Tony Morgan of Cypress Inn, Tennessee, took first place, $3,695, plus 50 CITGO Challenge Points for winning the Red Man Mississippi Division qualifier held Sunday on Pickwick Lake. Morgan brought in three bass totaling 12 pounds, 0 ounces, to top a field of 249 anglers competing for $14,072.
Morgan fished a clown-colored jerkbait around stumps on points. Second place and $1,847 went to Robert Bridges of Brandon, Mississippi, for five bass weighing 11 pounds, 13 ounces. Bridges fished a pumpkin-colored lizard around brush on deep ledges. Third place and $1,084 went to Leon Tidwell of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, for five bass weighing 11 pounds, 2 ounces. Tidwell fished a blue Rat L’ Trap over brush on ledges. Mitch Black of Jackson, Mississippi, took fourth place with five bass weighing 10 pounds, 11 ounces, worth $695. Black fished a pumpkin-colored lizard in tree tops. Fifth place and $659 went to Albert Sanders of Ellisville, Mississippi, for four bass weighing 10 pounds, 8 ounces. Sanders fished shallow ledges with a carolina-rigged worm.
Rounding out the top positions were: (6) Ronald Wilkinson, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, four bass, 10 pounds, 1 ounce, $586; (7) Johnny Simmons, Oxford, Mississippi, five bass, 9 pounds, 13 ounces, $512; (8 tie) Mike Pyrdon, Memphis, Tennessee, two bass, and Ed Williams, Jackson, Mississippi, four bass, 9 pounds, 11 ounces, $402; (10) Paul Frazier, Memphis, Tennessee, three bass, 9 pounds, 8 ounces, $303.
Tony Morgan also won the Abu Garcia Big Bass Award of $1,000 for a 7 pound, 5 ounce bass.
David Hammarstrom of Pelahatchie, Mississippi, is leading the Mississippi Division Ranger Millennium big bass race with a 4 pound, 15 ounce bass. The original Ranger boat owner who catches the largest bass in each Red Man division over the course of the season, will qualify to enter the Ranger M1 Millenium tournament.
At the completion of the six Red Man qualifying events, the top 30 anglers, determined on a basis of pounds and points, will move onto Regional Championship competition. There they will compete against the top 30 fishermen from three other divisions for a Dream Rig consisting of a Chevy truck and a full-rigged Ranger bass boat powered by an Evinrude or Johnson outboard (only two divisions compete in the Western Regional for a fully-rigged Ranger bass boat) and a spot in the Red Man All-American in Hot Springs, Arkansas, May 8-13, 2000, where the winner will receive $100,000.
The rookie advancing farthest along the Red Man Trail will win the Old Milwaukee NA Rookie-of-the-Year Award.
All Red Man tournaments are catch and release events. Operation Bass historically maintains a 98 percent live release rate throughout the tournament season.