The Sunscreen Showdown
By: Brooks Beatty
Everyone definitely needed their favorite sunscreen on for this stop because temperatures reached the mid to upper 90’s in the Fayetteville area and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Needless to say it was a scorcher on the water! Many anglers mentioned how they waded or jumped in the cool river water to help cool down on such a rare hot day in early June. Not only were the temperatures hot in Fayetteville, but so was the competition. Despite the heat, many of the anglers brought in full stringers of beautiful Ozark bass. The stop saw several nice smallmouths measured in, a few big largemouths, and at least one spotted bass hit the measuring board. This stop had seen some pretty stable weather prior to the tournament, unlike many of the other stops that were hit with heavy rains and fast waters. It is due to these stable conditions that anglers caught plenty of fish, but the key as always was locating quality fish.
This was the third stop on the 2011 River Bassin Trail presented by 
Natural is just what the River Bassin Trail is all about, enjoying fishing in its natural state – the river. Arkansas contains 9,700 miles of streams and rivers, so it was a pretty easy decision to come out and see what these anglers could do with all that water. One of the trail director’s mentioned, “I had the pleasure of driving through the Ozarks, where we crossed several beautiful rivers that seem to glow blue and grey from the limestone bottom. In crossing these areas, we knew we were in for a good stop!”
Being the first stop in the area, the turnout was a respectable 22 anglers from 3 states, but judging by their enthusiasm for river bassin there is no doubt that these numbers will be multiplying at the next visit.
Lewis & Clark was the host location of this stop, and they really rolled out the red carpet for the trail and its competitors. It is due to their passion that the trail is currently working on adding another stop at Lewis & Clark later this year (check back for details).
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Paddle and Trail Young River Basser Division
There was only one youth signed up and he had no troubles hanging with his veteran counterparts. Tristan Thomas obviously won the Paddleand Trail Young River Basser Division taking home a brand new Mini Tripper from Jackson Kayak but he also took home the NuCanoe Big Fish of the tournament with a nice 18.50 chunky largemouth that looked literally like a football. For his efforts he also finished 4th overall with 41.75 inches. The trail will surely be seeing more from Tristan in the future.
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Kokatat Team Division
In the Kokatat Team Division we had 6 teams come back with full virtual stringers. The top 5 teams were all within 10 inches of each other withe the top three teams being Jason Hill and Blake Sturgess, Bubba McVey and Brad Wiegmann, and the husband and wife duo of Charlie and Cindy.
At the awards show, Brad Wiegmann contributed his catches to the new Yum F2 series of baits. Brad also filled us in on his partner Bubba losing a 3 pound smallmouth that would’ve surely given them the team victory, only falling short by 2.5 inches. The winners, Hill/Sturgess, grinded out a nice stringer of 62.25 by having 4 solid fish measuring between 15 and 16.25 inches, which was enough to get them the win. Hill and Sturgess took home a new NuCanoe, while the other teams received awesome prizes from Tallon, RAM Mounts, Gorilla Glue, Kayak Angler Magazine, RiverBassin.com and Lewis & Clark. The Crooms finished in third coming up less than 5 inches short. They worked together on some bedding smallmouth not far from the Lewis and Clark host location. Charlie displayed characteristics of a true gentleman and fisherman. He and his wife pulled up to an area with a multiple smallmouths on the bed. After catching, photographing and quickly releasing one, he told his wife to go ahead and throw in there so she could catch one, which she did. In doing this he potentially lost some inches for his Aqua Bound Individual Division score, where he came in 3rd only by about 5 inches. This is just one of several similar stories of cammaraderie on the River Bassin Trail. This community of kayak anglers truly exemplifies fishing at its finest, by enjoying the outdoors, sharing it with others, and catching big fish.
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Aqua Bound Individual Angler Division
The only thing left to determine now was the winner of the Aqua Bound Individual Angler Division were Tadd Thomas, Brad Wiegmann and Charlie Croom. These three anglers all fished different waters and different styles, yet they all ended up very close together in the top 3 . As previously mentioned, Croom found some fish on the bed and was able to entice them with a finesse style presentation. Thomas was fishing in more stained water throwing moving baits like crankbaits and spinnerbaits to entice a strike. Wiegmann fished with soft plastic baits and caught a good keeper largemouth to go with a pair of smallmouths. This just goes to show that anglers can catch river bass in numerous different ways.
Charlie Croom caught a total of 43.25 inches of Ozark bass. His virtual stringer consisted of 2 smallmouths at 13 and 15.25 inches and a 14.75 inch spotted bass. After talking with the couple, the trail learned that he and his wife had a very enjoyable day on the water trying to figure the fish out, but were having some trouble until they stumbled upon some bedding fish in the final hours of the day! This salvaged a good 3rd place finish for Charlie.
The battle for first place was between Tadd Thomas and Brad Wiegmann. They both had 17.25 inches for their big fish, and Wiegmann’s second biggest fish was only .25 inches bigger than Thomas’ so this was going to come down to who had the biggest smallest fish. Wiegmann barely inched out the victory with his 15.50 fish vs Thomas’ 13.50 making him the winner of the Aqua Bound Individual Angler Division. By winning the individual division Wiegmann took home a Jackson Kayak Coosa. However, Thomas, Croom, Tristan Thomas, and Michael Durell also took home some awesome prizes from the trail’s sponsors – Aqua Bound and Bending Branches paddles, Kokatat Watersports Wear, Gorilla Glue, RAM Mounts, RiverBassin.com, Kayak Angler Magazine and Lewis & Clark.
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Big Fish Award
As mentioned earlier Tristan Thomas took home the NuCanoe Big Fish Award with his awesome 18.5 inch largemouth bass that he caught on a crankbait after watching his dad utilize the same method with success.
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Top Female
Cindy Croom 
took home top female honors with her 39.50 stringer.
It was a huge a relief not having to worry about flooded rivers or tornado warnings for this stop (unlike most of season thus far). We had a great weekend in Fayetteville, AR, where 22 passionate anglers who enjoy this sport came out and fished hard. Also, we got to spend time with the dedicated hard working folks at Lewis & Clark, they were a true pleasure to work with and we are looking forward to coming back.
Interesting Facts
- Had Tadd Thomas and his son Tristan Thomas entered the tournament as a team they would’ve won the team division with 64.25 inches beating the winners by almost 5 inches.
- The Crooms were the first husband/wife duo to place in the team division in River Bassin Trail History
- At the pre-tournament rules meeting the anglers were asked how many inches they thought it would take to win and it was unanimous that somewhere in the mid to high 50 inches would take the title. Wiegmann had 48.75 proving a couple things – 1.) It never takes as much as you think and 2.) There are still a lot more big Ozark bass running around because those predictions were based on previous big fish that anglers have caught in the area.
- Lewis & Clark is awesome.
