Twenty-four individuals fished Saturday’s Current River Smallmouth Association “King of the River” tournament, and this year saw a first-time winner.
Birch Tree’s Alex Rutledge out-fished the field, hauling in a winning weight of 10.34 pounds and earning the coveted King of the River title.
“I’ve been wanting to win that for a long time,” said Rutledge, who credited his faith and his brother Jack’s teachings for much of his success.
“We have some of the best smallmouth fishermen in the world right here in the Ozarks, and it’s an honor to fish with guys who are so talented,” he said.
Rutledge noted he caught his fish using plastic worms, tube baits and a Jewel jig bait.
Just behind him in second place, by a slim margin, was Robbie Williams with 10.17 pounds, followed closely in third place by Jarred Smith with 10.08 pounds.
Bobbie Barnes earned a fourth place finish with 9.91 pounds, and the top five was rounded out by Robert Neal with 9.44 pounds.
The day’s biggest bass was a 3.27-pounder caught by Paul Henderson.
__Close Finish__
Saturday’s Wappapello Crappie Club His and Hers tournament came down to the wire, and the results were about as close as they can get.
The team of Porter and Pollard topped the field of 24 teams, bringing 6.59 pounds to the weigh-in scales. They were aided by the day’s big fish, weighing 1.24 pounds, and they won $1,365 for their efforts.
Just a miniscule 1/100 of a pound behind, the team of Botsch and Botsch took second place with 6.58 pounds, and they earned $445.
Third place went to Roper and Roper with 6.18 pounds, earning $280, and fourth place was taken by Sanders and Sanders with 5,91 pounds. They went home with $190.
The fifth and final paying spot was earned by Green and Green with 5.88 pounds, good for $120.
__Angler’s Choice__
Sunday’s Angler’s Choice tournament on Wappapello Lake saw 35 teams compete, and at the end of the day, a pair of familiar faces were on top of the leaderboard.
Bruce Hutson and his son, Adam Hutson, captured the win with a total weight of 20.23 pounds. They also had a big boost from the day’s largest fish, weighing in at 6.92 pounds, and their winnings totaled $2,030.
Second place went to James Goodpasture and Scott Fischer with 19.62 pounds, and they earned $1,100.
Dell Walker and Danny Walker took third place with a weight of 17.95 pounds, and they took home $765 for their efforts.
Shawn Harty and Justin Harty earned a fourth-place finish with 14.92 pounds, winning $465 in the process.
The final paying position, fifth, was taken by Marcus Selvidge and Tim O’Neal. They had 14.83 pounds at the weigh-in and earned $290.
__Insignificant Changes__
Even after all the rain we had earlier this week, neither Clearwater or Wappapello Lake saw much of a rise.
Clearwater’s upper watershed apparently missed much of the rainfall, and the lake only came up a few inches. It crested at midnight Tuesday at 498.31 feet.
Wappapello’s upper watershed also looks like it was missed by many of the storm cells, with the lake rising less than 2 feet. It was expected to crest at less than 362 feet (360 is normal) sometime Thursday.
__Regulation Changes__
For deer hunters in Missouri, there a couple changes to the fall hunting regulations you may not have heard about.
Firstly, the antlerless deer season has been expanded to include Ripley and Oregon counties, among others.
Secondly, after about 18 years, MDC has changed the rule requiring adults who take youngsters hunting to be licensed.
Starting this fall, adults no longer have to purchase a firearms deer permit just to take their child during the youth season.
Years ago, when my daughter was learning to hunt, I questioned a now-retired department deputy director about the permit requirement for adults taking their children on the youth hunts and his answer just didn’t make any sense to me.
Here was the scenario: At the time, I had already killed two early-season deer with my bow, but wanted to take my daughter during the youth deer season. With two deer already in the freezer, and the potential for her to put a third in it, I didn’t need a fourth deer and just didn’t understand the requirement for me to purchase a firearms permit when I wasn’t going to go.
The explanation I received was that the department wanted to ensure those mentoring young hunters had experience handling firearms and hunting.
That seemed a bit confusing, and when I told him my wife hadn’t fired a weapon since basic training in the late 80s, was older than the cutoff date for the hunter education requirement so she wasn’t required to have it, she had zero hunting experience and yet could still take our daughter deer hunting, he just shrugged his shoulders.
Anyway, after all these years, it looks like MDC’s regulations committee finally has come around to the sensible side on this one.