Finally, tournament season has come upon us in the mountain state. Or at least as close as we can get to tournament season.

Ferguson’s Great Outdoors Marine Open Tournament Series kicks off tomorrow on the 55,000-acre Lake Cumberland and it should be quite the tournament. With temperatures dropping tonight and most likely facing post-frontal conditions on Saturday it is hard to tell what the fishing will look like on Saturday.

Albeit, this week has been unseasonably warm around the Somerset, Kentucky area so assumingly there will be a good handful of fish up shallow as well as deeper active fish.

“I do think we will see some big bags caught on Saturday,” said Grant Ferguson, owner of the Great Outdoors Marine. “I think there will be some big green ones coming into play that will throw off those “all” smallmouth expected bags.”

With almost a full field of 50, Grant expects it to fill up and have the full field.

“What is really great to me is the amount of “our” locals making the trip to fish. Deciding to host an event at Cumberland I was a bit skeptical about how many of our locals would commit to traveling out of the normal lakes and I would say our guys make up about 85% of the field so that makes me extremely proud,” said Ferguson.

With a lot of recent success on Cumberland over the winter, Dave Ferguson along with partner Doug Stamper look to carry the momentum from last season’s Championship win into the new season.

“I hate to jinx anyone, but there are some big heavyweights in this tournament,” said Ferguson. “But Pro Staff member Doug Stamper and Dave Ferguson are going to be hard to beat in this derby.”

But looking to get the season started off in the right direction, Marshall University Fishing Team member Lawson Blake spent some time on the lake last weekend and we caught up with him to get a preview of what he saw on the lake.

“The lake has been fishing pretty tough. Water temps are still around the 47 to 49-degree mark as of last weekend, but I expect to see that up in the lower 50s this week,” said Blake. “Water clarity varies throughout the lake. The closer to the river you get, the muddier it gets, but towards the dam is of course clearer water.”

“With an impending cold front after a rather warm week, it will undoubtedly cause the fish to enter a funk. We had similar conditions on Sunday, and the fish seemed finicky.”

Ferguson and the crew are excited about year two for the Open Tournament Series as they had a fantastic year one. With their feet more steady on the ground after year one, expect year two to be big for the crew.

“I just want to say thanks to everyone for joining our trail this year and big thanks to our guys who fished with us last year and are now with us again in 2023,” said Ferguson. “I am so excited to get this thing rolling and safe travels to everyone coming down this weekend. As always, thanks for ‘Getting Outdoors with The Great Outdoors.”