Lavalette, WV – Ferguson’s Great Outdoors Marine has launched its new schedule for the new year after a thrilling 2022 season. After an eye-opening Championship held in October that paid $5,000 to the winners, owners Grant Ferguson and staff are looking forward to the new season.
A few changes were made to the trail for the 2023 season such as providing competitors with a 100% payout at every single stop of the trail and lowering entry fees into each open.
“Going into year two after being able to wrap up the 2022 season guaranteeing $5,000 to our championship winners sets the bar high for 2023,” Owner Grant Ferguson said. “Some big changes to keep the bar high, that I am most excited about is this will be a 100% payout tournament series. We were able to drop the open entry fees to $125 and still keep our payouts high.”
The season will kick off early in the year on March 4th a few hours away from West Virginia on Lake Cumberland in Somerset, Kentucky which should be an excellent time for smallmouth fishing on the 65,530-acre reservoir as well as the potential for a great bag of largemouth.
“We added Lake Cumberland to the schedule for a nice change of scenery from the standard three to four lakes everyone fishes all year long,” Grant said. “It will be nice to meet some new faces as well as catching up with trail regulars at the first stop of the year.”
The second stop of the trail will be held on Yatesville Lake on March 26th which could be a pre-spawn big bass beatdown depending on the weather of course.
The third stop of the trail will bring back the popular Big Bass Tournament on Stonewall Jackson Lake on May 21st which will be the most anticipated event of the year.
The fourth and final stop before the Championship will be a new style tournament held on Summersville on July 29th at night. The tournament will be held from 8:00 P.M. to 8:00 A.M., challenging teams to bring back eight bass to the scales. This will be an event that will require competitors to have a partner in the boat.
“We are excited to bring back the Big Bass Tournament for 2023 that was a huge success,” Grant said. “Although we wanted to add an ‘all-nighter’ to mix things up from the traditional style of tournament trails.”
Teams that fish two out of the four events will qualify for the 2023 Championship that will be held on the Kanawha River on October, 7th. Also, any team that wins any of the four open events will automatically qualify for the 2023 Championship as well.
Along with the new schedule is a new boat limit introduced to the trail that will cap each event at 60 boats lowering the field size from the original 75 last year.
Most notably, added to every tournament this year is the “Great Outdoors Giveaways” which will randomly give away $125 to four teams that finished outside of the money in each event. The updated rules sheet will be posted at a later date and you can find that here on the Ferguson’s Great Outdoors Marine Facebook page. All tournaments are currently pending DNR approval.
Full Schedule
Opens
March 4th – Lake Cumberland, KY (Saturday)
March 26th – Yatesville Lake, KY (Sunday)
May 21st – Stonewall Jackson Lake, WV “Big Bass Tournament” (Sunday)
July 29th – Summersville Lake, WV “All Night Tournament” 8 pm – 8 am (Saturday)
Championship
October 7th – Kanawha River, WV (Nitro Boat Ramp)(Saturday)
