Points Leader Browning Expects Crowded Fishing In Central Open On Arkansas River
Although a lot of water flows down the Arkansas River, BASS pro Stephen Browning says the river will fish small for the final Bassmaster Central Open tournament of 2014 this weekend.
“There are four or five really good fishing areas in this river system, and it seems like everybody knows it,” Browning said. “We’ve been back and forth here three times in the last four years so everybody should have a pretty good grasp of what’s going on. Unfortunately, that’s going to put a lot of people on top of each other so you will have to makes some adjustments and, hopefully, have enough to make it to Saturday.”
The three day event, which starts Thursday, will attract 300 anglers from all over the U.S. Based on the previous tournaments, Browning said whoever has a three-day total of 40 to 42 pounds will likely have a good shot at winning the tournament.
Chris Jones of Bokoshe, Okla., am hour’s drive away, won last year’s open on the Arkansas River with 40.1 pounds and Tommy Biffle of nearby Wagoner, Okla., won it in September 2011 with 45.13 pounds. Browning, who hails from Hot Springs, Ark., nearly four hours east of Muskogee, Okla, where the launch site, Three Forks Harbor, is located, finished 3rd with 35.10 pounds in the Central Open in September 2011, but slipped to 36th place last September with 18.10 pounds.
“That 13 or 14 pounds a day is a really good day and that is my goal, to catch around 13, 14 or 15 ponds a day,” Browning said. “In the last two times here I have found some places that I have a lot of history on and I have a lot of confidence fishing those areas because of that history.”
Browning said the Arkansas River is his kind of fishing.
“I like it when a man has to go out and hope to get seven or eight bites a day and catch 13 or 14 pounds of fish. I am not a guy who is catching 25-pound stringers. If everyone is catching 13 or 14 pounds, that is one of those situations where you need to shine.”
Browning is leading the points in the Central Division, thanks to a 2nd place finish at Lake Amistad in February and a 1st place on the Red River near Shreveport in April.
“It’s been a good year and I sure would like to end it on a good note,” he said. “It’s my kind of fishing, just like the Red River was. I told the guy I was practicing with today that I expect to do well here this week. I feel like I should do well.”
Bassmaster Central Open
Sep 11-13, 2014
Arkansas River
Three Forks Harbor
