By Lou Mintzer
On Friday morning, April 12, about 8:10, Mark Parker, Morganton, N.C. landed a big Lake Norman bass. It weighed 7.34 pounds and he knew it could be the big winner. Mark and his fishing partner/brother Vince, Claremont, N.C., took it to the scale for the first hour weighin and won $1000. The brothers had to sweat it out for almost 3 more days of hourly weighins hoping to win the grand prize of a Nitro Bass Boat.
“The big bass hit a Texas rigged green pumpkin magic lizard,” Mark told me. “Bass can’t resist an old lizard pulled across their bed,” he continued. He caught it in shallow water north of the bridge about mid lake.
The brothers toughed it out and their stress was cut short because of severe weather on Sunday, the tournament closed early. Mark Parker won the 2019 Nitro Bass Boat worth $45,000!
The Parkers are on a roll. Just the week before they won the annual Dogwood Bass Tournament and took home $2500. They are partners and split everything.
The Big Bass Tour has been coming to Lake Norman for ten years and the brothers have fished 9 of the events.
This year over 750 anglers entered the tournament to try to win over $140,000 in prizes including the bass boat. It is estimated that over 3000 bass were caught and released. The weight of the fish was really good for Lake Norman. The top ten all weighed over 5.23 pounds.
Second place went to Danny Williams with 6 pounds and John Carpenter was close with 5.96 to take third.
The Big Bass Tour is the largest open amateur bass tournament held on Lake Norman and is part of a trail held in 10 states. All fishing is done from a boat and with artificial lures. Anglers may start anywhere on the lake but have to weighin at Queens Landing.
As all fish are weighed the information is sent to each angler via text. There is definitely strategy involved timing your trip to the scales.
Keith Odom, spokesman for Big Bass assured me that they will be back next year, “Lake Norman is a great lake and the Mooresville area is a great location.”