The more than 70 teams expected for the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Eastern Regional on Tennessee’s Watts Bar Lake this week should find plenty of fishing action as the lake reportedly is full of 2- and 3-pound bass.

“We’ve got 70 teams from 29 or 30 different universities entered so far,” tournament director Hank Weldon said Tuesday. “The Eastern Conference Regional is one of five different regionals through the year.”

Weldon, who is following in the footsteps of his dad, Trip Weldon, a long-time tournament director for B.A.S.S., said the college anglers are fishing for the pride of representing their universities, and for a chance to advance to the National Championship on Georgia’s Chatuge Reservoir in August. With 70 teams fishing at Watts Bar, at least a dozen will qualify for the championship, he said.

The top angler in the Carhartt National Championship also wins the ultimate prize – entry into the 2015 Bassmaster Classic next February on South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell.

“They are really not fishing for a lot of money,” he said. “If they win prizes the cash money is awarded back to the fishing teams. No individual prizes are awarded. We do that to preserve the amateurism of the sport. They are fishing for the pride of representing their schools and then there is that one angler who will be headed to Greenville, S.C, in February to represent all college anglers.”

Weldon, who was a member of the University of Alabama Fishing Team until he graduated in 2008, said B.A.S.S.’s colelge fishing competition has been around since 2005.

“Fast forward to today and we are at almost 200 different institutions across the country that have fishing teams. We have well over 1,000 members who fish with us and that spans from Mexico to Canada and from Florida to Washington State. We started this year in January at Lake Okeechobee and we just got back from California, so we cover all four corners of the United States.”

The Carhartt Eastern regional will be held concurrent with BASSfest, a five-day tournament featuring 107 Elite Series pros and 33 top anglers from the Bassmaster Opens, who are fishing on nearby Chickamauga Lake this week.
Competition for the college teams begins Thursday at Watts Bar Dam in Decatur, Tenn. Teams will weigh in at that location on Thursday. On Friday, the college anglers will weigh in on the Elite stage at BASSfest in Dayton, Tenn., at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Bassmaster Carhartt College Series Eastern Conference Regional

Jun 12-13, 2014

Watts Bar Lake

www.bassmaster.com