Robinette Fox of Hot Springs sweated out the weekend hoping the fish she caught Friday in Lake Dardanelle would win the Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza.
Her 7.15-pound largemouth was the only bass that topped 7 pounds for the entire Arkansas River, earning Fox $50,000 and making her the first female to win the 26-year old tournament, an achievement she was proud to acknowledge.
"I've already heard some guys around here saying they can't believe they got beat by a girl," Fox said.
Fox caught the fish on the tournament's first day at about 10 a.m., in the main river channel in the upper section of Lake Dardanelle. She said she fished a ledge and saw a log in about 2 feet of water on a flat. She cast a 10-inch Zoom worm in redbug color under the log. She said she did not feel the fish bite and thought she was snagged.
"I had to troll up to it," Fox said. "It came back through the grass and fell right into the net."
Setting the pace on the first day of the three-day Big Bass Bonanza fills the rest of the weekend with sleepless anxiety. Fox said she alternated between fits of confidence and panic.
"All kinds of thoughts are going through your head," Fox said. "You're already trying to spend the money, but then you have to tell yourself, 'Stop, because you've got two days left of this, and there's bigger fish out there. You need to keep fishing and catch a bigger one!' You're all over the place. You're scattered."
Fox said she and her husband are going to use most of the money to finish remodeling their house.
"The rest of it is probably going to go for taxes," Fox said. "They tell you to hold out 20 percent."
The Dumas Pool has for years produced the tournament's biggest bass. Tim Griffis of Lonoke, who finished fourth in the Dumas Pool with a 5.06-pound bass, said Tuesday that Lake Dardanelle would probably win this year because of the way the Corps of Engineers has managed the water levels in the various pools of the rain-swollen Arkansas River. The Corps stabilized Lake Dardanelle earlier, while fishing conditions downriver had less time to settle.
"I thought that originally, too, but there's such big fish in Dumas, it scares me," Fox said. "But I like Lake Dardanelle. I've fished it for a long time."
Anglers in Lake Dardanelle look for big bass in the strip pits near Russellville. Fox said she avoided that area because she knew it would be crowded.
"I like to fish things differently," Fox said. "I try to fish places that have not been fished. There was only one other boat where I was, and he was quite the distance away, but I'm sure he heard me scream."
Her fish will spend the rest of its days in an aquarium at Lake Dardanelle State Park.
Montine McNulty, executive director for the Arkansas Hospitality Association, which sponsors the tournament, said that the tournament was successful despite two postponements due to unsafe boating conditions. The postponements hurt participation, which fell from nearly 2,300 anglers in 2014 to 1,694 this year. The total payout was $157,853. The hourly payouts for the first-, second- and third-place bass in each pool were $250, $200 and $150, respectively.
The anglers who caught the biggest bass in the other four pools won $10,000 each. Anthony Craig of Lincoln won the Fort Smith Pool with a 6.53-pound bass. Rusty Gosvener won the North Little Rock Pool (6.01), Rob Stone of Cabot won the Pine Bluff Pool (5.54), and Jamey Taylor of Wynne won the Dumas Pool (5.80).
Also, Brandon Ward and his father Brent Ward, both of Pine Bluff, won the $1,000 Willowleaf Award for the biggest bass caught by a parent/child or grandparent/grandchild team. Their fish weighed 4.83 pounds.
Sports on 08/03/2015