When the weather finally settled down Sunday afternoon at the McDonald’s Big Bass Splash Presented by Sealy Outdoors and B.A.S.S., Brett Bell of Scottsboro, AL was handed the keys to the brand new 2014 Triton 18XS powered by Mercury. Bell’s catch weighed in at 8.72 pounds and topped the second place finisher by almost two pounds.
Bell and his buddy Scott Dobbins were fishing in Harmon that is about 20 miles south of Paris Landing State Park in about 8 feet of water. Brett caught the winning bass on a Strike King Green Pumpkin worm at about 7:45 a.m. When he hooked the fish, his partner Dobbins looked at Bell and said, “We just won a Triton!” They raced to the weigh-in so they could get into the 8 to 9 o’clock hour on Saturday, which landed him $2000 since he had the bonus t-shirt. Several fish came to the scales on Sunday, but Bell’s 8.72-pound lunker from Saturday held on for the win sending him back to Scottsboro, AL with $40,000 in cash and prizes.
The Top 5 Overall:
2nd place – (6.99) Brad Jones of McKenzie, TN – $2,500
3rd place – (6.99) Brian Horton of Buchanan, TN – $2,000
4th place – (6.95) Michael Prince of Tullahoma, TN – $1,500
5th place – (6.66) Robert Garver of Stilwell, KS – $1,000
See full results here.
Each day $1,000 cash was awarded for the first 3.00/4.00 exact weight bass weighed in. Neither one were weighed on Saturday, so they became an open drawing amongst the contestants. On Sunday, Jerry Wright of Waterloo, AL weighed in the exact 3.00 during the 8 to 9 o’clock hour and Steven Ford of Big Rock, TN weighed in the exact 4.00 during the 10 to 11 o’clock hour. Hunter Brown of Florence, AL was the first name drawn to claim his $1,000 and then Billy Ward of Troy, TN was drawn for the second $1,000.
Zachary Day of Richmond, IN won a Polaris Sportsman 400 (Sponsored by Polaris of Benton) in the famous “Elimination Drawing.”
Anglers from all over came to win their share of $100,000 guaranteed in cash and prizes. There were 501 entries in this year’s Kentucky Lake event and 17 states were represented with anglers coming from as far away as Florida, Michigan and Virginia. McWorth Management was presented with a check for $2,500 for the Ronald McDonald House at Sunday awards ceremony. See the Little Anglers results here.
Next year’s dates were announced Sunday during the awards ceremony: August 15 & 16, 2015. A special thank you to the local support from Paris Landing State Park, Stewart County, Fish Tale Lodge. A big thank you to Shelli Perry, Alane Paschall and McWorth Management for all of your hard work and dedication to help make this event successful. We would also like to thank Two Rivers Bass Club for providing Live Release Boat and fish care along with the Junior Bass Club for running fish. A special thanks to Scott and staff at Froggy 103.7 for all of your hard work. We look forward to working with you guys again next year.
Click here to see more photos from this event
The next stop for the Big Bass Splash will be on Lake Fork in Alba, TX, September 19-20-21 at Lake Fork Marina. Visit www.sealyoutdoors.com or call 888.698.2591 for more information on any Big Bass Splash event. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
The Big Bass Splash is the Richest Amateur Big Bass Fishing Tournament as featured on National Gepgraphic. Sponsors includes: Triton Boats, Mercury Marine, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Minn Kota, Lowrance, Okuma, Tournament Saver Pro, Power Pole, Navionics, River2Sea, Texas Fish & Game, HydroWave, TH Marine, K2 Coolers, Vicious Fishing, Amphibia Sports, The Original Rod Sox and FishingWorld.com.
