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Knoxville To Host 2019 Bassmaster Classic On The Tennessee River
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — For the first time in its 49-year history, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods will be held on the Tennessee River out of Knoxville, it was announced today by B.A.S.S. and the host organization, Visit Knoxville.
The prestigious championship bass tournament — widely known as the “Super Bowl of Bass Fishing” — will be held March 15-17 in downtown Knoxville and on The University of Tennessee at Knoxville campus.
“Knoxville meets and exceeds all the requirements we have for the Bassmaster Classic — great fishing on the Tennessee River, first-class facilities to accommodate crowds of fishing fans, a vibrant city with plenty to see and do, and a corps of state and local tourism professionals who will ensure its success,” said B.A.S.S. CEO Bruce Akin.
“Bass fishing is hugely popular in this part of the country,” he added. “In fact, 10 of our 109 Bassmaster Elite Series pros are from the Volunteer State, and most live in east Tennessee. This is going to be a very exciting Classic.”
“Hosting the 2019 Bassmaster Classic is an incredible privilege for the Visit Knoxville Sports Commission. This has been a total team effort over the past two years to land this highly respected event. We look forward to welcoming the anglers and their families, along with all of the loyal Bassmaster fans from around the country to our great city,” said Visit Knoxville Sports Commission Senior Director Chad Culver.
“Knoxville is honored to welcome the Bassmaster Classic to Knoxville in 2019. We hosted the Bassmaster Elite in 2017 [held on nearby Cherokee Lake], which was a great success. We anticipate the 2019 Classic to really showcase the partnership between B.A.S.S., our own Visit Knoxville Sports Commission, the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, and both Knox County and the City of Knoxville. The Tennessee River is the perfect setting for this competition, and anglers and spectators alike will enjoy the beauty that surrounds our city,” said Visit Knoxville President Kim Bumpas.
The Bassmaster Classic pits 50 of the world’s best bass anglers against one another for shares of the $1 million purse, including $300,000 for the winner. Jordan Lee of Grant, Ala., a 26-year-old former college fishing champion, is the current defending Classic Champion after becoming the youngest ever — and one of only three in history — to win back-to-back titles.
Lee is guaranteed the right to defend his title. Other anglers will spend the rest of this season trying to qualify from several B.A.S.S. circuits, including the prestigious Bassmaster Elite Series.
Tournament waters include Fort Loudoun and Tellico lakes, twin reservoirs connected by a canal and comprising about 30,000 acres. Competitors can fish either lake and anywhere along the Tennessee River upstream from Fort Loudoun Dam to the Interstate 40 bridge on the Holston River and the Highway 168 bridge on the French Broad River.
B.A.S.S. Nation Championship tournaments for top-ranked amateur club fishermen were held on the Tennessee River at Knoxville in 1998 and 2000, but B.A.S.S. has never held a professional bass tournament on that section of the Tennessee River.
“Anglers can expect to catch good numbers of bass in Fort Loudoun and have the potential of catching some above-average smallmouth,” said Bart Carter, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) Region 4 fisheries manager. “Largemouth will be the go-to fish for both reservoirs.”
Since 2015, TWRA has been stocking those waters with Florida-strain largemouth, which have the potential to grow much larger than the native “northern” largemouth, but the agency pointed out that it’s probably too early for those bass to reach trophy size.
Still, 7-plus-pound bass are not uncommon in early spring, and a one-day tournament held on Fort Loudoun a year ago was won with a 27 1/2-pound limit of five bass, which is considered a game-changing catch in any fishery.
The Classic is a catch-and-release event, with bass being returned to the fishery under the supervision of the TWRA. The 2018 Classic saw a 99.7 percent survival rate among the bass weighed in.
Daily takeoffs will be from Volunteer Landing in downtown Knoxville each competition day, and weigh-ins will take place in the Thompson-Boling Arena on the University of Tennessee campus — a 20,000-seat facility that is fifth largest in the country.
The fan-favorite Bassmaster Classic Outdoor Expo presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods will be held Friday through Sunday, March 15-17, in the Knoxville Convention Center and the adjacent World’s Fair Exhibition Hall, which is being newly renovated this spring.
For the past decade, combined attendance at Classic venues has averaged more than 100,000 per year, and the event typically generates about $25 million in economic impact.
All activities and venues are free and open to the public. For more information, visit Bassmaster.com.
(Note to Editors: For video or images to accompany this release, visit Bassmastermedia.com.)
About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S. is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 500,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), television show (The Bassmasters on ESPN2), radio show (Bassmaster Radio), social media programs and events. For 50 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.
The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series, Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation presented by Magellan Outdoors, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods, Bassmaster Team Championship and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.
April: Month of the Somewhat Forgotten Lizard
In my little universe, April is as much about soft plastic lizards as the Easter Bunny and the Masters at Augusta National. In fact, while the Chinese Zodiac calendar spotlights 2018 as the “Year of the Dog” — I’d like to go ahead an officially nominate April as forever being bass fishing’s “Month of the Lizard.
Like my Carhartt raingear, I don’t leave home in April without several bags of 5, 6, and 8” soft plastic lizards during this often rain-soaked month centered around various phases of the annual spring spawn.
Yet, you’d be hard pressed to find a professional bass tournament in recent years where a lizard was credited with being the winning lure, or even playing a huge role in the victor’s creel.
Has the lizard fallin out of fashion? Has this highly versatile lure that was a mainstay in the 1980s and 1990s lost its fish catching ability? It certainly hasn’t for me, but what do the best anglers on the planet and the lure manufacturers say?
Mike Iaconelli: “Lures are kinda like clothes – designs and shapes fall in and out of fashion, but I’ll promise you this, there’s a Flambeau box full of lizards in my boat right now, and it’ll stay there all year with the exception of the dead of winter,” says the Team Toyota pro.
“The thing that makes a soft plastic lizard special is the flat belly paired with a tail and legs that have great but subtle swimming action,” says Iaconelli. “It glides perfectly behind a Carolina Rig in the pre-spawn, and all the way into summer, plus it’s also great Texas rigged shallow around the spawn because its slender shape gets in and out of brush and vegetation without hanging up.”
“As for the reason you don’t hear about it more – I think it’s because guys don’t want to spotlight it. They keep it kinda under the collar. But again, come check my boat, and you’ll find a box full of lizards right now,” he says adamantly.
“Oh, and the 9 pound 11 ounce beast I caught last year at the Bassmaster Classic on Lake Conroe came on a 6” green pumpkin Berkley Power Lizard,” adds Ike for emphasis on the lizard’s modern day effectiveness.
Jacob Powroznik: “One of the reasons we used lizards a lot more 20 years ago is because our options on soft plastic lures were a lot more limited than they are these days,” says Quantum pro Jacob Powroznik. “We didn’t have the beaver style lures or the wide variety of creature baits like the J-Bug I designed for V & M Lures. So we used a lizard, and trust me … it got the job done.”
“And I’ll promise you it still gets the job done. Just like it did two decades ago when we were constantly pitching them into flooded bushes or Carolina Rigging them, and smokin’ a lot of good bass on them,” says the Virginia pro.
What do the Sales Numbers say about Lizards?
It would be difficult to argue Zoom Lure Company didn’t have the biggest hand in the popularity boom of soft plastic lizards in the late 1980s. Avid angler Chris Baxter has been employed by the super successful Georgia-based lure company most of his adult life, and has had a front row seat to the soft plastic lizard’s life cycle to date.
Even though they may not be as trendy on pro angling trails as they once were, Baxter watched the lizard’s rise to popularity 25 years ago, and for the most part, says it has stayed there, according to retail sales numbers.
“Zoom Lure Company started in 1977, and by 1987 and 1988 everybody was wanting our pumpkin seed colored lizards to Carolina Rig,” remembers Baxter.
“I think we’re selling as many lizards now in 2018 as we ever did because anglers are more comfortable throwing larger lures than they once were. So the 8” Magnum Lizard we make offers another sales opportunity we couldn’t capitalize on as well 30 years ago, and the 6” still remains a very important part of most every amateur angler’s tackle collection,” says Baxter.
While the 8” variety is most often Texas rigged and pitched to shallow flooded habitat, the 4” is good for early spawn. The 6” is most versatile, and hence the 6” is the top selling size according to Baxter.
“Back in the early 1990s it seemed like everybody flipped and pitched a lizard shallow, and by the mid 1990s a Carolina-rigged lizard was big time popular. Our overall bait selection wasn’t as versatile back then – so we leaned on lizards to catch a ton of fish,” reflects Baxter. “And the fact is, they still would catch a ton of fish, if we’d just simplify our approach and tied one on more often.”
I agree with Baxter. In a fishing universe with an often-overwhelming number of choices in soft plastic shapes and sizes, there’s one sure way to simplify things. Be like “Ike” and keep a few bags of lizards in your boat nearly year round.
Texas rigged or Carolina rigged, their effectiveness remains as dependable as the Azaleas bushes blooming each April at Augusta National for the Masters.
EXIST SPINNING REELS… 60 Years of Daiwa Innovation
CYPRESS, California—Daiwa Corporation is pleased to announce the release of the finest line of reels the company has ever produced. The new EXIST spinning reels represent 60 years of Daiwa innovation and the long range vision of a company founded in 1958. Within ten years of the companies establishment, in 1968, Daiwa released the first open-face spinning reel, a historic achievement in the development of innovative sportfishing tackle. The flagship line of Exist spinning reels represents a perfection in design and the natural progression of the company’s reel building lineage. Daiwa designed and constructed these reels in Japan with no regard to expense in research and development, material, construction processes or time. We built this reel with state of the art technology so that you will enjoy your fishing experience at a whole different level.
The spinning reel body features Daiwa’s LT CONCEPT, light yet tough. The Magnesium MONOCOQUE BODY design technique uses the exterior shell of the body to provide structural support for the reel. A threaded side plate provides greater strength and rigidity and prevents dirt and water intrusion. The unique body design allows more room for gears, eliminating space demanding screw holes and sideplate stablization. An impressive 85% of the area is gear space, facilitating larger, more powerful gearing, the greatest gear size in the market. The LT Concept is furthered with the use of the
ZAION AIR ROTOR and AIR BAIL. The innovative design provides easier ballanced rotations and reduces the overall weight of the reel . The Daiwa developed Zaion is a “ high density” carbon strain material that is 20 percent stronger and 50 percent lighter than traditional nylon and aluminim construction.
The MAG SEALED main shaft, bearings and line roller utilizes a aerowspace developed magnetic oil, that seals the bearing surfaces from water and dirt intrusion without adding any friction, an important feature securing continued high performance.
The DIGIGEAR
DIGITAL GEAR DESIGN guarantees smooth, rugged performance with digitally milled alloy gearing that maximizes the efficiency of the gear-tooth interaction.
An ABS LONG-CAST SPOOL pays out line smoothly for long accurate casts. Daiwa’s ATD DRAG SYSTEM uses a new proprietary grease that enables the reel to apply smooth and consistent start up drag pressure from the first pull. The TWIST BUSTER 2 system keeps line twist to a minimum on the retrieve.
The12 CRBB super corrosion resistant ball bearings deliver flawless performance. The reel in its entirety, is constructed in Japan.
As a culmination of our pioneering tradition, Daiwa releases the EXIST line of spinning reels, the pinnacle achievement in 60 years of reel development.
It is the apex of modern reel building and the finest line of fishing reels in the industry.
FEATURES
• Light and Tough Magnesium Monocoque Body
• Light and Tough Zaion Air Rotor and Air Bail
• Magsealed ( Body/ line roller)
• Aluminum aloy machine cut TOUGH Digigear
• Long cast ABS spool
• ATD
• Twist Buster 2
• High level water resistant construction
• Made in Japan
AFTCO & B.A.S.S. Nation Announce Freshwater Conservation Grants
With a long history of supporting conservation efforts by donating 10 percent of company profits through their 10% Pledge, AFTCO continues that tradition with the AFTCO / B.A.S.S. Nation Conservation Grant Program. The program was formally announced by AFTCO President Bill Shedd at the recent B.A.S.S. Conservation Summit held during the GEICO Bassmaster Classic in Greenville, South Carolina.
“As part of our entrance into the bass fishing clothing world after 60 years focused on saltwater, AFTCO is pleased to partner with B.A.S.S. in this AFTCO/B.A.S.S. Nation Conservation Grant Program. We look forward to supporting local B.A.S.S. Nation conservation projects in their efforts to improve bass habitats and fisheries,” explained Shedd.
Grants ranging up to $5,000 will be awarded to the best proposals. Funding will be available for a broad range of conservation-related projects for B.A.S.S. Nation states, clubs, high school or college teams. Qualified projects must directly involve youth in such a way as to teach the importance of resource stewardship and the leadership role that anglers play as conservationists. Each project must have an endorsement of the local fisheries management agency, and work to accomplish goals of mutual benefit. The project must have an evaluation component to determine success. A project may be part of a larger project, and working with partners is strongly encouraged.
“I have admired AFTCO’s commitment to conservation for many years,” said B.A.S.S. Conservation Director Gene Gilliland, “and I am very glad to see them step up with these B.A.S.S. Nation grants as they dive into the freshwater bass market. Bill Shedd and his family, the entire company, understand the importance of grass roots efforts to protect and enhance our fishery resources.”
The application deadline is June 15th, 2018, with an announcement of the winners at the annual fishing industry trade show, ICAST, in July. You can access the Bass Conservation Grant Application Here.
All questions about the program or application process should be directed to B.A.S.S. Conservation Director, Gene Gilliland at ggilliland@bassmaster.com
Cody Meyer Talks Tatula
FLW Tour pro Cody Meyer talks about the Tatula line up …. there is a rod in this line up to meet your every need.
Follow Cody on his Facebook page.