“Right now the bite is a little tough,” Phillips said, “but we are looking for a good tournament with 224 or more anglers fishing in it, including some heavy hitters.”

Somebody has to win and the payout is nothing to sneeze at. The first place team will win a 2011 Skeeter ZX200 with a new 200 Yamaha SHO 4-stroke engine, and Phillips expects to pay back cash and product prizes to 30 to 35 places.

In addition, manufacturer bonus programs for the trail include Skeeter Real Money, Stratos Double Your Winnings, Triton Gold, Phoenix First Flight Program and the Morristown Marine Boat Bucks plan.

“In the Morristown Marine Boat Bucks program, if you buy a boat or motor here, new or used, any brand, we will pay an additional $500 on top of what you win,” Phillips said. “Everything is sponsored by Skeeter, Yamaha and Morristown Marine.”

Skeeter, for instance, is also preparing breakfast for the anglers at the Saturday morning launch and will serve them a meal of barbecue, beans and slaw when they return for the weigh-in.

Based on recent tournament weights, Phillips predicted 16 to 18 pounds will win the championship Saturday despite the tough bite. Some of the heavy hitters fished some smaller tournaments on the lake last weekend and won with some pretty impressive weights, he noted.

“The minnows are schooling up in the backs of the pockets and the fish are feeding, but they are not real active,” he said. “They are finding some fish up shallow and some deeper on the points, so there will be different strategies. There are people going both ways up and down the lake.”

Cloud cover could be a determining factor, he noted.

“They are catching some fish early in the morning so we are hoping for some cloud cover Saturday,” Phillips said. “There is supposed to be some so there should be a good Spook bite on topwater.”

He said small crankbaits are also producing along with the new Alabama rig which must be modified into a “Tennessee Rig.”

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency regulations, which went into effect in 2002, require that umbrella-type rigs have no more than three artificial lures. Both of the Alabama rigs used by Paul Elias to win the Walmart FLW Tour on Lake Guntersville in Alabama Oct. 23 and by Dan Morehead to win the EverStart Series Championship on Kentucky Lake Oct. 30 employed five lures.

No matter what lures they use, Charlie Rasch and Gary Pilkenton will likely be looking for some redemption in the championship.

“Pilkenton and Rasch had a 26-point lead in the points going into the last tournament (Oct. 22 on Cherokee Lake) and everybody pretty much conceded they would win the points title,” Phillips said. “But Benny Roberts and Todd Nidiffer are pretty good fishermen, too, and they ended up 13^th in the tournament while Charlie and Gary finished 45^th. Benny and Todd won the points title by 6 points.”

Ironically, Roberts and Nidiffer did not win a tournament all season long but finished with four top 10s and a top 15^th place to counteract their one bad tournament in April when they finished 91^st. Rasch and Pilkenton won two tournaments along the way, plus two more top 10s. After finishing 70th in May they needed a decent outcome in the season final, but slipping to 45th knocked them out of the title.

“We will recognize Roberts and Nidiffer at the Classic with plaques and also pre-entries into next year’s tournaments,” Phillips said.

 

Morristown Marine Team Trail Classic

Sat. Nov. 12, 2011

Cherokee Lake

Hamblin County Marina-Boat Launch Road

Call Sam Phillips 423-587-5555

www.morristownmarine.com