Bass club hosts tournament amid high water, debris


Rodney Shockey, left, and Mike Fletcher won first place with 12.03 pounds of bass in the June 7 Ozark Mountain Bass Club tournament out of Panther Bay Marina on Norfork Lake in Arkansas.

Pete Pearson, left, and his grandson Eli Pearson won second place with 9.97 pounds in the June 7 Ozark Mountain Bass Club tournament out of Panther Bay Marina on Norfork Lake in Arkansas.

Matt Loveall, left, and Brian Sherrill won third place with 7.71 pounds in the June 7 Ozark Mountain Bass Club tournament out of Panther Bay Marina on Norfork Lake in Arkansas.

Marty Whisnant won the big bass award with a 3.53 pound catch in the June 7 Ozark Mountain Bass Club tournament out of Panther Bay Marina on Norfork Lake in Arkansas.

Now that some of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have eased, the Ozark Mountain Bass Club is holding tournaments again. The June tournament that was originally scheduled as a night tournament was moved to daytime fishing due to the high water with logs and other debris floating in the lake. It was deemed unsafe to be running a boat after dark due to the many logs floating. Instead, the tournament was held June 7 out of Panther Bay Marina on Norfork Lake in Arkansas. High water and rising temperatures made for tough fishing conditions as the water temps were in the 80s, so winning weights were down.

Rodney Shockey and Mike Fletcher ran to the Bennett’s Bayou arm of the lake and fished crankbaits, soft plastics, etc., on offshore channel drops. They weighed in 12.03 pounds of bass, which was good enough for first place. Pete Pearson fished with his grandson Eli Pearson and also fished the Bennett’s Bayou arm of the lake with crankbaits and spinnerbaits. They weighed in 9.97 pounds of bass to earn a second-place finish. Rounding out the top were Matt Loveall and Brian Sherrill, who won third place with 7.71 pounds of bass. They fished mostly topwaters in the Pigeon Creek arm of the lake. Marty Whisnant won the big bass award with 3.63 pounds.

The club has changed locations of its meetings due to the closing of Deb & Lou’s Cafe. The meetings are now being held at Lost Woods Golf Course in Theodosia. The next club meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 7. The club would like to give a warm thanks to Louis and Deb Garcia for allowing us to have meetings in their cafe and also to Matt and Brandi Shockey for providing the new meeting place.

 

Ozark County Times

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