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Fishing Information
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The inaugural Reelfoot Lake Open Bass Tournament held on August 18 & 19 at The Samburg Motel/Grocery was a time of fun and immense challenge. Low water conditions, high temperatures, and a field of some of the best bass fishermen on Reelfoot Lake made this tournament one that would test even the best of nerves. Due to the lack of rainfall, the lake conditions at Reelfoot were low at best. Stumps and sunken logs dotted the waters and made the passage to some of the areas treacherous. However, this did not disdain the intentions of the 18 teams that ventured to Reelfoot Lake to fish this new tournament – The Reelfoot Open. The Reelfoot Open was a buddy-style tournament that pitted some of the best fishing pairs on the waters of Reelfoot Lake. The first day’s fishing was your typical buddy tournament in that the teams had the opportunity to fish their favorite late summer locales to find the fish. The teams then weighed their creel and the field was then set for the next day’s event – The Reelfoot Lake Open Megabucks. The Reelfoot Lake Open Megabucks was fished very similar to the style that BASS fishes their Megabucks in that the top ten teams had ten designated fishing areas to fish for a total of 45-minutes per spot. They then had 15-minutes to get to their next area, a task that would not be easy given the current lake level. The fist day the teams had to fish for only eight hours, this day they had to fish for ten, long, intense, hot, grueling hours. The winning team from Saturday’s even was Tommy and John Hogg with a total weight of 19.71 lbs. Tommy Hogg said the secret to their success came from fishing two baits in the Tri-Timber/Tri-Bar area. The baits of choice were a jig in black or black/blue color and white willow-leaf spinnerbaits. They also managed to take top honors in the Big Bass category with a fish that weighed an impressive 5.11 lbs. Little did they know that their joy would be short-lived for when they weighed in the Open on Sunday, they only had one fish that weighed 3.72 lbs. Tommy stated that they could not figure out the fish in the 10-holes. A team that performed very consistently was that of Jim Curlin and Mike Terry. Both of these fishermen have spent countless hours on the waters of Reelfoot Lake and this tournament proved their hardwork. On Saturday this duo placed second with a weight of 16.24 lbs. Jim stated that they concentrated on lilypads with a high concentration of baitfish holding around them. They also had the second-place big bass with a weight of 4.69 lbs. On Sunday they would also find pay dirt again by placing second with a final weight of 17.50 lbs. Another team that proved their Reelfoot Lake bass fishing savvy was that of the father and son team of James and Jason Tolley. The Tolley’s finished the event Saturday with only two fish that weighed a total of 5.60 lbs. Mr. Tolley stated, “We only wanted to make the cut for the Megabucks on Sunday and then we can work on the rest of the field.” And work on them they did! At the weigh-in on Sunday the father-son team brought an impressive stringer of five fish to the scales that weighed 17.94 lbs. The team of Curlin and Terry had just been bumped out of the lead by only .44 lbs. and the champions of the Reelfoot Lake Open had been crowned! When asked what they focused on, Mr. Tolley said, “We felt like that the trees in the Green Cypress area would be our best bet…and they were.” The Tolley’s were pitching black and black/blue jigs around the clumps of trees and running white willow-leaf spinnerbaits around the scattered and isolated trees. ; a devastating combination for bass fishing on Reelfoot Lake in August. The other key to their success was concentrating on the places in each hole that held baitfish. The fishermen caught a total of 64 bass that weighed an impressive 198.87 lbs. for the two days. That is a 3.11 lb. average for the fish that were caught. The Grand Champion team of James and Jason Tolley sealed their entrance into next year’s Reelfoot Open Megabucks by winning the event this year. The Reelfoot Lake Open is sponsored by Cypress Creek Outfitters. This event will return next year bigger and better than ever...make sure and mark your calendars.
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