(L-R): Harper and Travis Stinnett and Olivia and Mark Mauldin.
BY DAVE LINK
Alcoa Fishing Team’s third annual New Year’s Eve Tournament Dec. 30 was a big hit again on Fort Loudon Lake.
And it was an especially big day for two father-daughter teams.
Grace Christian Academy senior Olivia Mauldin and her dad, Mark, won the high school division, while Alcoa Middle School seventh grader Harper Stinnett and her dad, Travis, won the juniors division.
Thanks to the flexible rules of Alcoa Fishing Team coach J.J. LaRue, the tournament director, Olivia Mauldin and Harper Stinnett were allowed to fish with their dads.
Partnering with a parent wasn’t a new rule for the 2023 tournament, either.
In the AFT’s inaugural 2021 New Year’s Eve Tournament, professional angler Ott DeFoe of Blaine, Tennessee, teamed with his son, Parker, and weighed in the biggest bag of the day, 14.72 pounds. Ott had three keepers and Parker two, including a 5.03-pounder, the big bass of the day.
Ott Defoe, host of “The Hunt for Monster Bass” on The Outdoor Channel, stays well-connected with the East Tennessee community — he’s friends with Mark Mauldin, and Olivia is friends with Ott’s daughter, Abby – and Ott wanted to promote the New Year’s Eve Tournament’s start in 2021 with Parker alongside.
This time it was father-daughter day.
Here’s how it went:
Mark and Olivia Mauldin.
MAULDINS’ LAST-MINUTE DECISION
Olivia and Mark Mauldin made a last-minute decision to fish in the AFT’s New Year’s Eve Tournament.
Olivia’s regular partner, Grace Christian senior Elliott Ward, was out of town for the holidays.
Not until the day before the tournament when LaRue posted the rules – and Mark Mauldin knew he could fish, not just be Olivia’s boat captain – were the Mauldins interested in competing.
“Dad was like, ‘Hey, Alcoa’s doing a tournament. You want to do this?’” Olivia recalls. “He was like, ‘We can do whatever you want. We can go to Chick (Chickamauga), do some crappie fishing, we can go fish one at Cherokee,’ but I thought it would be fun to fish a high school tournament with my dad.”
There was one stipulation in the parent-fishing rule in the AFT tournament for high schoolers: the parent must fish from the back deck of the boat, while the son/daughter runs the trolling motor and controls the boat in front.
“It all worked out,” said Mark. “She did a great job running the trolling motor and she caught most of the fish.”
Because she’s got lots of bass angling experience.
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Olivia won a Bass Pro Shops-Sevierville event in November of 2022 in her debut on the Tennessee BASS Nation Tour. She was fishing solo with Mark serving as boat captain.
When they got ready for the New Year’s Eve event, Olivia was more concerned with the cold weather than operating the boat while her dad fished.
“I like to bundle up a lot,” she said. “I had on like eight layers and I had feet warmers on my socks. I melted my fuzzy socks, but it was worth it.”
So was weathering the cold.
The Mauldins won with a five-bass limit weighing 13.41 pounds, including a 3.84-pound smallmouth caught by Mark.
Olivia, however, landed three of the five keepers – two largemouth and a smallmouth, including a 3.50-pounder.
“That absolutely surprised me,” Olivia said, “because I thought my dad was going to whoop me all day.”
Jackie Hatfield and Graham Willis of Alcoa Fishing Team were second with five bass weighing 8.26 pounds. (Check out the awesome video of their day on his Willis’ YouTube channel)!
The top two teams were the only boats catching the five-bass limit.
AFT’s Jake Lovingood and Harlyn Nelson were third with four bass weighing 7.52 pounds, ahead of William Blount’s Noah Whaley and Ben Biggar with two bass weighing 6.88 pounds, including the day’s big bass, a 4.11-pounder.
Harper Stinnett of Alcoa Middle School and Alcoa Fishing.
HARPER’S FISHING: ‘PRETTY COOL’
Harper Stinnett started fishing when she was 3 or 4 years old with her dad serving as teacher.
“I remember going to Fort Loudon, using worms on a hook with a bobber,” Harper recalls.
Years later, they were on the same lake for the AFT New Year’s Eve Tournament.
During the Christmas break, Harper got the week off from basketball practice at Alcoa Middle, where she’s a point guard/shooting guard and plays shortstop for the softball team.
Travis Stinnett is one of her biggest fans – especially when she’s fishing. He’s a competitive bass fisherman and owner of Stinnett Outdoors in Louisville.
“It’s pretty cool,” Travis said. “She’s pretty competitive in everything, so watching her compete in fishing, which is something I really enjoy, it’s pretty neat to share that with her, and she’s been fortunate to have a little bit of success at it. It’s been fun to enjoy that with her.”
For Harper, getting started the morning of the New Year’s Eve tournament wasn’t easy.
“I was freezing,” she said.
They got off to a cold start in the bite category, too.
Harper said they didn’t get a keeper until about lunchtime.
“We thought we could get some smallmouth bites early into it, when it was really cold,” she said. “Then we went a little down the lake to do some cranking, and we caught one on that. It was still cold, but not as cold.”
Their first keeper was a largemouth on a crankbait. Later, they caught two more largemouth on Alabama rigs.
Their winning bag consisted of three bass weighing 5.9 pounds, including a 2.55-pounder.
“I’m going to be honest,” Harper said of their big bass. “My dad caught that one.”
No biggie.
Travis has seen Harper catch her share of big bass.
“She’s picking up to it,” he said. “She’s pretty good. She’s a bait caster, spinning (caster). She picked it up pretty quick and knows the different techniques and things like that. When we’re talking about it, her mother’s like, ‘How do you know this stuff?’ It’s pretty funny.”