As the crazy 2020 calendar keeps rolling along with the ‘Rona and all of its side effects causing chaos in the kayak tournament circuits. The latest disruption this past weekend was not pandemic, murder hornets or ‘Karen’ driven – it was the Bella Vista Bass Club scheduling a boat tourney on Lake Fort Smith on the same date, causing NSKA to make a move to the deep water of Oklahoma on Pumpback.

Pumpback Lake (or Chimney Rock Lake) is an interesting and confusing place. According to an old article in the Tulsa World, it uses more electricity to pump the water uphill into the lake than is generated when the water is released back into Lake Hudson. I guess it’s a profit deal that they do when there’s peak demand and can charge more for the electricity. Which explains the unpredictable timing of when water goes up and down. But I digress…

NSKA Pumpback Tournament Results

For a lake that not a ton of NWA anglers had fished very often and a very tough, hot day, a lot of good fish were caught. This is a testament to the fish population and angler skill. The numbers reflected a strong showing by the lake with 91% of anglers turning in at least one fish and a respectable 51% posting a five fish limit.

When the lake was announced my immediate thought was that all of the Okies were going to get paid with NSKA making the trek over into their territory. This was flat wrong – in fact – the top 13 finishers were from Arkansas even though there were at least a dozen Oklahomans in the field.

First place was won by John Wofford with a whopping 93” on the day including TWO Smallmouth over 20” contributing to his total. Dwain Batey was second with 89.5” and Justin Brewer third with 85.25”.

John also won Big Bass with his 21” bruiser Smallmouth and Justin Phillips took second Big Bass with a 20.75” Largemouth caught late in the day.

The top 10 were as follows:

1. John Wofford – 93”
2. Dwain Batey – 89.5”
3. Justin Brewer – 85.25”
4. Cole Sikes – 83.25”
5. Kyle Long – 83.25”
6. Michael Burgess – 82.50”
7. Jason Coleman – 82.25”
8. Billy Bowden – 82”
9. Roy Roberts – 81.25”
10. Danny Dutton – 81”

Angler Profile – John Wofford

John Wofford dominated the day on Pumpback with his first-place finish and Big Bass. This is another good day in a recent string of good performances by John (we’ll forget the bracket challenge…) in competition with a second place finish in King of the String and first place on Pumpback. In this tourney recap I thought we’d focus a bit on getting to know John and how he’s been catching them.

First of all, what happened on Pumpback!? How’d you catch those monster Smallmouth?

Pumpback was literally a magical day. I had only fished the lake one time and only caught 3-4 fish so my expectations were not high at all and I was just concerned about getting a limit.

First thing in the morning I noticed a Shad spawn happening so I automatically began throwing shad-like baits. Right off the bat I missed a MONSTER Smallie bigger than my 21” because I was using a rod that was too light for what I was doing. Shortly after losing the first big one I noticed on my graph I was coming up on a ledge at the end of a flat/point. My first cast into there I caught my 19.5” Smallmouth. Between losing the first Smallie and catching the 19.5” one I realized I had stumbled upon my patterns for the day. I fished out that whole cove losing more and more fish and one Largemouth that would’ve went 18-19” at least.

I was almost spinning out in my head after losing the Largemouth but I took a second to compose myself and changed gears. Started throwing my fluke on a MH power rod and only lost maybe 1-2 fish the rest of the day. After fishing the back of my first cove I had a few people come in on me so I decided to leave and make some runs to areas that my graph looked similar to where I hooked up with the big fish – and man did that pay off. I believe it was on my second cast in the second spot that I hooked into the 21” and the fight was on! I swore I had a Drum or a Striper on because it took forever for her to come up but once she did I about had a heart attack as I did everything in my power to get her in the net. Once I got her in a wave of emotion came over me and I had a feeling that today just might be my day. Thankfully, Ryan Paskiewicz was nearby and I hollered at him to come get a picture because I not only just broke my Smallmouth PB but I broke my kayak bass PB with a 21” Smallie!

After getting my pictures we let her go and I thanked Ryan and we went our separate ways. I tried to calm my nerves for a moment before getting back to fishing and it wasn’t two casts after the 21” I hooked into the 20.25” on a ledge 20 yards down the cove. This one I was sure was a drum but to my surprise it was the hardest fighting smallmouth I’ve ever caught. It took longer to get this one in the boat than any bass I’ve ever caught. That last big bite came at about 9:15 and from then on it was a dink fest. I moved to the north side of the lake and found some shaded areas with deeper pockets adjacent to them and managed to cull some 14’s with a 15.5” and a 16.75” around noon but other than that the bite slowed down and what I was catching were all smaller than 15.5”. I had an amazing time fishing Pumpback and it is a heck of a fishery! 

You seem to have really taken a step forward in tournament finishes this year, what’s been the biggest change or contributor to that?

I lost my Grandpa at the beginning of the season this year and I decided that I was going to dedicate this year to him. Also, I have really been working on myself to stay out of my head to not put too much pressure on myself and just fish. I ask the good Lord before every tournament to keep everyone safe for the day and to allow me to fish clean and give me the knowledge to fish to the best of my abilities.

I know you fish a lot with your wife, Hope, can you talk a bit about that and how that’s helped your fishing and/or relationship?

Haha! Oh man…kayak tournament fishing with my wife has been fun and a strain at the same time. I love taking her out with me and seeing her learn new techniques and catching fish on bodies of water she used to zero on. I’m probably a little hard on her at times but that’s because I want her to do the best she can do and she has really surprised me this year and has learned a lot each time we fish a tournament. I do worry about her sometimes though when we are on the water if there’s a lot of boats around with the weather starts to turn a little, I’ll make my way around the corner or where I can see her and she’s just out there fishing away not letting any of it bother her. I really do love the fact that she has that competitive drive like I do and we are always competing against one another in the tournaments as much as we are the rest of the field and I think that has made both of us better anglers.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve improved on this year from a fishing standpoint?

My biggest improvement this year has just been getting back to my strengths and not trying to go out and fish other techniques that are other people’s strengths. And I am always studying bass fishing every single day, it’s almost as if that is all I think about anymore. Anytime I talk with someone, read an article or watch a YouTube video I soak up every bit of information I can and then I try to apply that to my style of fishing. And most importantly I have been able to stay out of my head for the most part this season and just went out and fished the conditions that were dealt to me instead of getting upset the conditions aren’t the exact same they were when I pre-fished.

What’s the best advice you can give an angler who is struggling halfway through a tournament? Take what you’ve done earlier and try to learn from it, make your changes and go catch some fish…but most importantly, never give up. I didn’t cull out my smaller fish until right at noon, but if I would’ve given up before that Dwain and I would’ve tied for first instead of winning.

Heavy Hitters Update

More big fish are in the books after Pumpback. I’m still lucky enough to be in the lead (75.5) followed by Michael Burgess (71.75), but there are some strong moves being made, especially by John Wofford (69.5) with his two 20+ and Cole Sikes (70.5) and Justin Phillips (71) who have 20+ inch fish on the board. It’s still anyone’s crown to win.

NSKA Angler of the Year Update

Things are starting to take shape and contenders are emerging for AOY for NSKA. After four events the contenders and pretenders are starting to separate. There is a long way to go and some big events coming up but so far it looks like Roy Roberts, Dwain Batey, Justin Brewer, Jason Coleman and Michael Burgess are best positioned. Cole Sikes is still within striking distance but has no more room for error.

Here are the top 25 anglers if the Classic were held today. Green indicates a “good” points total, yellow “fair” and pink “poor” and needs replaced by a better score.