ARKANSAS RIVER, Ark. — Jack Chancellor, the down-home country boy/lure manufacturer/convenience store owner from Phenix City, Ala., won the 15th Classic and $50,000 with a three-day total of 19 bass weighing 45 pounds.
Fishing the Carolina rig Do Nothing worm (which he manufactures) along a sandbar, Chancellor caught seven-bass limits during the first hour of fishing each of the first two days.
With no water being released through navigational locks on the final day, he had to work hard for his fish. At his primary sandbar, he caught one on his Do-Nothing worm, then another on a jigging spoon.
Of note
• Jack Chancellor’s Do-Nothing worm was so named because it required very little action or ability on the part of the angler. The beauty of the rig lay in its simplicity and ease of use.
• Chancellor’s worm was modeled after the Fish Finder, a 4-inch, two-hook rig designed and manufactured by Lloyd Deaver of Gastonia, N.C.
Top 6 finishers
1. Jack Chancellor, Phenix City, Ala. 45-00
2. Tommy Martin, Hemphill, Texas 39-15
3. George Cochran, N. Little Rock, Ark. 34-06
4. Steve Daniel, Chattanooga, Tenn. 33-04
5. Gary Klein, Oroville, Calif. 32-10
6. Charles Ingram, Columbia, Tenn. 31-06