TCBFT Qualifying Tournament #3

The third qualifier of the 2010 Tennessee Collegiate Bass Fishing Trail on Nickajack Lake was originally scheduled for Saturday, April 24th; however, the tournament was postponed a day due to predicted severe thunderstorms, hails, and possible tornadic conditions. Nevertheless, the storms blew through and anglers were anxious to launch Sunday morning at 6:30 AM on Nickajack. Nickajack Lake is a section of the Tennessee River that’s been growing in popularity among bass fishermen over the years. It begins near the Alabama/Tennessee border at the Guntersville Dam and winds through downtown Chattanooga, TN where it becomes Chickamauga Lake. Nickajack offers anglers a little bit of everything as most would describe it as two fisheries in one. The upper end (near Chickamauga) fishes like a river and the lower end (near Guntersville) fishes like a lake or reservoir. Largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass are caught in abundance and this tournament was no exception. The majority of participants guessed that the winning weight would be somewhere in the 15-19 pound range in the weeks leading up to the tournament.

26 collegiate anglers representing 4 different schools blasted off last Sunday April 25th out of the TVA Raccoon Mountain Ramp in Tiftonia, TN to discover water and air temperatures in the mid 60s. After a very small amount of fog, the sky turned sunny, the temperatures began to rise, and the wind began to blow. Nearly nine hours later, every boat in competition brought in at least one keeper with eight boats bringing in five fish limits! Jimmy Reynolds and Dan Geren, representing the host school UT-Chattanooga, ended up taking first place with a huge bag of five fish weighing 21.05 lbs! This bag now holds the record for biggest bag weighed in at the 2010 TCBFT, passing Tennessee Tech anglers Seth Davis & Joey Mallicoat who had 20.45 on Kentucky Lake in early March. Their limit was anchored by a 5.54 lb largemouth as well as two 18”+ smallmouth. MTSU’s Shane Adams and Alex Martin finished in 2nd with a limit of keepers weighing 15.95 lbs. Their bag included five largemouth with the biggest weighing in at 4.46 lbs. This was the second TCBFT event that Shane and Alex have finished second place in this year. In third place, Robby Crosslin and Brandon Lester, representing host UT-Chattanooga brought in five fish tipping the scales at 13.43 lbs. This was also the second time Robby and Brandon have finished third in a TCBFT event this year. Dan Geren’s 5.54 lunker bass took big bass honors and won him a Joe Burns Custom Rod. All in all fifty-three keepers were brought to the scales weighing a total of 137.00 lbs with all bass being released alive for the third consecutive TCBFT event.

Complete tournament results and pictures can be found at: http://utcbassfishing.com/Results.html

Winning Strategies of the Top 3 Teams

UT-Chattanooga’s Jimmy Reynolds & Dan Geren with 5 keepers weighing 21.05 lbs

“We had a really good day on Nickajack today, with our total weight being 21.05. Not having practiced, we really didn’t know where the fish were so we did what we would do on a usual practice day. We ran all the way from downtown Chattanooga to as far downriver as Marion County State Park (towards the Guntersville Dam). We basically junk fished all day and threw jigs, c-rig, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and flipped plastics when we had the opportunity. All fish were post spawn and the majority of good fish came in 8-10 feet of water, located near Mullins Cove.” - Dan Geren

MTSU’s Shane Adams & Alex Martin with 5 keepers weighing 15.95 lbs

“This weekend, Shane and I ran towards the main lake and stopped to fish a row of a few docks which had some small rip rap by them. At first we started out throwing a texas rigged Zoom ribbon tail worm and an Owner Yuki Bug on a shakey head. We had our first keeper off the texas rig worm, then the wind picked up so we both started to throw a spinnerbait and the bite was on! We caught the rest of our keepers and then some on the spinnerbait. As it got later in the day we noticed that the bigger bites were coming in the deeper water off the docks so we found some more docks situated near deeper water and that’s when we caught our biggest keeper.” – Alex Martin

UT-Chattanooga’s Robby Crosslin & Brandon Lester with 5 keepers weighing 13.43 lbs

“Not knowing much at all about the lower end of the lake, we decided to concentrate on the upper end of the lake where the fish are a little easier to locate. On the practice day, we found an area close to the Chickamauga Dam where we could catch good numbers of fish with the occasional four to five pound largemouth mixed in, and the possibility of big smallmouth as well. The morning of the tournament we caught a couple keeper spotted bass on a spinnerbait and then two quality largemouth on a deep diving crankbait. Once the sun got high and the wind started blowing, we switched to various soft plastics both texas rigged and carolina rigged in six to twelve feet of water. The wind really affected our area as it was blowing straight up the river where we were fishing, but we were still able to catch a lot of fish there. We just lacked those quality bites we needed.” - Brandon Lester

Sponsor Thank You and Information on Next TCBFT Event

The UTC Bass Anglers would like to especially thank our corporate sponsors: Triton, Mercury, Coca Cola, MoonPie, Joe's Custom Rods (Joe Burns of Cleveland, TN), Lowrance, Industrial Boiler & Mechanical, Equalizer Scales, Choo Choo Lures, Stan Sloan’s Zorro Baits, Secret Weapon Lures, Vicious Fishing, Tackle Warehouse, Rejuvenade, Berkley, Scenic City Fishing Charters, Tony Sanders Outdoors, Nichols Marine, Sadler Signs & Awards, Incor Design & Promotions, Boat Seat Buddy, Chattanooga Fish-N-Fun, Chattanooga Fishing Forum, Chattanooga Bass Association, Chattanoogan, and Chattanooga Times Free Press.

All of the anglers enjoyed chocolate, peanut-butter, and mint flavored MoonPies at the weigh-in. The UTC Bass Anglers would like to personally thank Joe Burns of Joe's Custom Rods for donating a custom rod as the prize for big bass. We also appreciate the First Baptist Church of Jasper, Tennessee for providing all tournament anglers with a sack lunch. Even though the bite was somewhat tough, everyone caught a keeper and there were 8 five fish limits brought to the scales. We’d like to remind everyone that our fourth and final TCBFT Qualifier will take place on Saturday, May 8th on Watts Bar Lake in Spring City, TN. More information on that event as well as the 2010 Tennessee Collegiate Bass Fishing Trail hosted by the UT-Chattanooga Mocs Bass Anglers can be found on their website, www.utcbassfishing.com.

Tournament Director and Club President, Alex Craw, also wants everyone to know that they have made a few changes to the points system so now that each angler may drop their lowest score among the four qualifiers. In other words, if you miss a tournament or have a poor finish you are allowed to remove that score and still be in contention for all angler of the year awards. The angler(s) who finishes first in the 2010 TCBFT will not only be awarded with a trophy, prizes, and bragging rights - but they can also select a TN lake or river that the TCBFT will fish as a qualifying event in 2011! There is quite a tight race to Angler of the Year as the following five anglers are tied in first place: Taylor Massingill, Alex Craw, Jimmy Reynolds, Tyler Barnes, and Nolen Spencer.

Due to the change of the Nickajack date, in order for each school to be eligible for our championship, they must now send at least one boat to just one of the four qualifying events. Once this requirement is met, they may send an unlimited amount of boats to our two-day championship on Chickamauga Lake June 10-11 which will guarantee $1,500 for the first place finishers. The colleges that have already qualified for the championship are Tennessee Tech, Middle Tennessee State, UT-Knoxville, Freed-Hardeman, Georgia Southern, Purdue, and UT-Chattanooga. If a college hasn’t fished in a TCBFT event this year and wants to participate in the TCBFT Championship, they must send a minimum of one boat to our last qualifier which will take place on May 8th at Watts Bar Lake.