 | 5.1 | 29.29 | $300.00 | |
| 11 | Chris Schiffelbein – Scotty Cavanaugh | 10 | 28.56 | $300.00 | ||
| 12 | Mark Thompson – Mark Thompson II | 10 | 3.8 | 27.73 | $800.00 | Rapala Throwdown |
| 13 | Peyton Jackson – Brayden Jackson | 10 | 3.9 | 27.63 | $250.00 | |
| 14 | Scott Hill – Wyatt Marler | 10 | 4.6 | 27.57 | $250.00 | |
| 15 | Jerry McCutchen – Kevin Smith | 10 | 5.6 | 27.56 | $250.00 | |
| 16 | David McCormick – Steve Vanzant | 10 | 3.7 | 27.55 | $250.00 | |
| 17 | Michael Fey – Mike Fey Jr | 10 | 5.2 | 27.16 | $250.00 | |
| 18 | Brandon Hill – Rhett Hill | 9 | 5.8 | 26.57 | $250.00 | |
| 19 | Jeff Epley – Danny Burns | 10 | 4.5 | 26.54 | $4,250.00 | BlackBeard |
| 20 | Bryce Rieder – Mike Edrington | 10 | 4.2 | 26.52 | $200.00 | |
| 21 | Darrin Lankford – Kevin Pitts | 10 | 26.11 | $200.00 | ||
| 22 | Matt King as Kody Yates | 10 | 3.3 | 26.04 | $200.00 | |
| 23 | Greg Askew – Terry Case | 10 | 25.47 | $200.00 | ||
| 24 | Travis Stevens – Rich Campbell | 9 | 3.6 | 25.44 | $200.00 | |
| 25 | Steve Weber – Sam Phillips | 10 | 4.5 | 24.86 | $200.00 | |
| 26 | Steve Fowler – Charles Edgar | 10 | 3.9 | 24.41 | ||
| 27 | Kevin Love – Brian Vanderziel | 10 | 4.6 | 24.37 | $45,000.00 | Skeeter boat |
| 28 | Joe Dorcy – Dene White | 10 | 3.6 | 24.29 | ||
| 29 | Bryan Baker – Darren Baker | 10 | 5.3 | 24.28 | ||
| 30 | Seth Glynn – Kelly (KJ) Hughes | 8 | 4.9 | 24.18 | ||
| 31 | John Wagner – Kyle Wagner | 10 | 3.3 | 23.97 | ||
| 32 | Tom VanKeirsbilck – *fished aalone | 10 | 23.77 | |||
| 33 | Dave Mansue – Chad Morgenthaler | 10 | 4.4 | 23.68 | ||
| 34 | Marty Watson – Doug Long | 9 | 3.5 | 23.28 | ||
| 35 | Clay Henderson – Jay Henderson | 7 | 6.8 | 23.19 | $1,000.00 | Big Bass |
| 36 | Glenn Harrison – Ryan Stuart | 9 | 4.2 | 23.11 | ||
| 37 | Aaron Foglesong – Jeff Wilkins | 7 | 5.4 | 22.9 | ||
| 38 | Kelly Jones – Roger Satterfield | 8 | 4.8 | 22.9 | ||
| 39 | Deno Ek – James Medlock | 9 | 5 | 22.27 | ||
| 40 | Ron Belew – Derek Dace | 8 | 4.1 | 22.22 | ||
| 41 | Dan Flood – Casey Flood | 8 | 4.6 | 22.14 | $500.00 | Demo ride |
| 42 | Joe St. Clair – Nathan Hill | 8 | 21.89 | |||
| 43 | Denis Repa – Alec Repa | 7 | 4.2 | 21.68 | ||
| 44 | Gus Adkinson – Riley Phillips | 8 | 21.65 | |||
| 45 | Shane Voyles – Scott St. Clair | 8 | 20.87 | |||
| 46 | Greg Snider – Tim Lane | 7 | 3.5 | 20.36 | ||
| 47 | Ron Peek – Louie Collier | 8 | 3.9 | 20.23 | ||
| 48 | Jim Davidson – Mike Ashbacher | 8 | 4.7 | 20.1 | ||
| 49 | Steve Chiaurro – Richard Dannegger | 7 | 4.2 | 19.96 | ||
| 50 | Tom Herndon – Jason VanBeers | 10 | 3.6 | 19.64 | ||
| 51 | Mike Butcher – Justin Amershek | 8 | 5.9 | 19.16 | ||
| 52 | Coty Baldwin – Kris Bollinger | 8 | 19.1 | |||
| 53 | David Mulkey – Tyler Weaver | 7 | 18.76 | |||
| 54 | Terry Cordum – Brent Toon | 7 | 4.2 | 17.64 | ||
| 55 | Tom Statler as Dillon Statler | 6 | 4.5 | 16.64 | ||
| 56 | Gary Martens – Bryan Loseman | 6 | 3.1 | 16.61 | ||
| 57 | Kevin Johnston – Roger Waters | 7 | 3.7 | 16.38 | ||
| 58 | Ryan Melcher – Willa Stricker | 6 | 14.71 | |||
| 59 | Shawn Crabtree – Reece Crabtree | 5 | 4 | 14.7 | ||
| 60 | Phil J Zimmerman – Phil M Zimmerman | 6 | 14.49 | |||
| 61 | Chad Wagner as Kevin Altman | 7 | 14.33 | |||
| 62 | Josh Shirley – Don Sanders | 5 | 3.5 | 13.9 | ||
| 63 | Mike Gold – Greg Wood | 5 | 13.8 | |||
| 64 | Gerald McDaniel – Jeff Pascoe | 5 | 3.6 | 13.55 | ||
| 65 | Lennie Becker – Charles Vaughn | 6 | 4.2 | 13.37 | ||
| 66 | Randy Oliphant – Scott Oliphant | 5 | 4.3 | 13.36 | ||
| 67 | John Prochko – Diego Segui | 5 | 13.36 | |||
| 68 | Danny Waite – Brad Martin | 5 | 13.31 | |||
| 69 | Raymond Holt – | 5 | 3.9 | 13.27 | ||
| 70 | Timmy Newberry – Rusty Darnell | 5 | 3.9 | 13.11 | ||
| 71 | Noah Dickneite – Andre Dickneite | 5 | 3.5 | 12.22 | ||
| 72 | Kenny Sloan – Brendon Mick | 5 | 12.01 | |||
| 73 | Kelly Rebel – Dawn Rebel | 6 | 2.4 | 11.8 | ||
| 74 | Corey Besgrove – Eddie Brown | 4 | 4 | 11.77 | ||
| 75 | John Campbell – David Rogers | 5 | 11.68 | |||
| 76 | Adam Morrison – Chris Phillips | 5 | 11.67 | |||
| 77 | Jonathan Evans – Bradley Dillon | 4 | 4.5 | 11.35 | ||
| 78 | Tyler Eagan – James Eagan | 5 | 11.08 | |||
| 79 | Kelly (Bob) Nunn – Jamie Duncan | 4 | 10.95 | |||
| 80 | Travis Glenn – Kerry Glenn | 3 | 5.5 | 10.74 | ||
| 81 | Terry Barnett – Rodney Bowersox | 5 | 4 | 10.28 | ||
| 82 | Keith Landrum – Chad McManis | 5 | 10.24 | |||
| 83 | Hal Land – Brad Baze | 5 | 10.12 | |||
| 84 | Cody Campbell – Quinten Carr | 5 | 10.02 | |||
| 85 | Mike Sutherland – Chance Peebles | 4 | 9.78 | |||
| 86 | Jim Buttress – Richard Johnson | 6 | 2.3 | 9.34 | ||
| 87 | Justin Long – Mark Long | 4 | 9.19 | |||
| 88 | John Williams – Jim Williams | 5 | 3.8 | 8.96 | $500.00 | Save A Receipt |
| 89 | Justin Borum – Jake McKinnis | 3 | 8.94 | |||
| 90 | Brady Graves – Darryll Waller | 5 | 8.75 | |||
| 91 | Adam Procter – Luke Engles | 5 | 2.1 | 8.71 | ||
| 92 | Preston Hartung – George Harrington | 4 | 8.64 | |||
| 93 | Scott Jackson – Todd Martens | 4 | 8.59 | |||
| 94 | Mitchell Armstrong – Lyle Armstrong | 5 | 8.47 | |||
| 95 | Tyler Hermes – Richard Hermes | 3 | 8.27 | |||
| 96 | Randall Hutson – Chris House | 3 | 7.57 | |||
| 97 | Roy Butler – Michael Butler | 2 | 4.3 | 7.12 | ||
| 98 | Jarad Hinson – | 3 | 7.08 | |||
| 99 | Earl Horton – | 3 | 6.84 | |||
| 100 | Ed Larson – Rocky Carden | 3 | 6.81 | |||
| 101 | Chad Hendrick – Troy Hendrick | 3 | 6.39 | |||
| 102 | Chad Hawkins – Sterling Smith | 4 | 6.23 | |||
| 103 | Christopher McCellan – Andrew Messina | 3 | 6.2 | |||
| 104 | Jerry Addington – Jasper Addington | 5 | 6 | |||
| 105 | Dale Elkins – TJ Elkins | 2 | 5.98 | |||
| 106 | Scott Burk – Stephen Burk | 4 | 5.96 | |||
| 107 | Kevin Whightsil – Darrin Lofts | 2 | 5.61 | |||
| 108 | Zachary Cooley – Kent Whitaker | 1 | 5.5 | 5.54 | ||
| 109 | Dan Hankinson – Keith Hankinson | 2 | 5.46 | |||
| 110 | Mathew Waller – Connor McBride | 3 | 5.24 | |||
| 111 | Rick Jones – Jeremy Gilbert | 2 | 4.48 | |||
| 112 | Ken Gross – Randy Lyman | 2 | 4.32 | |||
| 113 | Matt Garrett – Will Isaac | 3 | 4.22 | |||
| 114 | Troy Hunt – Garen Hunt | 1 | 3.2 | 3.22 | ||
| 115 | Quenton Bear – Jeff Bear | 2 | 2.85 | |||
| 116 | Mike Smith 2 – Brent Basler | 1 | 2.8 | 2.77 | ||
| 117 | Brad Territo – Logan Carter | 1 | 2.8 | 2.75 | ||
| 118 | Cole Boyd – | 2 | 2.53 | |||
| 119 | Steve Teske – Bruce Yarnell | 1 | 2.4 | 2.37 | ||
| 120 | Mike Thomas – Dirk Thomas | 2 | 2.34 | |||
| 121 | Darrell Barlow – Ethan Barlow | 0 | ||||
| Jacob Christeson – | 0 | |||||
| Marc Cooper – Barb Cooper | 0 | |||||
| Mike Edwards – John Cates | 0 | |||||
| John Hewkin – Frank Meyer | 0 | |||||
| Joe Ingram – Jacob Wisecup | 0 | |||||
| Mike Johnson – Justin Angel | 0 | |||||
| John E. Nichols – Jesse Gardner | 0 | |||||
| Troy Nogosek – Jeremy Fiedler | 0 | |||||
| Tony Powers – Cindy Powers | 0 | |||||
| Jerry Roark – Jamie Edge | 0 | |||||
| Adam Smith – Bill Edwards | 0 | |||||
| Dallas Stamper – Jason Hollandsworth | 0 |