Phil Meyer is a 69-year-old retired businessman from Arnold, Missouri, who may be the luckiest fisherman ever to prowl 54,000-acre Lake Of the Ozarks, located in central Missouri, northeast of Springfield.
Meyer grew up fishing the lake with his father, and while he participated in bass tournaments on the popular Missouri reservoir, he didn’t plan to fish the most recent Big Bass Bash. That is until his friend Allen Barnes invited Meyer to fish it with him in his Nitro bass boat.
The early October tournament is an annual two-day affair on the lake with a unique structure that offers hourly prizes for big bass brought to tourney scales every two hours. There also are big bass awards for fish caught over the two days of competition.
A Memorable Catch
“It was about 9 on Saturday morning [Oct. 4], and we were fishing one of the hundreds of reservoir docks in 10 feet of water on a flat at the mouth of the Niangua River,” Meyer told Wired2fish. “It was bright and sunny, 85 degrees and the fish were under docks for shade.I skipped a soft Megabass Sleeper Craw in green-pumpkin under a dock and the fish slammed it.”
Meyer says the fight was fast, just 10 seconds before he muscled the fish to their boat and Barnes netted it.
“I unhooked it and put it in the livewell right away,” Meyer said. “We had to wait to weigh in the bass at the next two-hour time slot. I was a nervous wreck checking on the fish every few minutes to make sure it was lively and would count in the tournament.”
The angler knew the bass was likely a tourney winner, and sure enough when they weighed the bass it tallied 7.37 pounds. The fish was the heaviest bass weighed in the event at the time and was on target for Meyer to pocket the tourney big prize of $100,000.
“I was nervous all that day, night, and the rest of the day and kept checking the weights of fish brought in,” Meyer recalled. “Near the end of the last day’s weigh-ins I was checking every few minutes to see if my bass held up.”
Big-Time Win
It did, and Meyer received his big check for $100,000, which he split evenly with his fishing buddy Barnes. In addition to winning the $100,000 for the biggest bass caught during the tournament, Meyer also won a bonus $1,500 for the biggest bass caught during the time slot that he brought his bass to the scales. Meyer and Barnes also won another $800 for weighing another hefty bass on Sunday. All told, the two anglers pocketed $102,300 for two days of tournament fishing, and they split their winnings right down the middle.
“I’m going to put my money in a fund for safe keeping, and make a trip to Florida,” said Meyer. “I think Allen is spending his right now on more fishing gear.”
Meyer said the tournament is very well run, with quality people and lots of good food on hand for participants and spectators.
“A lot of payouts are made because even a guy that weighs a 3-pound bass during one of the two-hour time periods can win some money,” said Meyer.
Thousands of anglers from 34 states and Canada participated in this October’s Big Bass Bash. According to tournament owner Charlie Terrell there were 360 winners over the two days with a total pay out of $354,000, plus a $50,000 bass boat was given away via drawing. Meyer says about 4,000 people were entered into the tourney, each paying $200 per person to enter.
Second place for big bass in the event was worth $20,000, won by Kansas angler Corey Ross for catching a 6.51-pound bass.
There are two Big Bass Bash tournaments held on Lake of the Ozarks, one in spring, and other in autumn. There’s also a similar Big Bass Bash tourney that Terrell holds on Oklahoma’s Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees every spring.
Meyer says he’s had lots of accolades and congratulations sent his way from many people, some he hasn’t seen or heard from in many years. And he may have a taxidermist create a replica mount of his tourney-winning fish.
“It’s been overwhelming and thrilling,” he said. “But for me the best part was during the awards, a special-needs youngster was on the podium celebrating with me. That really is what this is all about, and the most rewarding part of the whole experience.”
