Fishing and Hunting

Bryan Hendricks

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Intense rivalry between Dardanelle and Dumas pools

» Posted: August 21, 2007

The Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza may be an amateur tournament, but the anglers who compete in it take it very seriously.

Surprisingly intense is the rivalry between the anglers who fish the tournament at Lake Dardanelle versus those who fish the Dumas Pool. On Sunday, the Dardanelle anglers celebrated a little too soon. When news arrived that Johnny Holder had caught a 6.33-pounder in the Dumas Pool, a couple of anglers said they hoped he failed his polygraph. I think they were joking.

Vince Miller, who conducted the weigh-in at Lake Dardanelle, said, “I don’t want that to happen. I know Johnny very well, and he’s a good guy. A really good guy, and I’m happy for him.”

Impeccable Timing

At about 9 a.m. on Sunday, Miller said he was awaiting the arrival of Montine McNulty, executive director for the Arkansas Hospitality Association.

“The big fish always gets caught about the time she shows up,” Miller said.

McNulty arrived at about 9:30 a.m., and Miller got the news of Holder’s fish a little after 10 a.m.

“Somebody always catches the big bass as soon as you get here,

Miller shouted, “but they caught it in the wrong place!”

Reminiscing

At the Lake Dardanelle tournament facility was my old friend Bill Lawrence of Russellville. I served as Lawrence’s press observer at the 1994 Red Man All-American at Muskogee, Okla. In the final hour of that tournament, Lawrence experienced one of the most amazing, and most gut-wrenching, performances in a major bass fishing championship.

We entered a retaining pool that was just deep enough at the entrance for a bass boat to negotiate. To get in, Lawrence and I had to run to the back of the boat in order to lift the bow, then run to the bow to lift the stern. David Fritts, a celebrity angler from Lexington, N.C., was fishing the outside edges. He'd already tried and failed to enter the pool.

Lawrence hadn’t done much all day, but with a small crankbait, he hooked two 5-pounders and a 3-pounder in rapid succession, but was unable to land any of them. Just two of those fish in the livewell would have been enough to earn Lawrence the $100,000 championship.

“I always change out the hooks on those crankbaits, but I didn’t do it that time,” Lawrence said, recalling the moment. “It cost me, big time.”