“I hope everybody had a good summer break and are ready to get back fishing,” said tournament director Richard McMaster.”We’ve got two more regular season tournaments beginning with this one Saturday on Cherokee Lake and David Mullins and Brent Hoskins have a really good lead in the points race.”

Hoskins and Mullins have a 54-point lead over Steve Miracle and Mike Wolfenbarger with a couple more teams nipping at second place, so Saturday’s tournament is critical to the outcome of the points race. Both teams have won tournaments during the season.

“It’s basically theirs to lose,” McMaster said of Hoskins and Mullins.

“They are calling for some cooler weather this weekend, so maybe that will stir things up with the fish,” McMaster said. “Fishing has been kind of tough on Cherokee.”

The primary bite will probably be shallow, he said, because all the summer rains and cooler than normal days kept water temperatures down during late summer.

“We never really got into a deep summer hot period this year. Temperatures never got above 85 degrees when normally it would have been 90-92 degrees. The bass, especially the largemouths, have stayed shallow.”

McMaster said topwater lures such as frogs and Zara Spooks are catching fish, especially on cloudy mornings.

“Since the lake is still almost full because of all the rain, there is also a good flipping bite in the buck bushes and other shallow stuff. There is a crankbait bite, too, bot not real deep, on the main channels. The fish are staying really close to shallow water.”

McMaster said the tournaments have been averaging about 120 boats and he is looking for at least 100 entries for Saturday’s tournament

“A lot of guys are trying to get in enough tournaments to get in the November championship. We take the top 100 and those who have fished at least six of the seven scheduled tournaments get in automatically.”

McMaster said he has been very pleased with the participation this year.

“There are other bigger tournament trails, but we have been tickled with how things have gone this year. We just had fun and that is what I wanted to do. We gave away a lot of money and we are looking forward to giving away a new $44,000 Ranger Bass Boat with a Mercury motor on it at the championship,” he said.

“Something new this year at the championship is that Ranger is bringing in a big cooker to do barbecue and all the fixings for everybody at our championship banquet.”

The Tom’s Marine Team Trail is a seven-tournament series, culminating with a two-day championship, Nov. 2 on Cherokee Lake and Nov. 3 on Douglas Lake. Entry fee for the Tom’s Marine tournaments is $110, which includes a $10 lunker fee. First place is guaranteed $2,500, with the payout at least 90 percent of entry fees, paid one for every six entries, at the ramp.

The trail offers most major boat bonus programs, including the Ranger Cup, Triton Gold, Stratos 2X, Skeeter Real Money, Phoenix First Flight, plus other incentives including the Bass Pro Shops Tournament Rewards, Motor Mate and the PAA Pay Day Program.

In addition, anglers who own a 2010 or newer truck bought new from Ramey Ford will get a $500 bonus for winning a regular season tournament.

Tom’s Marine Team Trail

Sat, Sep 14, 2013

Cherokee Lake

25 E Bridge Access

http://tomsmarinetn.com/index.php?section=trail