Skip to main content
You have permission to edit this article.
Edit
Editor's Pick Hot

Anyone Can Win! Last Year's Big Bass Winner Was New To LOZ - And He Shared $100K With His Buddies

  • Updated
  • 4 min to read
BBB Winner Chris Dunn -1.jpg
Bass Bash - big fish.jpg

LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. -- Sometimes it's skill and sometimes you just get lucky. That's the beauty of the Big Bass Bash, you can reel in $100,000 anywhere at any time. Here's the story of last year's winner.

After years of talking about it, a group of five friends finally made it to the Lake of the Ozarks Fall Big Bass Bash, and on his first time fishing at Lake of the Ozarks, one of them took home the grand prize.

Register To Fish This Year's Big Bass Bash

"It's all surreal to me, and I'm still taking it in," said this year's Big Bass Bash winner Chris Dunn, who's better known for the nickname 'Hooch' he received at 17 years old. "I never ever thought it would hold up to be the winning fish because I know there's a lot of big ones in that lake."

The crew — made up of coworkers at the Macoupin County Sheriff's Department (Illinois) and a longtime friend — made a pact this summer to enter the tournament. A group of them have annually traveled to Norfork Lake in Arkansas for a guys' fishing trip, but it was always just for fun. This year, they rented an AirBnB near Point Randall and agreed to split winnings if one of them took home first place.

BBB Winner Chris Dunn -5.jpg

For reeling in the biggest bass, which weighed 6.55 lbs, Dunn won $100,000. Charlie Terrell, the organizer of the tournament, said Dunn announced on stage that he split the money five ways.

"I fish a few local tournaments around [Hettick, Ill.] if I get a chance," said 43-year-old Dunn. "The most I've ever won is probably a couple hundred bucks, so, this is just insane."

"The whole crew was there and obviously going crazy. It was pretty cool of them," Terrell said. "We paid out over $350,000 in cash and prizes."

Sign Up Now For The Big Bass Bash

The Big Fish Story

With over 3,600 anglers from 35 states, Dunn had a lot of competition at this year's Bash. The weather wasn't an issue, however. 

Terrell said it was a beautiful weekend: unusual, as this time of year can often bring hail, rain, or gusty winds.

Dunn is unfamiliar with the Lake, but he and his brother-in-law found success two coves over from Point Randall Resort (toward Bagnell Dam). Before they could really get started fishing, however, the duo ran into a familiar face. 

They were casting off the point before deciding to hit around the docks. Dunn saw another boat coming from a separate dock, so they went across the cove to avoid cutting in front of someone else.

"Every year we go on a fishing trip down to Norfork, and we go with a guy named Gator who lives on the lake there," Dunn said. "We had no clue that he would be up here fishing... My brother-in-law, who was my net man, was like, 'Man, I really think that's Gator there fishing,' and I'm like, 'No, that can't be him... Sure enough, it was him. We hollered at him and sat there and talked for a little bit before he took off."

More anglers and a recreational boater arrived in that cove, so the pair found a new spot. Dunn started fishing around a dock with jet ski ramps. He cast a lure near a washed-out area. 

"It hooked, and went completely to the right, hard," Dunn said. "I told my brother-in-law, 'You better get the net. This is a big fish.' Once we got it up and could see it, we were both just going crazy inside, but on the outside we weren't going crazy because there was so many people around us."

Dunn thinks he caught the bass at around 1:13 p.m. They took it to the Point Randall weigh-in station at 1:25 p.m. where they saw what would ultimately be a very important number: 6.55 lbs.

BBB Winner Chris Dunn -3.jpg

But for the next few hours, Dunn would have to wait and see if his fish would be the big one for Saturday, Oct. 7.

Knowing the fish was large, Dunn called up the other guys to the weigh-in. Emotions ran high once he opened the live-well and they saw his catch. The crew couldn't believe Dunn had struck a chance to win big money. Later that evening the men shared celebratory drinks around a campfire, but Dunn had a restless night.

Sunday wasn't all cheerful, easy casting. Dunn says he was anxious to see if another angler would catch something bigger.

"I had a whole 'nother 8 hours of fishing the next day to sweat and think about it," Dunn said. "No matter how hard you try, you're still going to be thinking about that in the back of your mind. Me and him just did nothing but fish, fish, fish until I couldn't do it anymore."

Eventually at around 2:30 p.m., they headed back to the AirBnB to wait. 

When the tournament ended, the men celebrated. Dunn had won, and — as often seems to be the case at the Bash — he did it in a humble vessel: a 1999 Bass Tracker that he bought in April.

BBB Winner Chris Dunn -4.jpg

"We didn't want to take my brother-in-law's super nice boat that he's trying to sell, so I said, 'Well, we can take my old beater down there,'" said Dunn. "The old girl won us a $100,000."

Bass Bash winner.jpg

Originally supposed to get back to work on Monday, Dunn was able to get the day off for the crew to spend one more celebratory night at the Lake.

With his $20,000 portion, Dunn plans to pay off bills and keep it in the bank for his wife and two daughters. "A hundred thousand dollars would've been insane, life-changing money," Dunn said. "But to change five guys' lives, that's more important to me."

BBB Winner Chris Dunn -2.jpg

More Bass Bash Winners

A few other anglers over the weekend came into some big prizes at the Bash:

  • 2nd - Karl Welschmeyer, from Linn, Mo. won $20,000
  • 3rd - Chad Dick from Baldwin, Kan. won $10,000
  • 4th - Wayne Fischer from Climax Springs, Mo. won $5,000
  • Ladies - Jessica Webb from Martinsburg, Mo. won $1,000
  • Phoenix Boat - worth $50,000, the raffled boat went to Bud Brickey of Belgrade, Mo. 

Past Bass Bash Stories

0
0
0
0
0

(0 Ratings)