Fishing big hook for Rhea County

A crowd watches the weigh-ins Saturday for the Tennessee State High School Fishing Championship out of Dayton Boat Dock, where this week's Walmart FLW Tour tournament will be based.
A crowd watches the weigh-ins Saturday for the Tennessee State High School Fishing Championship out of Dayton Boat Dock, where this week's Walmart FLW Tour tournament will be based.

This week's Walmart FLW Tour bass tournament on Lake Chickamauga brings together the two major aspects of Michael Neal's professional life. He's one of the regulars on the tour, and this stop happens to be based out of Dayton Boat Dock, where he's been the operator for three years.

He's got to worry about fishing -- he needs good showings in this one and the series finale two weeks from now on the Potomac River to make the championship field, after finishing seventh in the points standings last year -- yet he can't help but concern himself with store details, even though he has a very capable staff in place.

At the same time, he gets to sleep in his own house this week, and he gets to show off a quality venue.

"Any time you get to stay at home while you're competing, it's a lot more comfortable lifestyle and a lot less expensive," Neal said Saturday after the Tennessee high school state tournament weigh-ins at Dayton Boat Dock. "It's very, very nice to be able to have one of these tournaments in your back yard.

"Anybody who comes and visits one of the tournaments here talks about how nice it is. Every one is completely appreciative of the tons of volunteers we have, and they say it's some of the best hospitality they've ever received, so there's definitely a sense of pride to host this. And when a national organization like this comes to your town, it's not just a one-time effect. Through the Internet and the television (October, in this case) coverage, there's so much more exposure for you."

Redoing the main boat ramp this past winter and early spring made the venue even better, Neal said, especially for the volume of boats that will be part of this week's tournament. Practice opens today for the Thursday-Sunday event.

The pro field of 151 for the Walmart FLW Tour at Lake Chickamauga presented by Igloo Coolers includes two other tour veterans from host Rhea County, points leader Wesley Strader from Spring City and ninth-place and 2013 and 2014 points champion Andy Morgan from Dayton, plus first-year regular Marshall Deakins from nearby Dunlap.

The 151 co-anglers will include Dayton's Brian Derlak and Dennis Tumlin, Soddy-Daisy's Taylor Bolton and Cody Frazier, Decatur's Gary Runyon, Trenton's Pat Rose, Flat Rock's Cody Hammontree and Hixson's Mark Guhne, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's golf coach.

Neal, Strader and Chad Grigsby from Minnesota spent time Saturday morning at the Chuck Copeland Memorial Kid's Fishing Rodeo at Spring City Veterans Park.

Tumlin is the executive director of the Rhea Economic and Tourism Council, Inc., and is proud of the county's emergence as a tournament destination. Dayton Boat Dock hosted 34 events last year and likely will have nearly 30 in 2015.

"We're getting really good at it," Tumlin said. "Our volunteers know what to do, and our lodging partners know what to do.

"Fishing for us is an economic driver. Last year, with those 34 events, our lodging tax increased about 18 percent. We had over 5,500 more night stays in Rhea County in 2014 than the year before, and we sent a lot of visitors to surrounding counties.

"Our economy registered 12.2 million additional sales dollars in 2014, as compared to 2013, driven largely by fishing. The norm for an increase in sales-tax collections from one year to the next is 1.5 to 1.9 percent, and last year it was about 4.6 percent."

All that was without a visit from FLW's top pros. When the Walmart tour came to Dayton for a week in 2013, that was the county's second-largest sales-tax-collection month of the year, barely beaten by December and the Christmas season.

"It's like injecting a new holiday in the business cycle," Tumlin said.

Strader predicted a few days ago that a four-day total of about 80 pounds would be needed to win the tournament, and Neal said it might even take 85.

"I know it's going to be a deep tournament," Strader said. "It's going to be won off shore. The fish will be deep."

Neal noted that TVA electric production has kept the current through the lake minimal -- and the fish scattered -- but he generally agreed with Strader.

"I think that at least half of the top-10 finishers will be fishing the schools on the ledges," Neal said in an FLW release. "One or two anglers will be fishing shallow -- docks, or structures like that. Then one or two anglers will be fishing grass. I think the majority of the field will be fishing the schools out deep, though, and I'm pretty sure that is how the tournament will be won."

He said he hoped to make the cut of 20 after two days, when the fishermen won't be bunched so tightly.

"It's going to be anybody's tournament. This is going to be an awesome derby," Neal said.

Seahawks win state

Daniel Kennedy and Braden Marshall from Silverdale Baptist Academy, aptly nicknamed Seahawks, won the state tournament Saturday and also reeled the big fish. Rhea County's Brandsford Dean and Dustin Osborne were second and Bradley Central's Colton Morton and Chris Wilson were third. Central's A.J. Barnes and Gavin Ainslie were fourth with Polk County's Charles Woody and Tristan Lowe fifth.

Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.

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