After eluding anglers for nearly six years, "Big Al" was inadvertently captured during a weekly fishing tournament Tuesday night on Lake Hamilton with only 10 days left in the 2017 Hot Springs Fishing Challenge.
Pete Clark, of Magnet Cove, reeled in the $15,000 fish Tuesday evening during Brooks Marine's weekly Tuesday night fishing tournament. The coveted catch -- one of 61 fish placed into lakes Hamilton and Catherine to be caught for prize money for the months of April, May and June -- was a largemouth bass caught at the mouth of the Hot Springs Creek basin on Lake Hamilton.
Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, the sponsor of the sixth annual challenge, said he was happy the prized fish had finally been caught.
"We've been waiting for this for five years," Arrison said. "It's a great year for the Hot Springs Fishing Challenge."
Each year since the challenge began in 2012, one fish has been designated "Big Al" and assigned the largest cash prize in the contest. The species varies each year; in last year's challenge, "Big Al," a channel catfish released into Lake Hamilton, was worth a prize of $10,000.
Visit Hot Springs increased the prize money for "Big Al" to $15,000 this year. It also released clues about "Big Al's" species and recently gave the precise GPS locations where it was released on the lake in hopes of increasing the chance it would be caught before the challenge ends June 30.
Despite the clues at hand, Clark made it clear that catching "Big Al" was not his objective Tuesday night. Clark, who was fishing from his boat with his brother, Jessie, said his goal was to catch as many fish as possible for the tournament.
"We knew that 'Big Al' was out there, but we were concentrating on winning our tournament," Clark said.
At 3.84 pounds, "Big Al" was the largest fish Clark and his brother caught that night, and the siblings went on to win the tournament. Brooks Marine owner Randy Brooks said that Clark was awarded "around $300" for the event.
Each year, the fish released in the challenge are tagged with a colored plastic tag -- this year, the tags were colored purple -- bearing a phone number and the prize number of the fish. Since the list of prize numbers and the corresponding dollar amounts are not made public until after the contest, anglers have no way of knowing how much they have won until they call the number on the tags.
The phone number is assigned to a cellphone carried by Visit Hot Springs Marketing Director Bill Solleder, who answered Clark's call Tuesday night. Arrison said Solleder and Visit Hot Springs Assistant Special Events Manager Caitlin Moore met with Clark to verify his catch the following day. A video of the meeting was played during a news conference announcing Clark's catch, and the presentation of the check, Thursday at the Hot Springs Convention Center.
During the news conference, Clark pulled "Big Al" from the live well of his boat, which had been pulled into one of the exhibit halls at the convention center for Thursday's event.
"I got a text from Bill that night at like 11:30, telling me about it," Arrison said. "Then it was just sitting around waiting to verify that it was the right colored tag, that it was the right number." "Big Al" was tagged with No. 68 this year.
Jeff Newman, manager of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's Andrew H. Hulsey State Fish Hatchery on Lake Hamilton, said hatchery personnel who released "Big Al" in Lake Hamilton in the first place were also pleased to hear about its capture.
"There was excitement when they found out that he was actually caught," Newman said.
Looking back, Clark said he could have possibly caught "Big Al" when he was practice fishing in the area the night before.
"A lot of time when you're practice fishing for a tournament, you get bites, but you don't try to catch them," Clark said.
Although Clark said he caught "Big Al" 2 miles away from where the fish was released into the lake, Arrison said this year's video clue could have generally helped serious anglers with the competition.
"These fish travel," Arrison said. "In talking to some of the fishermen here today, they said that they thought that the video clue helped, and that they had an idea of where it went in."
Hot Springs Mayor Pat McCabe handed Clark a ceremonial bass-shaped $15,000 check during the news conference at the convention center.
Clark said half of the prize money will go to his brother, who was fishing with him when the prized fish was caught.
"Fishermen are friends, they're buddies, and it didn't have to be my brother. If I had been fishing with one of my other buddies in that tournament and caught this fish, we'd split the money," Clark said. "When you're fishing a buddy bass tournament like that, anything you catch and win, you split."
When asked if he could give any tips for anglers trying to catch "Big Al" in the future, Clark said to get out on the lakes and cast the rod.
"Obviously, catching 'Big Al' is luck," Clark said. "You have to get lucky enough to run into that fish, but you can't catch him if you ain't fishing."
Local on 06/23/2017