KIMBERLING CITY, Mo. (Sept. 9, 2024) – Boater Roger Fitzpatrick of Eldon, Missouri, caught a two-day total of nine bass weighing 31 pounds, 1 ounce, to win the MLF Bass Fishing League (BFL) Super Tournament on Table Rock Lake. The tournament, which concluded Sunday, was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Ozark Division. Fitzpatrick earned $6,121 for his victory.
This makes win No. 2 on the season for Fitzpatrick, who also won the Lake of the Ozarks BFL tournament back in March. Like then, Fitzpatrick took advantage of his recent transition into retirement to put in extra time on the lake. In fact, he made several trips over three weeks to Table Rock to put in the prep time.
“As soon as I got here I realized there were some good fish shallow,” he said of his practice. “The other thing I noticed was the water color had a slight stain to it for Table Rock. It had a Lake of the Ozarks color to it – nice and green.”
Right away, Fitzpatrick found a good practice bite throwing topwater and flipping a jig on shallow rock banks and around docks where bass were targeting spawning bluegills. Eventually, that pattern transitioned. As the bluegills wrapped up their spawn, gizzard shad moved into nearby areas. The bass shifted to targeting gizzard shad, and Fitzgerald followed them.
“Everything I was catching before was on a rocky bank,” he said. “Now it’s all gone to gravel – at least the good ones. I had a 6-2 today (Sunday), and it came real shallow on gravel.”
Fitzgerald caught most of his fish throwing a Berkley Choppo topwater and flipping a 1/2-ounce Omega jig in water 5 feet deep or shallower. He also worked in a glide bait.
“I fished from the mouth of the White River all the way to Indian Point, which is a pretty good area,” he said. “The water was the same color everywhere. The key for me was I had to be fishing around either the bluegills or the gizzard shad. If you weren’t around one of those two, you were just twiddling your thumbs. But when you found them, you had to be on your tiptoes because you were going to get a bite. A lot of the fish came around docks; any kind of shade. Had to have some shade.”
On day two, Fitzpatrick only weighed in four bass. He said the bite is really starting to slow down. Keeping his head down and knowing he was around the right quality of fish from his extensive practice helped him stay confident.
“It went from being you could just go down the bank three weeks ago and reel them in, to you had to know there were fish there to keep doing it, because anybody with any sanity would’ve given up doing it,” Fitzgerald added. “I just knew if I kept going, eventually a good one would grab it.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Roger Fitzpatrick, Eldon, Mo., nine bass, 31-01, $6,121
2nd: Cole Findley, Forsyth, Mo., 10 bass, 29-10, $3,060
3rd: Drew Tabor, Harrison, Ark., 10 bass, 28-03, $2,041
4th: Eric Olliverson, Shell Knob, Mo., 10 bass, 27-09, $1,928 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
5th: Shane Long, Willard, Mo., 10 bass, 27-05, $1,224
6th: Drew Sagely, Rogers, Ark., nine bass, 26-01, $1,122
7th: Cole Breeden, Lebanon, Mo., 10 bass, 25-06, $1,020
8th: Casey Martin, Ozark, Mo., 10 bass, 25-04, $918
9th: Corey Cook, Lebanon, Mo., 10 bass, 24-06, $816
10th: Ronnie Dobbs, Shell Knob, Mo., 10 bass, 24-03, $714
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Ricky Crawford of Shell Knob, Missouri, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 9 ounces, and earned the Big Bass Boater award of $840. Chris McClellan of Desoto, Missouri, won the co-angler division and $3,060 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of six bass to the scale that weighed 11 pounds, 13 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Chris McClellan, Desoto, Mo., six fish, 11-13, $3,060
2nd: Geoff Blair, Nixa, Mo., six fish, 11-2, $1,530
3rd: Kieth Rhymer, Mountain Home, Ark., five bass, 10-14, $1,020
4th: David Blankenship, Galena, Mo., five bass, 10-9, $714
5th: Brian Weaver, Lampe, Mo., five bass, 10-0, $762
6th: James Welch, Bolivar, Mo., five bass, 9-13, $561
7th: Jake Mantovani, Naperville, Ill., four bass, 9-10, $510
8th: Kirk Short, St. Clair, Mo., four bass, 9-8, $459
9th: Jeremy Johnson, Kansas City, Kan., four bass, 8-6, $408
10th: Kevin Witty, Rogersville, Mo., three bass, 7-10, $777
Kevin Witty of Rogersville, Missouri, earned the Big Bass co-angler award of $420, catching a bass that weighed in at 3 pounds, 14 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
At the conclusion of the event, Eric Olliverson of Shell Knob, Missouri, was crowned the Fishing Clash Ozark Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,320 points and took home the $1,000 payout, while Kirk Short of St. Clair, Missouri, won the Fishing Clash Ozark Division Co-Angler of the Year race and the $500 payout with 1,348 points.
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