Rain Won’t Slow These Anglers Down

Posted by on April 16, 2017

By: Alex Garoutte, Kickapoo High School Angler

LAKE OF THE OZARKS - Lighting and a heavy rain greeted the 42 anglers that converged for the Solo Pro Tournament Series on Lake of the Ozarks at Shawnee Bend Access. The lightning ceased, but the rain decided to stick around for the rest of the morning making for a wet start for the second tournament of the Solo Pro season. 

Taking first place with a weight of 18.52  was David McCormick. David started off his day in the Glaze river arm where he saw all the other boats but could not get a bite. He stated that, “at eleven o’clock I didn’t have any fish, so I made about a fifteen mile jump on up the lake”. When he made it to that spot further up the lake a brown jig in dirtier shallow water got the job done, while also catching his biggest bass on a chartreuse naturalistic Wiggle Wart.

Mark Ruggles took second place with a weight of 15.80. Fishing gravel pockets up towards the dam is where Mark started his day off. He said that, “I caught one on a crankbait, one on a jerkbait, and one on a jig before ten o’clock”. After a pretty productive morning for him the bite seemed to slow down to where he did not catch his last two fish until noon. The colors that he used where all natural colors for Lake of the Ozarks such as reds and chartreuse.

Third place was Jim Lovin with a weight of 15.52. Lovin States that, “running around the corner and fishing an A-Rig” is how he caught all his bass. He keyed in on secondary points around brush while keeping his boat in close to sixteen and twenty feet of water. The morning produced two of his bites, but the rest came in the afternoon.

Congratulations to David McCormick for winning Big Bass, weighing in at 7.74 lbs.

Also congratulations to Rodney Edwards for placing in the top ten for some Triton Boat rewards

 Congratulations to the top three anglers for this first tournament of the Solo Pro Series. Join us at the next tournament at Shawnee Bend on Truman Lake. Also a special thank you to the sponsors of the Solo Pro: Lew’s, Sportsmans Factory Outlet, Pro Guide Batteries, Battery Outfitters, Ewing Signal Construction, Tackle Box Caddie, A&R Hood Cleaning, Float Trip Pickles, Pur Kleen, Dave’s Custom Baits, Champion Marine Repair, Transport Graphics, Marine Repair Center, Commerce Terrace Web Services, Purcell Tire and Service Center, and MoBassFishin.com.