BIG BASS BONANZA BRINGING THE FISH OUT OF PB LAKE

By Wes Clement/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

Bart Moore fished in familiar waters Saturday during Arkansas’ annual Big Bass Bonanza. “It’s my backyard,” he said of Lake Langhoffer, where one of five weigh stations along the Arkansas River was located. “My bedroom’s about from here to that willow tree from the water.”

Moore, a Pine Bluff firefighter since 1983, has a work schedule that allows him plenty of time for fishing, and plenty of fishing is what he does.

At 12:45 p.m., 15 minutes before the final weigh-in of the day, Moore waited around to see if anyone would bring in a larger bass. His fish for the hour was 4.85 pounds.

Like many of the competitors, Moore began fishing early in life. “Me and my Grandpa, that’s all we did,” he said. “We fished on weekends, during the summer, in the evenings. He was retired, so he could always go.” Lake Pine Bluff and “Shad Hole” were their regular spots, Moore said.

He was prepared for a hot day. “I keep two towels in an ice chest and throw them on my head and switch them out,” he said.

“It’s hot, but I don’t mind,” Ronny Hackney of Star City said. “The conditions are just the way I want them to be. There’s a good current in the river, not too high, and it’s cleared up a bit. It’s not too muddy.”

Hackney, who is the owner of Pro Star Auto Body at Star City, said he fell in love with competitive fishing during his first tournament at Cane Creek Lake years ago.

“I’ll usually find a row of pilings or rock pilings,” he said. “You just have to figure out something different than what the others are doing.”

Hackney’s all-time largest bass was 8 pounds, he said, caught at Cane Creek Lake about eight years ago. His largest fish during the first two days of this year’s tournament was 4.86 pounds.

“We tried to do it in June to avoid the intense heat, but it backfired on us,” said Richard Metcalf, a tournament volunteer.

“Hopefully the participation is up, but we won’t really know until the whole thing is over.”

He said organizers of the tournament were hoping to have 2,500 participants.

Metcalf was responsible for weighing each fish as it was brought to the scales where volunteers relaxed in the shade between hourly weigh-ins.

“The fish are starting to feel the pressure a little bit with all the traffic,” Metcalf said. “They’re just like us, they like to be left alone.”

Four other fishing sites at Russellville, Fort Smith, Dumas and North Little Rock were part of the three-day tournament.

For more on the tournament, see Page 1D.