Strike King co-angler Chavers goes wire-to-wire with 35-10
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark.- For three days Lake Dardanelle and Northern Arkansas have thrown a wide variety of weather at the field of Strike King co-anglers at the Toyota Series Southwestern Division event. And at the end of each of the three days, Robert Chavers was able to climb his way to the top of the leaderboard, overcoming rain, shine, wind, slick calm, and eventually cool overcast conditions to accomplish a victory on his home lake.
“I feel pretty good about it,” said a grinning Chavers. “Today was just grinding. All you could do was just go grinding.”
Chavers threw everything he had at the Dardanelle bass this week, finally catching three fish on a finesse stickbait that weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces and gave him the victory over runner-up Carter Wijangco with 35-10.
“Every fish I weighed today came on a Senko,” he said. “I haven’t caught a fish on the Senko all week. I had a gut feeling I needed something to work extremely slow, so that was what I got bit on today.”
Chavers’ win is extra special to him as he got to accomplish the feat alongside a local legend and dear friend, Zach King.
“It just happened to be that Zach wound up winning the pro side,” Chavers said. “He and I have been friends for over 30 years. It was fun to get back in the boat with him and win.”
Both Chavers and King have come a long way since their humble beginning chasing fish together in a small aluminum, just trying to catch some bass on Lake Dardanelle.
“We started out with a little pond hopper boat and an S-10 truck,” Chavers said, laughing. “We really ‘moved to uptown’ when we got a 3-horse outboard to put on it.”
Now the Strike King co-angler champion has a nice new ride to play in going forward, claiming a Phoenix Boats prize package worth $33,500. It’s a far cry from the humble beginning with a lifelong friend.
“That’s pretty cool,” he said. “I’ve never won a boat. I’ve won quite a bit (of money) fishing, but never won a boat.”
Top 10 Strike King co-anglers
- Robert Chavers – 35 – 10 (13)
- Carter Wijangco – 34 – 8 (13)
- Brennan Cole – 33 – 10 (15)
- Scott Parsons – 31 – 2 (15)
- Will Lancett – 30 – 5 (12)
- Cody McEntire – 29 – 14 (12)
- Garrett Wilson – 29 – 12 (13)
- Mark King – 29 – 9 (12)
- Alan Bernicky – 29 – 2 (11)
- Charles Williams – 28 – 13 (13)