The Professional Anglers Association Pro-Am Tournaments, which will be introduced Saturday on Tennessee’s Douglas Lake, will provide a major new opportunity for amateur anglers to spend a day on the water fishing with top bass pros.

The Pro-Am is one of several new elements to the PAA’s four-tournament series this year, said Alan Clemons, PAA Communications Director. The final day weigh-ins for the top 30 pros will be held at a local Bass Pro Shops retail store and the series has added the Pro-Am tournament to be held on a nearby lake on the final day of each tournament.

“Cherokee Lake is at Morristown, Tenn., which is about 25 miles north of the Bass Pro Shops store right on I-40, which gets a tremendous amount of attendance. Cherokee Lake is very popular, along with Douglas Lake, in that portion of Northeast Tennessee, so I expect to see some pretty good summertime fishing with good turnout from locals in the Morristown area who are already supporting the tournament, and a good turnout at Bass Pro for the final day weigh-in. The Pro-Am is the chance for anyone to fish with some of the pros on Day Three of our tournament series. It’s on a different lake so they will not be fishing on top of anybody,” Clemons said.

The top 30 pros will be fishing on Cherokee Lake on Saturday, the final day of the initial tournament for 2010, while the Pro-Am featuring the first 20 teams registered will be held on Douglas Lake, Clemons said. He said observers in the tournaments series who do not want to observe on Saturday will have priority for the Pro-am slots but the tournaments are open to anyone who is a PAA general member. The pros will be the ones who do not make the top 30 and who volunteer for an extra day of fishing.

“We presented this idea to the pros and asked them to volunteer for at least one of the four tournaments,” Clemons said.

“The entry fee for the amateur is $300 and for that he gets to spend the day, from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., with a top pro, to ask questions and learn more about the lake. If you are into drop shotting and you are fishing with a guy who is really good at that you have 5 ½ hours with him learning how to be better at drop shotting – and also enjoy a day on the lake and have a chance to win.”

Douglas Lake, like the three lakes paired with major lakes in the next three tournaments, will provide an excellent educational opportunity for the amateur anglers, Clemons said.

“Douglas Lake, which is just down the road from Cherokee Lake, is heavily pressured, so it might be a chance for some guys in the area who don’t do well there in the summer to go out with a pro who will show them something new.”

Clemons described the Pro-Am as a “paper tournament.”

“It will be catch, weigh the fish on certified Boga Grip Scales, release the fish alive and come back with the scorecard. The anglers will police themselves.”

The weigh-in, based on the weights registered in the boat before the fish were released, will be held at the Bass Pro Shops store before the 30 finalists in the PAA Pro Series weigh in.

“Who knows?” said Clemons. “If you are an amateur and you are fishing Douglas Lake in a tournament in the next year or two in July it might help.”

The anglers will find fishing on Douglas Lake very similar to Cherokee Lake, Clemons said, with offshore tactics probably the rule.

“I think Douglas has actually been producing better numbers in local tournaments. And it’s a bigger lake, so there may be a little more variety as far as fishing offshore and shallow. I don’t think Douglas has grass, but there is a chance to get into more shallow weeds and pick up some shoreline action.”

Observer registration and complete information for all PAA tournaments can be found at http://fishpaa.com/tournaments/observer-information/ or you can register by calling (270) 527-2030.

PAA Bass Pro Shops Pro-Am

Sat. Jul. 10, 2010

Douglas Lake

http://www.fishpaa.com