MOUNT IDA, Ark., – Shawn Hatcher of Van Buren, Ark., out fished the competition Saturday to earn $5,035 and 50 CITGO Challenge Points in the Boater Division of the Red Man Tournament Trail’s Arkie season opener on Lake Ouachita.
Hatcher, a 25-year-old brick mason, caught five largemouth bass weighing 17 pounds, 5 ounces during the one-day event to edge out Trey Henigan of Benton, Ark., who finished with a five-bass catch of 17-4 worth $2,518. Hatcher was fishing flats up the river using a Dead Stick Rouge lure.
Keith Wallum of Arkadelphia, Ark., placed third and collected $1,259 for five bass weighing 17-3. Michael Farris of Calico Rock, Ark., earned $1,091 for five bass weighing 16-14, and Danny Cooper of Hot Springs, Ark., received $1,001 for three bass weighing 15-8. Farris and Cooper finished fourth and fifth respectively. Cooper also won the Boater Division Abu Garcia Big Bass Award of $770 for a 7-pound, 1-ounce largemouth he caught on a Fat Albert Zoom Grub.
First place in the Co-Angler Division and $2,534 went to Robert Morehart, 52, of Ward, Ark., for four bass weighing 15-9. Second place in the Co-Angler Division and $950 went to John Brewer of Benton, Ark., for four bass weighing 14-1 and Ray Brown of Maumelle, Ark., for five bass of the same weight. Brown, a 17-year-old student, also won the Berkley Power Bait award, a package of baits valued at $200, for the heaviest overall catch on Power Bait or Frenzy lures. This was Brown’s first Red Man tournament.
Morehart and Clyde McMoran of Greenbrier, Ark., each collected $193 from Abu Garcia for catching the biggest bass in the Co-Angler Division at 5 pounds, 13 ounces.
On March 25, the Red Man Tournament Trail will visit the Arkansas River for the second of five events in the Arkie Division. The boater with the most CITGO Challenge points after the division’s season finale, a two-day Super Tournament Sept. 9-10 also on the Arkansas River, is declared the Divisional Points Champion and awarded $1,000. The co-angler amassing the most points by the end of the season receives $500.
Operation Bass was founded in 1979 on the principle that working anglers should be able to fish competitively without interfering with jobs and family. Since introducing a new boater/co-angler format and switching to Saturday events from Sunday, the Red Man Trail is breaking participation records in many of its 22 divisions nationwide.
The trail’s championship event, the Red Man All-American, awards $100,000 to the winning boater and $50,000 to the winning co-angler. The highest placing CITGO Divisional Points Champion at the All-American receives $10,000 in the Boater Division and $2,500 in the Co-Angler Division. Overall, more than $5.7 million could be awarded in 2000 based on full fields in each of the series’ 119 events nationwide.