GROVE, Okla., (Sept. 20, 1999) Tommy Junkins of Joplin, Mo., and James Sprague of Olathe, Kan., took first place, $1,611 and 50 CITGO Challenge Points for winning the Red Man Plains Division qualifier held Sunday on Grand Lake. Junkins and Sprague each brought in five bass weighing 17 pounds, 1 ounce to top a field of 116 anglers competing for $7,090. While Sprague fished bushes in the upper Neoshoe River using a white and chartreuse spinnerbait, Junkins opted for laydowns in the Elk River using a chartreuse crankbait. Third place finisher, Terry Thomas of Nixa, Missouri, caught a five bass limit of 16 pounds, 14 ounces, to win $630. Thomas worked pea gravel banks with a white buzzbait in the Grand area to Elk River.
Rounding out the top positions were: (4) Gary Seachord, Beatrice, New England, five bass, 16-4, $404 and (5) Steve Wayne, Tulsa, Oklahoma, five bass, 14-11, $383.
Jerome Wieberg of Saint Thomas, Mo., won the Abu Garcia Big Bass Award of $1,000 for a 6 pound, 1 ounce bass. Scott Stephenson of Topeka, Kansas, is leading the Plains Division Ranger Millennium big bass race for the year with a bass weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces. The 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 Millennium tournament. John Ross of Caulfield, Mo., won the Berkley Powerbait award “a package of baits valued at $325” for the highest weight caught on Powerbait or Frenzy lures with 14 pounds, 5 ounces.
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.
Sponsors of the 1999 Red Man Tournament Trail include: Evinrude Outboards, Evinrude Electrics, CITGO Petroleum, Ranger Boats, Humminbird Fishfinders, Stren Fishing Lines, Abu Garcia Rods and Reels, Chevy Trucks, ENERGIZER Marine Batteries, Old Milwaukee NA, Black & Decker, David Seeds, Coleman Products, Land O’ Lakes, BC Powder, Eveready, Wheaties, Chex Mix, Hamburger Helper, Wrangler, US Bank-VISA, Powerbait, and Frenzy.