3Legends Ready to Rumble at Old Hickory
Charity tournament will include Bill Dance, Roland Martin and Jimmy Houston
Bass fishermen who have ever wondered what it would be like to fish against Roland Martin, Bill Dance or Jimmy Houston will have their chance Saturday when the Cast for a Cure Big Bass Tournament takes place on Old Hickory Lake at Hendersonville, Tenn. The 3Legends, who haven’t fished against each other in several decades, will participate in the charity fundraiser for cancer research.
A fundraising auction was held to determine who gets to fish with the 3Legends. The three top bidders were locals Zebedee Goodman (who’ll fish with Bill Dance), Landon Owens (paired with Jimmy Houston) and Richard Yates, Roland Martin’s partner in Saturday’s event.
Anglers will have until the 8 a.m. starting time that day to sign up for the event on site. The entry fee is $200 for adults, while youngsters 14 and under who accompany them can fish for free. Participants also can register online (castforacure.org) through 8 p.m. on Friday. The onsite registration begins at 6 o’clock Saturday morning at Sanders Ferry Park, 513 Sanders Ferry Road in Hendersonville.
Anglers will have three opportunities during the day to bring in the heaviest bass, as weigh-ins at Sanders Ferry Park will take place at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. Prizes for the heaviest single fish at each weigh-in are $750, $500 and $250 for first, second and third, respectively, in the adult division. Youth anglers (14 and younger) have a chance at winning various product prizes for the heaviest bass at each weigh-in.
The tournament’s grand champion will receive $4,000 for the heaviest single fish overall, with $2,000, $1,000 and $500 going to the second through fourth places, respectively. A registered angler who catches a largemouth bass that breaks the current state record of 15 pounds, 3, ounces, will collect an additional $1 million.
Performers Dierks Bentley, Sam Hunt, Chris Young, Frankie Ballard, the Brothers Osborne and others will fish in the event as well. Their “celebrity weigh-in” is set for 3 p.m. in tandem with a “Party in the Park” for spectators and visitors that runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Pavilion #8. Live music and free food samples from Jim ’Nick’s Barbecue, Dunkin’ Donuts and others will be provided.
As for the fishing on Old Hickory, it should be a typical autumn event on the Cumberland River reservoir, according to the assistant tournament director.
“We had a big drop in the air temperature last weekend, but it was fairly temporary and didn’t affect the fishing on Old Hickory too much,” says Robert White, who’s also a member of the Nashville Bassmasters. “The water temperature now is in the upper 60s and the shad and tilapia have started moving toward the backs of creeks. Yes, I said tilapia. In 2010, when Nashville had the big flood, tilapia that were in local ponds got into the lake and the [Cumberland] river system. So now they’re giving the bass something else to chase and fatten up on.”
White adds that square-bill crankbaits and crawfish soft plastics in bream, shad and tilapia patterns are the big producers this time of year on Old Hickory.
“The best fishing is likely to be found back in the creeks and around bridge riprap and that sort of cover – bass will be wherever they can pick off the shad and tilapia as they pass through,” notes White.
About the T.J. Martell Foundation: The T.J. Martell Foundation is the music industry’s leading foundation that funds innovative medical research focused on finding treatments and cures for cancer. The Foundation was founded in 1975 by music industry executive Tony Martell and his colleagues in loving memory of Martell’s son, T.J., who died of leukemia when he was 19 years old. The Foundation has provided more than $280 million for research at seven flagship hospitals in the United States. For more information regarding the T.J. Martell Foundation, visit www.tjmartel.org.