The Docie Bass Memorial Bass Tournament is one of the areas longest running bass tournaments.
This past Sept. 21st was the 21st year for the tournament. The tournament was started by and named after Mr. Docie Bass and the Docie Bass Seafood Restaurant on the Sounds of Ft. Walton Beach, Fl. the restaurant is still going strong today. It was probably around 10 or 12 years ago when I fished my first one. If memory serves me right, then it was a 2 day tournament and a 10 fish boat limit each day. The tournament is now a 1 day tournament with a 7 fish boat limit, which is just fine with most of us. Between low water conditions which results in saltwater being able to come up into the river system further than usual, the occasional fish kill due to red tide and who knows what else, and just plain fishing pressure as a result of the popularity of bass fishing, most of would hate to think we had two bring in 10 bass each day for 2 days. Clay Mapoles was my partner for the day and we got to the launch site at White City around 4:15 am, by then there were probably 50 boats already in the water and they just kept coming and coming. At take-off 93 boats were lined up waiting for Aaron Broxton and Carson Sweeny (who now run the tournament) to call out their boat number. With that many boats out on the water you could bet that when you got where you were going somebody would already be there or had been there. For example, we ran about 20 miles to a small area that was basically big enough for one boat. Just as we turned our last bend in the river to get to our destination, we could see the tail end of Colt Richburg's boat going into this area, so already it was time for plan B. But the problem with that is, we did not have a plan B. I think they call that putting all of your eggs in one basket. But with a purse of around $6,000 to be paid out that day, all the teams were ready to get where they were going and do some serious fishing. Nine hours later the team of Chris Thompson & Benny Thompson from the Ft. Walton area outweighed 92 other teams to take the win with a weight that would be in the money most anywhere you went. Their 7 fish limit weighed 19.14 pounds. Believe it or not they have fished all 21 years of this tournament and this is their first win. There were a total of 329 bass weighed in, for a total weight of 437 pounds and the best thing about all of this is that there were only 5 dead fish out 329, that's great!

1st Place

2nd Place

1st PLACE - THOMPSON / THOMPSON - 19.14 LBS
2ND PLACE - TAYLOR / JOHNSON - 15.08 LBS
3RD PLACE - GRANT / GREY - 13.10 LBS
4TH PLACE - McLEMORE / McLEMORE - 12.14 LBS
5TH PLACE - DUKE / HALL - 11.80 LBS
6TH PLACE - SMITH / KIRKLAND - 11.50 LBS
7TH PLACE - WALSHINGHAM / WALSHINGHAM - 11.10 LBS
8TH PLACE - DYBDAL / TICE - 11.0 LBS
9TH PLACE - HURLEY / HURLEY - 10.95 LBS
10TH PLACE - CREEL / CREEL - 10.9 LBS

BIG BASS - THOMPSON / THOMPSON - 6.13 LBS

Good Fishin, Allen Courtney