Buchanan, Tenn.–The Big Bass Bash Collegiate Fishing Series will start off its season at Kentucky Lake this weekend and some 300 anglers are expected at Paris Landing State Park from March 13 through 14 for the event.
“The Big Bass Bash is one of the most premier tournaments in all of collegiate bass fishing,” said Wade Middleton, Director of the Association of Collegiate Anglers. “We look forward to getting to Paris, TN and Kentucky Lake to start off 2021. This event features many of the highest-ranked college bass fishing teams in the nation and pays out over 80 individual places during the two days of fishing. In addition, this event always proves to be key in helping to determine the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia.”
The Bass Pro Shops Big Bass Bash presented by Berkley is a traditional two-day big bass format event consisting of a total of seven weigh-in sessions. Day one will feature four weigh-in periods, and day two will be comprised of three weigh-ins. The first six weigh-ins will pay out the Top 10 anglers in each session, and the final weigh-in on day two will award prizes to the Top 20 anglers.
Paris-Henry County Chamber of Commerce CEO Travis McLeese said the local community is pleased to once again host the tournament which draws anglers and their families from all over the country to our area.
McLeese appeared on the Podcast, “We Are Collegiate Bass” last week and spoke of the downtown Paris Spring Open House this weekend and welcomed the anglers’ families downtown for that. “I also spoke about our stocking program here on Kentucky Lake and how it has helped our fishery grow and is once again putting Henry County on the map for true fishing.”
Schools will earn points for their highest two finishing anglers inside of the Top 100. First place overall will earn 1,000 points for his/her respective school. A double points event such as this goes a long way in determining a school’s end of the year ranking in the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia. The maximum number of points one school can earn that week is 1,995 if the school had a pair of anglers finish both 1st and 2nd. That is a significant amount of points that can help a team to jump inside of the Top 10 and challenge for that number one ranking.
Weigh-ins will be held each day around 3 p.m. at Paris Landing.
Big Bass Collegiate Series photo of anglers practicing.