Tri-City Bassmasters Hope For Good Turnout For Inaugural Fall Brawl On Lake Tillery
Rick Bradford of the Tri-City Bassmasters is hoping enough bass anglers will forego one day of deer hunting to come out Saturday and make the club’s inaugural Fall Brawl on Lake Tillery a resounding success.
“I hope we have a good turnout,” Bradford said. “This is the first time we’ve held this tournament in the fall and sometimes it is a little difficult to draw people out of the woods this time of year.”
Tri-City Bassmasters, a member club of the North Carolina Bass Federation, has held a spring tournament for the past three years to raise money for the club’s annual Children’s Fishing Tournament, Bradford said.
“We sponsor a Children’s Fishing Day every year in June at McKinney State Fish Hatchery and we partner with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission on the kid’s event,” he said. “We provide hot dogs and drinks for the kids and also door prizes, so that is why we put on this tournament – to raise money for the kid’s event.”
Bradford said people come from as far away as Greensboro and bring children for the kid’s event at the hatchery.
“It’s open to any children 15 and younger. Normally we will have from 100 to 150 kids there and they catch mostly sunfish, such as bluegills, and a few channel catfish,” he said.
Entry fee for Saturday’s tournament is $50 with either one or two anglers in a boat, plus $10 for an optional big fish pot. The payback is 75 percent, Bradford said. The tournament will run from 7 a,.m. to 3 p.m. with a five-fish limit.
Bradford said the bass are chasing bait generally toward the backs of the creeks.
“I would expect some type of moving bait bite to be successful. There might be some schooling activity as well. And, of course, the new thing everybody is talking about, the Alabama Rig, should come into play,” he said. “There is a good jig bite on Tillery, too, and usually by the first of December that good jig bite will be on.”
The fish are biting and there is a modest entry fee with a good payback. Now it’s just a matter of whether those North Carolina anglers are willing to give up one day of deer hunting for a good cause.
Tri-City Bassmasters Fall Brawl
Sat. Nov. 19, 2011
Lake Tillery
Swift Island Boat Ramp
Call Rick Bradford at 910-461-6198