LITTLE ROCK – Here’s a fish story worth telling: lurking somewhere right now in the approximately 300 miles of the Arkansas River between Fort Smith on Arkansas’s western border to down near Dumas in the southeastern part of the state is a single big bass worth $100,000.
That will be the top prize at stake June 23-25 in the annual Arkansas Ford Dealers Big Bass Bonanza, the nation’s largest amateur fishing contest, which is expected to award, in all, more than $300,000 (based on 3,000 entrants) in cash prizes. Last year, Eric Andrews of London, Ark., bested 2,549 fellow competitors from 31 states by landing a 6.59-pound bass from the river’s Lake Dardanelle pool, which has yielded the $100,000 fish in four of the last five years.
For the tournament, the Arkansas will be divided into five designated pools, each with its own weigh-in site, as follows:
-- Pool 1, from the Garrison Avenue Bridge, near Fort Smith, south to the upstream side of Ozark Lock and Dam with weigh-ins at Clear Creek Park on the river about 3.5 miles east of Kibler;
-- Pool 2, downstream from the Ozark dam to the upstream side of Ormond Lock and Dam with weigh-ins at Lake Dardanelle State Park (Russellville side);
-- Pool 3, downstream from the Ormond dam to the upstream side of the David D. Terry Lock and Dam with weigh-ins at the North Little Rock Marina and Boat Dock east of the Interstate 30 bridge in North Little Rock;
-- Pool 4, downstream from the Terry dam to the upstream side of Joe Hardin Lock and Dam with weigh-ins in the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Regional Park at Pine Bluff; and
-- Pool 5, downstream from the Joe Hardin dam to the upstream side of Lock #2 and Dam #2 with weigh-ins at the Pendleton Bridge on U.S. 165 about 9.5 miles east of Dumas.
For determining the tournament’s overall prizes, Pools 1, 3 and 4 will be combined into Superpool A, with Pools 2 and 5 designated as Superpool B. The anglers who weigh in the largest fish from the two superpools will each net $25,000, and the larger fish of those two will land another $75,000.
Second through 10th-place finishers in each superpool will receive prizes ranging from $10,000 to $500. (Should the tournament draw less than 3,000 entrants, the number and size of those prizes may be adjusted.)
Competition will run from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. each tournament day. Beginning at 8 a.m. each day, each of the five pools will host six hourly weigh-ins. Prizes of $500, $300 and $200 will be awarded respectively for the three biggest fish produced at each of the hourly weigh-ins in all five pools. Anglers wearing an official 2006 tournament T-shirt and cap when their prize fish are weighed will receive a $100 bonus.
Competitors may fish the pool of their choice and may change pools at any time, but a fish must be weighed in at the site designated for the pool in which the fish was caught. Only live largemouth, smallmouth and Kentucky spotted bass measuring at least 16 inches in length will be eligible to be weighed.
Tournament prizes will be presented during a party and awards ceremony for tourney participants to begin at 4 p.m. June 25 near the Pool 3 weigh-in site on North Little Rock’s riverfront. Attendance is free for contestants, who may bring guests at $5 per person. Drawings for prizes will be conducted with eligibility limited to those wearing an official 2006 tournament cap and T-shirt and in possession of their 2006 weigh-in card.
The tournament’s Willow Leaf Award, consisting of $1,000 cash and a commemorative plaque, will be awarded to a parent and child or grandparent and grandchild who weigh in the largest bass. There are no age limits for the prize, which is intended to encourage family members to fish the tournament together.
Registration for the tournament is now under way. Through June 6, the tournament entry fee is $80 per day fished. An additional $10 per day fished will be added thereafter. Tournament caps are $12 and T-shirts are $10. Contestants may register in advance in person at designated sites in Fort Smith, Van Buren, Dardanelle, Russellville, Little Rock, Sherwood, Pine Bluff, Redfield, Dumas, Hot Springs, Conway and Stuttgart. Specifics on those locations are available on the tournament Web site at www.fordbigbass.com, where entries can also be submitted. Advance registration fees are payable by cash (except by mail), money order, cashier’s check, VISA, MasterCard and through June 6 by personal check. Cash only will be accepted from those registering at weigh-in sites on tournament days.
For information on advance registration sites, to request entry forms and for other tournament information, phone the Arkansas Hospitality Association, which produces the tournament, toll-free at 1-800 -472-5022 or 376-2323 if calling from Little Rock. Requests may also be faxed to (501) 376-6517 or sent by e-mail to aha@arhospitality.org.
