Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Team wins Polar Bear with heavy catch
19-plus pounds warm cold fishing day
Paul Williams of Rogers and Casey Odle of Siloam Springs teamed up on Friday to win the annual New Year’s Day Polar Bear bass tournament at Beaver Lake with five largemouth bass totaling 19.48 pounds.
The pair used crank baits and jigs with twin-tailed trailers along the face of bluffs, the ends of bluffs and along chunk-rock banks.
“We fished the midlake area, from Rocky Branch to Prairie Creek,” Williams said. “We caught probably 25 fish for the whole day.”
Collin Cheatham and David Louks were second with five bass that weighed 16.19 pounds. Jeremy Brewer and Dustin Rogers were third with five bass totaling 14.95 pounds.
Cash prizes were paid to the top six places. Jeff Cook fished solo to place fourth, weighing five bass at 14.16 pounds. Steven Meador and Mike Hubbard were fifth with five bass at 12.51 pounds. Mike Guild and Bruce Fulmer placed sixth with five bass at 11.94 pounds.
Brit Sumter and Tony Jones won the big bass prize with a 5.54-pound largemouth caught by Jones. Cook weighed a 4.26-pound largemouth bass and had a good day of fishing using jerk baits and Alabama rigs. Fish bit best where there was wind, he said.
A field of 33 boats, most with two-angler teams, competed. Nineteen boats weighed fish, said Shannan Moseley, tournament director. Weather is a factor in the turnout, Moseley said. More anglers compete when the weather is nicer than the cold damp conditions fishermen faced on Friday. Surface water temperature on the lake was 44 to 47 degrees, anglers said. The air temperature was around 32 degree with mist and drizzle when anglers took off from Prairie Creek park for the event.
“I think the possibility of ice and freezing rain kept a lot of them at home,” Moseley said. “We monitored the weather real close and saw that the frozen stuff was going to be north of us.”
The Polar Bear bass tournament is a New Year’s tradition at Beaver Lake. It’s been held nearly every year on Jan. 1 since the lake filled in 1965.
Many of the anglers in Friday’s Polar Bear tournament also fish the popular Northwest Arkansas Team Trail each year at Beaver Lake. The entire 2020 Team Trail season was canceled because of the coronavirus.
Moseley also is director of the Team Trail tournaments and confirmed Friday that there will be a Team Trail season this year. The first tournament will be in March.