A hot bite put fish in the boat early for Boat # 57.
Big fish were abundant at the 2020 Mississippi River Monsters tournament out of Memphis. Rookie and seasoned anglers alike agreed—it was a good day to be fishing the Mississippi River.
One-hundred and three boats from 17 different states fished the popular event. Out of the 263 anglers, 18 were veterans, 16 were lady anglers, and 6 were youth anglers. Some big fish were caught during prefishing and expectations were high going into tournament day on September 19, 2020.
When the smoke cleared and the weights recorded, the team of Hunter Jones, Adam Long, and Dustin Shepard had claimed the top spot with 135.80 pounds. Their bag included a blue weighing 75.08 pounds. The B’n’M team had weighed in relatively early and set in the hot seats for the rest of the day to see if some team would unseat them. They won first place and the Driftmaster Rod Holders Bonus.
First Place
“We got down on Wednesday morning and headed out scouting,” reported Jones. “We found fish on our fist spot. After catching 5 in about 10 minutes we decided to leave that area so we didn’t sore lip them.”
The team scouted other areas during the next couple of days but didn’t find anything that caught their eye like they did on the first day.
“On tournament morning we were eager to get back on the bank where we found fish on Wednesday,” continued Jones. “We were hoping the fish were still close around. They were still there and we caught more than 20 fish by 10:30 in the morning.”
Jones, Long, and Sheppard were fishing from Long’s SeaArk 2072, in the middle of the river, in 60 feet of water. They were using B’n’M Bumping Rods to back bounce. A cold front and high winds blowing at 10-20 mph added another challenge.
“We were worried that the fish wouldn’t be there,” explained Long. “When we got there Saturday morning there were 4 or 5 barges on the bank that we planned to fish. So, we had to go to plan B and cover some water.”
The teamed moved out in the middle of the river and took off bumping. A good bite allowed them to start catching fish right away.
“We ended up catching 25 fish for the day,” confirmed Long. “Our 2 big fish came around 10:00 am and then the barges ran us off of our second spot. So, we went back to plan A and caught a few small fish.”
“Adam boated the big fish around 10:00,” Jones recalled. “We knew then that we had a heavy weight. We fished for a while longer before deciding to head on in and hope we had enough to put us in the top spot.”
“We needed to look out for the wellbeing of our fish,” added Long. “Around 11:00 we headed back to Memphis with a 2-hour drive ahead of us.”
The team thanked their sponsors, B’n’M Poles, Grizzly Jig Company, Team Catfish, and Driftmaster Rod Holders.
Second Place
The runner-up spot went to Carl Morris Jr. and Rob Parsons. They teamed up to bring 133.77 pounds to the scales, just a couple of pounds short of the top spot. This came after Carl and Amanda Martin had claimed Big Fish honors on day one of Monster Week and then Carl and Rob earned Big Fish on day two.
“With the challenges of running a business in COVID 2020 we haven’t been able to get out as much as we would like,” offered Morris. “We decided we were gonna’ spend the week on the Mississippi as our break.”
On the first day of prefishing Morris landed a 92-pound blue for his new personal best which Amanda netted. They continued to fish and develop a pattern. During prefishing more than 80 miles of river were covered as they checked different areas they had never fished before. Morris said they found big fish most every day. Their winning Big Fish on Wednesday and Thursday were caught 50 miles apart. Based on other reports, big fish were caught up and down the river from Memphis.
“Tourney day we fished south of Memphis,” reported Morris. “We started the day drifting with smaller bait and caught a lot of good fish. We just couldn’t get that last big bite we needed. We had a spot where we saw a few big marks so we spot locked on it.”
Morris and Parsons caught a few more fish, just the same 25- to 35-pound fish that they had been catching. They had stuck with small baits all day when Morris decided to change it up.
“I switched over and walked a whole skipjack back to the hole,” recalled Morris. “About 10 minutes later we had the big bite we needed to get over the hump and finish well.”
“Thanks to Amanda for prefishing with me until Rob got in,” concluded Morris. “Congrats to Hunter, Adam, and Dustin on a big win!”
Third Place and Top Finishing Youth
Third Place went to Tom Petrowski, Henry Neafus, and Alex Petrowski with 127.43 pounds.
Alex was the Top Placing Youth Angler.
Fourth Place
The fourth spot was filled by Ray Ferguson and Donnie Fountain with 121.25 pounds that included a 63.07-pound beast. They also won the Garmin Bonus.
Fifth Place, Big Fish, and Top Female
Joe Stringer and Melissa Redger came to the scales early with a 93.08-pound blue. Their final weight of 116.63 pounds put them in 5th place and the 93-pounder held up all day as Big Fish of the tournament. Melissa earned the Top Female honors for the big fish. (See full story by clicking here.)
Veteran Big Fish
Dusty Tholl claimed Veteran Big Fish honors, presented by Heroes Outdoor Therapy (HOT), with a 45.25-pound blue.
Remaining Top Ten
6th #18 Roy Harkness, Don Sweat, John Godwin 111.32
7th #83 Cedric Poynor, Randy Dodd, Jonathan Dodd 109.80
8th #73 Dusty Tholl, Aaron Churchwell 108.57
9th #64 Ben Goebel, John Jamison 108.56
10th #76 Joel Roberts, Justin Thornton 105.68
With MRM 2020 in the books, the preparation begins for 2021. Anglers can expect another great tournament next year. With registrations capped at 100 anglers should make their plans and be ready when registration opens.
Kudos to George Young, Jr and the entire Mississippi River Monsters staff on a successful tournament in this challenging year of COVID.
