6.81 Bass Wins $50,000 in the
Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza
Patrick Chapman of Parkdale Wins on Final Day
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — After competing in the Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza for over a decade, Patrick Chapman finally took home the big prize this year.
The 6.81-pound bass he caught in the 11:00 hour on Sunday lifted him over two-day leader Daniel Shults’ 5.63-pound fish, also from the Dumas pool. Chapman is taking home $50,000 for his efforts. Chapman beat out 1,861 other anglers to win the grand prize.
Chapman said he had won some hourly prizes in the past, but never “the big one.”
“It’s really something. We fish all the time, and it’s about time we won something,” Chapman said. “I think we won about $1,300 last year at Pine Bluff. This pays us back for a lot of gear.”
Chapman was fishing with Aubrey Wells and David Streeter. He caught the winning bass while fishing at Coal Pile using a spinner bait.
“We were kinda asleep at the wheel—never expected to catch a 6-pounder,” Chapman said. “We had fished a tournament Thursday night, and another one in Crossett on Saturday. My buddy had to loan me money to pay my entry fee today and said ‘don’t worry about it now.’ We didn’t even decide to fish till 10:00 last night.”
Chapman said he was going to use the money to pay off some bills, saying, “It’s not sexy, but I’m just going to give myself some breathing room. If you can breathe you can smile. I want to smile.”
First-place winners in each of the other pools are:
• Jason Deblock of Vilonia (4.87) – Little Rock pool
• Martin Arnold of Ft. Smith (5.36) – Fort Smith pool
• Cameron Harp of Ward (5.86) – Dardanelle pool
• Eric Green of Pine Bluff (5.49) – Pine Bluff pool
The top catch in each of these four pools was worth $10,000 in prize money.
The leader for the first two days of the tournament, Daniel Shults who was fishing with his father Mansel of Pine Bluff took home $1,000 cash and the Willow Leaf Award, which goes to the parent/child or grandparent/grandchild pair weighing the biggest fish. Shults’ bass tipped the scales at 5.63 pounds.
For more information on the tournament and complete results, visit arkansasbigbass.com
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Results from the 2010 tournament
- Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza 2010 Overall Leaders – Final
- Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza 2010 Hourly Pool Winners – Final
Results from the 2009 tournament
- Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza 2009 Overall Leaders – Final
- Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza 2009 Hourly Pool Winners – Final
- Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza 2009 Overall Pool Winners
Results from the 2008 tournament