Ward & Elliot Take Wire-to-Wire Win on Douglas
December 5-6 2020, Dandridge, TN.–The 2020 Morristown Marine Team Trail Classic blasted off with 126 boats racing into a post-front cold snap with drastically falling, cold, muddy water. Not exactly a recipe for great fishing. And while the bite wasn’t fantastic and we didn’t weigh any monster bags, you guys found enough fish to make it interesting. Day 1 found 102 boats weighing fish and Day 2, only 72 boats weighed fish. Across two days and a 2 hour fog delay, there were 768 fish caught and released alive and well for a total weight of 1,724.95 lbs. That’s an average of 2.24 lbs per fish. When Day 1 ended, Jamie Ward and Jimmy Elliott were holding a slim lead with a 15.81 lb bag.
Day 2 brought colder overnight temperatures and a total lack of wind, which gave way to a thick, heavy fog. After a nearly 2-hour delay, we were off and running. The Day 1 leaders, Jamie Ward of Lawrenceburg, KY and Jimmy Elliott of Lyndon, KY, hauled in a second day’s catch to match their first day, with a 15.11 lb limit that netted them 1st place overall with 30.92 lbs and a check for $30,000.00 Congratulation to Jamie & Jimmy and a great performance this weekend. Jamie & Jimmy said they found fish spread out and across several different structure types, but all were very shallow.
2nd place went to Brian Dortch of Bean Station, TN and Jason Marshall of Mooresburg, TN with a two day total weight of 28.03 lbs. Brian and Jason had a solid Day 1 bag, anchored by a behemoth 4.16 lb smallmouth, to get them into position and learned the kind of habitat they needed to focus on fishing. They will take Highest Finishing Skeeter Since Brian is in a Skeeter boat and an additional check for Highest Finishing Gray Fox Insurance along with Citizens Bank Big Smallmouth for a 2 day total of $8,875.00 for their total bag weight of 28.03. Great job, guys!
3rd place went to Brian Harvey of Knoxville, TN and Mark Mauldin of Knoxville, TN with a very close 28.01 lb bag. Brian and Mark had a solid Day 1 and were in the middle of the pack. But Day 2 was a different story, as they weighed the biggest sack of the tournament with 16.65 on Day 2 to come up two thousandths of a pound short of the Day 2 lead at the time of their weigh in. Brain and Mark will cash a check for $3,000.00 for their weekend efforts. Congratulations, guys!
4th place belongs to James Goodin of Rutledge, TN and Scott Huddleston of Harrogate, TN who weighed a 13.27 lb bag on Day 1 and followed that up with a 14.06 lb bag for Day 2 and a total weight of 27.33 lbs for the weekend. James and Scott will cash a check for $1,500.00 for their 4th place finish. Way to go, guys!
5th place was won by Steve Miracle of White Pine, TN and Mike Wolfenbarger of Powell, TN with a 2 day total of 26.71 lbs, anchored by a great Day 1 weight of 15.23 lbs. and followed by a Day 2 weight of 11.48 lbs. Steve and Mike are fishing out of a brand new Skeeter FXR21 which Steve purchased from us that netted them 2nd Highest Finishing Skeeter Boat money ($1,500.00), Highest Finishing Morristown Marine New Bonus of ($1,000), 2nd Highest Finishing Gray Fox Insurance contingency ($250) and Highest Finishing Humminbird/MinnKota ($250) for a total weekend payday of $4,000.00. Great Job, Steve and Mike!
Highest Finishing Skeeter Bonuses were awarded as follows:
1) Dortch & Marshall- $3,000.00
2) Miracle & Wolfenbarger- $1500.00
3) Taylor & Henley- $1,000.00
4) Chambers & Smiley- $800.00
5) Carey & Phillips- $700.00
6) Rigg & Stough- $500.00
7) Salyer & Dotson- $250.00
8) Roberts & Nidiffer- $200.00
9) Barton & Carey – $150.00
10) Gordon & Gordon– $100.00
The Citizen’s Bank Big Largemouth Award went to Kevin Bays of London, KY & Verlan Golden of Artemus, KY with a chunky 4.83 lb. largemouth from Day 1. Kevin and Verlan’s largemouth netted them $625. Congrats, guys!
The Citizen’s Bank Big Smallmouth Award went to Brian Dortch of Bean Station, TN and Jason Marshall of Mooresburg, TN with a 4.16 lb smallmouth they caught on Day 1
The 2 teams winning the Gray Insurance Group Bonus were Brian Dortch/Jason Marshall and Steve Miracle/Mike Wolfenbarger. These teams received an extra $250 each, just for choosing Gray Fox Insurance Agency out of LaFollette, TN. Give Randy Heatherly a call for your insurance needs and get in on the payout!
Morristown Marine bucks paid out to Steve Miracle/Mike Wolfenbarger for Highest Finishing New Boat from Morristown Marine, purchased in 2018 or newer, to the tune of $1,500.00. 2nd Highest Finishing Morristown Marine New Bucks went to Jimmy Taylor/Chase Henley for $1,000.00. Highest finishing Pre-owned Boat from Morristown Marine went to Matt Goins/Clint Dyer ($500.00). 2nd Highest Finishing Preowned Boat from Morristown Marine was won by AJ Ison/Brandon Brock ($250.00). We appreciate each of you choosing to purchase your boat at Morristown Marine. Thank You!!
Morristown Marine would also like to thank Skeeter and Yamaha for their support and superior products, Visit Jefferson County/Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce , Gray Insurance Agency, Citizen’s Bank, Volunteer Trenching, Cumberland Gap Spring Water, Old Stage Printing, Rainey Battery/Rolls Battery, B&H Sales, Power Pole, Jimmy Taylor Plumbing, Lake View Dock , Humminbird, MinnKota, L&M Sales, ShotCrete, Hammrtech IT Solutions, and Jerry’s Bait Shop . Without our sponsors, our tournaments would not be what they are today. Please show your appreciation by choosing to do business with our sponsors.
Amanda and I want to send a special thanks to the folks that help make these tournaments possible. Mitch Martino, Shannon Glass, Bradley & Samantha Walker, Cody & Casey Shipley, Jessica Davidson, Jerreth Bain with Skeeter Boats, Lauren Hurdle with Visit Jefferson County. Thank you, to each one of you, for countless hours of work and devotion to make this thing go.
Please be sure to take about 1 minute to complete the Economic Impact Survey by clicking here: https://bit.ly/Douglaseconimpact
It has been a great season for us and we sincerely hope all of you have enjoyed it as much as we have. We have all had to learn to adapt to life with COVID-19. We hope that the changes we’ve made to adapt and continue tournament fishing haven’t been too much of an imposition and have kept everyone safe and free of COVID. Amanda and I cannot say how much we appreciate every one of you coming out to fish with us this year. We are excited to start revealing some of the new sponsorship partners and contingency programs for 2021! See you all on March 6, 2021 at Watts Bar!