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The Eastern Tennessee Regional was held on Douglas Lake on October 13th. The field of 25 boats were faced with tough fishing after immediately following a large two day championship with another circuit that was held Friday and Saturday before the Sunday, one day event. Tournament Director JD Caldwell said the fishing was a challenge for many in the field. "The fish were suspended and hard to catch, it only took 15lbs to win and normally this lake is a 20 to 25lb lake," added Caldwell. The top team used the previous tournament to their advantage as they also fished that event and were clued in to what the fish were doing from their time on the lake.
First place was the team of Randy Carroll and Mike Hobby who had a five fish limit weighing 15.34lbs. "We fished the other event and came in 8th there with 25.67 for two days, so we were pretty confident we would be able to catch 12-16lbs and we did. Douglas is our home lake and during the summer and fall we are comfortable fishing there and know what to do, during the Spring is another story," added Carroll. The local team caught fish all day and went through between 10-12 keepers for their weight. "We caught a small limit early on but ended up culling all of them out. We fished topwater baits all day in the shallow water and committed to it the whole time," shared Carroll. The key he said was knowing that the fish were there and would eat a topwater bait if you stayed with it.
Second Place was the team of Don Ingram and Ronnie Grant, the 2013 USA Nitro Classic Champions from Kentucky Lake in May. They had a limit weighing 14.25lbs. The team caught between 15-20 keepers on Douglas Lake during the event by using lipless crankbaits and squarebill crankbaits. "The key was fishing the flats and finding the ditches. The bass were using them as migration routes as they followed the shad," shared Ingram. The two realized that the fishing pressure from the other event was affecting the fish and made a key adjustment. "I was throwing the Red Eye shad and noticed two fish run away from it, they were spooked. We decided to try something more subtle and started using an old Bagley crankbait and we started catching them," recalled the team.
Third Place was Billy Berthiaume and Brad Snapp who had 14.25lbs. The team also fished topwater baits and and went through eight keepers during the event. "The bigger fish came early, but we caught them all day," said Berthiaume.
Finishing in 4th Place and also winning the big bass award was Don Raley and Tim Corum who had the big bass weighing 6.42lbs. They were one fish short of a limit but weighed in 12.06lbs.
By: Tyler Brinks
