Happy 21st anniversary Holly Bohannan
Greg Bohannan went fishing on Beaver Lake the morning before his wedding day 21 years ago. So his wife, Holly, wasn’t surprised when her husband wished her happy anniversary Thursday from the weigh-in stage at Lake Ouachita.
“I fished until about noon on my wedding day,” Bohannan said. “I had to be at the church about 2:00 that afternoon. (Holly) got a little worried about me. She said what were you going to do if you broke down. I said, swim!
“My wife and I have had a great marriage. We might have had two fights in 21 years.”
Bohannon grew up in Springdale, Ark., went to Arkansas Tech University in Russellville on a football scholarship, where he played baseball too. Then he went to work at Tyson Foods until 2008, when he qualified for the FLW Tour, where he has won “right at” $1 million in his career since.
Though a native Arkansan, Bohannan said he’d only fished Lake Ouachita a handful of times previously and never this time of year. The 52-year-old Bohannon, who now calls Bentonville, Ark., home, would like to finish his career on the Bassmaster Elite Series.
“But if I don’t, I’m good right here,” he said.
Bohannan opened this tournament with a limit weighing 14 pounds, 10 ounces, a better than average day in an evert which could change dramatically over the next two days due to varying weather conditions.
Late flights could be key on Day 2
After practice this week, the common sentiment among the 199 pro anglers was the nastier the weather the better the bass bit. That theory wasn’t put to the test on Day 1 in the St. Croix Bassmaster Open presented by SEVIN at Lake Ouachita. It was a picture-perfect day – calm, bright sunshine and temperatures warming into the upper 60s.
The forecast for Friday is quite the opposite. Clouds and rain are in the forecast as a cold front moves in, mainly in the afternoon.
“They’re going to chew (Friday),” said Jeremiah Kindy of Benton, Ark., who is in 4th place with 19 pounds, 7 ounces. Mike Surman of Boca Raton, Fla., leads after Day 1 with 20-5, followed by Andrew Hargrove of Moody, Texas, (19-15) and Evan Kung of Pickering, Ontario, Canada. Kung had the big bass of 9-14, showing what Lake Ouachita is capable of producing.
There are frequently dramatic shifts in the standings from Day 1 to Day 2 at a Bassmaster Open. And there are a bunch of anglers who could make that move into Saturday’s top 10 final. The log jam is at 13 pounds, where Beau Browning of Hot Springs, Ark., is in 32nd place with 13-15 and Garrett Paquette of Canton, Mich., and Jack York of Emory, Texas, are tied for 54th place with 13-0.
Any of those anglers with 13 pounds or better could make a move, particularly those in later flights. If it holds true that the nastier the weather, the bass bite improves, Lake Ouachita is forecast to be fully involved in nastiness by Friday afternoon.
Fujita’s goal not lost in translation
Kyoya Fujita, the sensation from Japan who qualified for the Elites after his first season on the Opens, doesn’t speak much English. But what he seeks in his second Elite season is not lost in translation.
“Last year, seventh place, AOY,” Fujita said. “This year, No. 1. My goal is win AOY.”
Fujita had an incredible rookie season on the Elites, posting five Top 10s and winning on Lake Champlain. If not for finishing 100th on Santee Cooper, Fujita might be seeking his second AOY. He missed rookie of the year by one point.
On top of the Elites, the 27-year-old is entered in all the EQ events this year. He started by finishing 193rd on Lake Okeechobee but had a better first day at Ouachita, weighing 13-3. It’s amazing that the Japanese anglers can navigate America and compete at all. Fujita agreed that the day-to-day business of simply getting around is “very hard for me.”
Fishing is not, apparently. Although a small sample, Fujita has the highest average winnings per tournament at $18,199. Jason Christie is second with more than $17k per event.
The Ouachita Open is just Fujita’s 16th event in the U.S., and as he learns the language and his way around the fishing scene, his goal to dominate bass fishing is easily understood.
It’s a generational thing
Charlie Hartley, who famously led the 2008 Classic for a day, weighed in next to an angler who wasn’t born when he began fishing on the pro level.
Laker Howell, son of 2014 Classic champ Randy Howell, weighed in two spots after Hartley. Howell had 12-3, in position for a check, and Hartley was a couple spots ahead with 13-11. They exchanged pleasantries backstage, talked about times more than a decade ago and shared a few laughs.
“He used to go out to dinner with us and crawl under the table,” Hartley said. “He’d finish his food first and go in the bathroom and cause trouble.”
Asked his age, Hartley said, “I’m 110.” He’s 59.
And Howell: “I’m 22.”
Yes, generations fish. New generations come, and some of the earlier generations keep at it so long their see their fellow angler’s kids grow up to compete alongside them.
“I think I’ve been fishing Bassmaster 30 years at least,” Hartley said. “All my buddies, I saw their wives get pregnant and have these kids.”
Howell said it was pretty awesome to see one of father’s cohorts in the weigh-in line.
“It’s like a full circle,” Howell said. “I grew up watching him do kick-flips in the parking lot on his skateboard. I was 6 years old. It’s cool to be out here fishing with him.”
Hartley said it was the first time he caught all his fish on forward facing sonar.
“I don’t enjoy it, but I will adapt,” he said.
Howell said he caught his similarly.
“I bet I caught two, three limits today,” he said. “I just didn’t get a big bite.”
Kung weighs a 9-pounder
In the first Bassmaster Open of the season, two weeks ago at Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, Canadian angler Evan Kung caught the biggest largemouth of his 24-year-old life. It weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces.
That record didn’t last long. Kung caught a 9-14 in the first hours on Day 1 of the Bassmaster Open at Lake Ouachita Thursday.
“I thought it was a striper on LiveScope,” Kung said. “Then I didn’t think it was a striper. It started peeling drag and I said, ‘Oh, it’s a striper.’ It wrapped in a tree. I had to go above it, unwrap it and the fish sort of just floated up.”
That’s when Kung finally realized it wasn’t a striper, but the biggest largemouth bass of his life. He estimated it was his 8th fish of the day. But shortly after that his LiveScope was disabled when he bumped a tree.
Kung said he fished timber that had schools of baitfish swimming in it. He noted there weren’t a lot of bait schools, but whenever you found the bait, you found the bass. Kung, understandably, didn’t want to get too detailed about his lure choice on Day 1, but did allow that he was using a small swimbait/damiki rig.
Kung is from the Toronto area. He has been friends with Elite Series pro Cooper Gallant since club fishing days, and they still talk frequently. His goal is to qualify through the Opens and join Gallant on the Elite Series. With another good finish at Lake Ouachita, he’s on track. Kung finished 17th in the season opener at Lake Okeechobee.
First to check in, Kindy caught them
Jeremiah Kindy came off plane ahead of several others. He was the first boat to check into the docks on Day 1 of the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Ouachita presented by SEVIIN.
“If you have a good day, you’ve got to get in,” said Kindy, a 45-year-old from Benton, Ark. “Just in case, we come in just a little bit early.”
Stands to reason. Kindy held the lead on BassTrakk, and he was just over that weight with 19 pounds, 7 ounces to stand among the early leaders.
“I didn’t expect it with the sun out,” he said. “This lake is tough when it’s like this.”
Kindy would know. He’s one of the local sticks in the field of 199 on the pro said. He said he’s fished Ouachita plenty, and for many years.
“I caught my fish on a jig, a jig and a pig, that’s what they called it then,” he said. “That’s how long.”
Kindy drew Reagan Brown as his co-angler, and she called him the GOAT of Ouachita. She might know. Brown is the wife of Kindy’s team partner, Kevin, who also entered the event.
“Jeremiah put on an absolute show today. He absolutely smashed them,” said Brown, asked if she also got a piece of the pie. “I got a little bit of it.”
Kindy reported catching a quick keeper, then had a half-hour lull before filling his limit by 8:27 a.m.
“So then we went on a little dry run for a couple hours,” Kindy said. “I lost a really big one that I thought was going to cost me. We made an adjustment at about 12 o’clock. We changed whole areas and culled out everything we had except for one.”
Kindy expects Friday, with forecast for clouds and a front coming through in the evening, to be better.
“They’re going to eat tomorrow. They’re going to smash them. These fish, once they pull up and start staging, they don’t pull back out.”
