Tallent Prevails on Watts Bar
April 20, 2024-Rockwood, TN: The Morristown Marine Team Trail made stop #4 of the 2024 MMTT regular season on beautiful Watts Bar Lake in Roane County today. 226 teams registered for the tournament, and just under 200 teams hit the dark waters of Watts Bar to compete for a share of the $47,920.00 across 38 places and all contingencies. The weather forecast called for partly cloudy skies and cooler weather, but they missed that a little, as it came a frog strangler during blast off and continued to rain steadily until mid-morning, followed by clear, bluebird skies and a steady breeze. The fishing had been tougher than expected this week with most anglers reporting fish locked down hard on beds. Big ones were hard to come by, but most teams were able to scratch out solid limits. In all, 73 teams had a five fish limit and 111 teams weighed at least one fish. A total of 484 fish hit the scales weighing 1,127.33 lbs. 483 of the 484 fish that hit scales were released alive and well back into Watts Bar. We wanted to brag on you guys….. Through 4 tournaments, our trail has only seen 2 dead fish! That is amazing and we commend you guys on your fish care. Please continue to take extra care to preserve our wonderful resources! Blast off started at 6:50 am and boat 250 was called at 7:38 am, taking 48 minutes and averaging 3.9 boats per minute. The scales opened at 2:55 pm and closed at 4:25 pm, taking an hour and 30 minutes. We averaged weighing just under a bag per minute.
Mr. Joe Tallent took home a big win with a total weight of 17.71 lbs with a very healthy bag of Watts Bar bass. Joe said he used the “run and gun” method of continually covering water and focusing on points in that 5-15 foot range to catch his bag. Joe emphasized the difficulties of fishing solo and not having the assistance of a good net man. But, he was able to take home a check for $10,000.00 for his day of fishing. Congrats on a great bag! Click here to see the post-tourney interview with Joe.
Following up in 2nd place was the brother team of Burton and Willie Bryan with a total weight of 16.58 lbs. Burton and Willie took home checks for $3,000.00 (2nd place overall), $3,000.00 for Highest Finishing Skeeter, and $250.00 for 1st Humminbird/MinnKota payout for a total of $6,250.00! Way to go, guys!
Right behind them in 3rd place was the team of Cody Green and Tom Spangler with a weight of 16.15 lbs. Cody and Tom will receive a check for $2,250.00 for their efforts today. Great job!
4th place went to Roger and Hugh O’Dell with 15.94 lbs. They will cash a check for $1,500.00 for their day of fishing. Awesome catch, guys! Congrats!
Rounding out the top 5 was the team of John Smith and Damon Lewis with a limit weighing 15.10 lbs. John and Damon will receive checks for $1,000.00 (5th place overall), $1,500.00 for 2nd Highest Finishing Skeeter, $1,000.00 for 1st Morristown Marine New Bucks, and $150.00 for 2nd Humminbird/MinnKota payout totaling $3,650.00! Great work, guys!
Check out the full results here: LINK
The Citizens Bank Big Largemouth went to Brad Vineyard and David Fields with a Watts Bar Giant tipping the scales at 6.09 lbs. They will add $1,045.00 to their winnings for catching this toad! Congrats!
The Citizens Bank Big Smallmouth payout went to Jake Curtis and Charles Fox weighing a monster 4.12 lb smallie. Nice catch, and way to put $1,045.00 into the bank!
Highest Finishing Minn Kota and Humminbird Bonus paid out this weekend as follows:
1st: Bryan/Bryan, 16.58 lbs. $250 Humminbird/MinnKota Bonus
2nd: Smith/Lewis 15.10 lbs. $150 Humminbird/MinnKota Bonus
Humminbird: Simply. Clearly. Better. Check out how to get in on the One Boat Network at https://www.minnkotamotors.com/ and get paid for running the best equipment on the water.
Highest Finishing Gray Fox Insurance payout went to Harvey/Mauldin with 14.34 lbs for $250.00. 2nd Highest Finishing Gray Fox Insurance payout went to Miracle/Wolfenbarger with 14.04 lbs. Their choice to insure with Gray Fox Insurance paid them back $250.00 Saturday. Get in touch with Randy Heatherly and the gang at Gray Fox Insurance in LaFollette, TN and get in on the payback!
The Morristown Marine Bucks program paid out as follows:
Morristown Marine New Bucks:
1st: Smith/Lewis, 15.10 lbs. $1,000.00 Bonus.
2nd: Boyd/Crawford, 14.22 lbs. $750 Bonus.
The Morristown Marine New Bucks pays back those who purchased a brand-new boat from us in 2022, 2023 or 2024. This is just our way of saying “Thank You” for choosing your new boat from us.
Morristown Marine Pre-Owned Bucks:
1st: Meade/Meade, 6.26 lbs. $500 Bonus
2nd: N/A
Thank you both for choosing to spend your hard-earned dollars at Morristown Marine. All you have to do is purchase a certified pre-owned boat from Morristown Marine to qualify for this payout. As you guys can see, there is money to be won on the #mmtt in a pre-owned boat!
Highest Finishing Skeeter Bonus:
- Bryan/Bryan: 16.58 lbs, $3,000.00
- Smith/Lewis: 15.10lbs, $1,500.00
- Brown/Brown: 14.90 lbs, $1,000.00
- Boyd/Crawford: 14.225 lbs, $900.00
- Miracle/Wolfenbarger: 14.04 lbs, $700.00
- Majni/Brooks: 13.85 lbs, $500.00
- Brown/Brown: 13.69 lbs, $250.00
- Harris/Brown: 13.58 lbs, $200.00
- Owens/Spivey: 13.19 lbs, $150.00
- Vineyard/Fields: 13.01 lbs, $100.00
Morristown Marine would like to give a special thanks to: The City of Rockwood (Becky Ruppe), The Roane Alliance, Rockwood Parks & Rec, Rockwood Police Department/Roane Co Sherrif’s Office , Skeeter Boats, Yamaha, Humminbird, MinnKota, Morristown Chamber of Commerce/Visit Morristown, Gray Fox Insurance, Dick’s House of Sport-Knoxville, Old Stage Printing, Volunteer Trenching, Jimmy Taylor Plumbing, Lake View Dock, Citizens Bank, Cumberland Gap Spring Water, Jerry’s Bait Shop, Jefferson County, Campbell County, The Roane Alliance/City of Rockwood, AZ Rags and Smoky Mountain Fiberglass for sponsoring the 2024 Morristown Marine Team Trail. If not for the help of these sponsors, this tournament trail could not exist. Thank you all so much for your support of our anglers.
We want to thank our staff and crew for another great event. Most people don’t realize the behind-the-scenes work that goes on to create and operate a tournament of this size. Lastly, we want to thank you, the anglers, for coming out to fish with us. There are a number of tournament trails these days and we sincerely appreciate you choosing to fish with us. Again, we’d like to apologize for the late change regarding the ability to lock. I know several of you spent time and money practicing on Chickamauga. There is SO much that went on behind the scenes around this that forced us to make a change that we did not want to make. Just know this was not something we haphazardly decided to change at the last minute.
Next stop: South Holston Lake, Bristol and Sullivan County, TN on May 11 at Observation Knob Park. See you then!
Be sure to complete the Economic Impact Survey: LINK
