The final Toms Marine Team Trail tournament of 2014 Saturday on Douglas Lake will decide more than just a winner, according to tournament director Richard McMaster.

“Not only will the points champion be decided, the outcome of the tournament will also decide which four teams will be going to the Bassmasters Team Championship, which will be held Dec. 9-13 on Lake DeGray at Bismarck, Ark., with the opportunity to fish for two brand new boats,” McMaster said.

The tournament Saturday will also be the last regular season tournament directed by Richard and Melissa McMaster, finishing off a 12- to 13-year career of running tournaments for Tom’s Marine.

“We are stepping down and handing it over to a new team, although we don’t know yet who that will be,” McMaster said. “It’s time to take a break. We’re doing some job changing and when you change jobs it hard to do if you have a lot of commitments/”

We really enjoyed all the people we got to meet over the years and we appreciate everybody who fished with us. We hope to see them all down the road sometime.”

McMaster will finish out the year with the Tom’s Marine Classic Oct. 25-25 on Douglas Lake out of Shady Grove and Cherokee Lake at the 25E Bridge.

He said his final year had some memorable moments. On July 12, Dillon and Brian Baxley weighed in three fish at 11.8 pounds to win the first summer night tournament Tom’s Marine has held in three years. It was also the Baxley team’s first win ever.

Last Saturday, Eddie Ball and Kevin Gray won the Tom’s Elite Series Championship on Cherokee Lake with a five-bass limit that weighed 14.88 pounds.

At least two, possibly three teams have a good shot at winning the Tom’s Marine points title in Saturday’s season final, McMaster said. Howard Greenlee and James Burchfield are leading Randy Brown and Greg Burrell by 11 points going into Saturday’s tournament, and a group of five teams – all veteran Tom’s Marine anglers – is poised within striking distance.

McMaster said most he expects “a good river bite” on Saturday.

“There is still plenty of water to get a long way up the French Broad River so I think we will see a lot of flipping on laydowns and topwater such as buzzbaits and frogs,” he said.

“Fishing in Douglas has not been all that great lately,” McMaster said, but we’re going to have some nice weather this weekend, nice cool fall temperatures, that hopefully get the fish to bite – and at least get the fishermen charged up.”

 

Tom’s Marine Team Trail

Sat, Sep 13, 2014

Douglas Lake

Shady Grove Access

Call Richard McMaster 423-748-3240

www.tomsmarinetn.com