A 31 boat field took to the waters of Truman Lake Saturday, July 10 for the Crappie Masters Missouri Trail. It was thought the big fish would be hard to find but Darin Lankford and Hunter Bowling topped the rest of the field with 11.03 pounds. Lankford and Bowling stuck to their game plan even in high winds and morning thunderstorms which hampered many of the teams. The team fished the Grand Arm in a normally popular area. The team made two key decisions which led to their win. One was committing to minnows and most important was upgrading to a 1 ounce weight so they could get the bait in front of the fish quicker. In the end, 11.03 pounds was .06 better than the second place team of Mike Vallentine and Jesse Shoemake who weighed in with 10.97 pounds and kept their streak of either finishing first or second in all of the MoCT tournaments this season. This also kept them in the Angler Team of the Year race. The team also weighed in the big fish at 1.72 pounds. Unlike Lankford and Bowling, Vallentine and Shoemake put around 70 miles on the boat chasing down the fish they thought they would need to win. The team stayed in the Grand Arm to catch their fish in various depths of water at times up to 30 feet. Third place went to the familiar team of Barry Morrow and Chad Maupin. Morrow and Maupin weighed in 10.73 pounds. The top Male/Female team was Jack and Holly Linton. The tournament was hosted by Bucksaw Resort and Marina. The next and final regular season tournament will take place on Saturday, August 14 at Mark Twain Lake.
