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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. \u2014 B.A.S.S. officials announced Wednesday that the B.A.S.S. Nation, the
\npopular grassroots organization with affiliated clubs in 47 states and 10 nations worldwide, will
\nonce again hold three regional events and a year-end championship in 2019.
\nThe Nation will visit Alabama\u2019s Lake Guntersville for the Central Regional on April 17-19,
\nCalifornia\u2019s Lake Shasta for the Western Regional on May 8-10 and Sebago Lake in Maine for
\nthe Eastern Regional on Sept. 11-13.
\nThe season will then culminate with the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship, which will be held on
\nSouth Carolina\u2019s Lake Hartwell at a date to be determined \u2014 most likely in October.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re excited to have a schedule that includes well-known bass-fishing havens like Lake
\nGuntersville, Lake Shasta and Lake Hartwell,\u201d said B.A.S.S. Nation Director Jon Stewart.
\n\u201cObviously, the tradition that B.A.S.S. has with those three lakes speaks for itself.
\n\u201cBut we\u2019re also really excited about holding a B.A.S.S. Nation Regional event at a great site like
\nSebago Lake. It\u2019s a place that we\u2019ve visited for smaller divisional tournaments before, but a
\nplace that maybe a lot of people aren\u2019t as familiar with as some of the others.\u201d
\nThe timing of the Guntersville event \u2014 right in heart of spring \u2014 should make for good weather
\nand excellent fishing on a 69,000-acre Tennessee River fishery that is known for producing giant
\nlargemouth. The tournament will feature a field of 190 boats with 418 anglers, including
\nalternates.
\nGuntersville has hosted 22 major B.A.S.S. tournaments, including the 1976 and 2014
\nBassmaster Classics and Bassmaster Megabucks events in 1990 and 1992.
\n\u201cAll you have to say is \u2018Guntersville,\u2019 and bass fishermen perk up,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cBass anglers
\nof all skill levels understand what an opportunity it is to fish a lake like Guntersville, especially
\nduring the spring.\u201d
\nThe Lake Shasta tournament, which will be held in Redding, Calif., will have a field of 110 boats
\nwith 242 anglers \u2014 and history says it could be a spotted bass slugfest.
\n\u201cWhen we were out there for the Nation Regional in 2017, anglers were saying you could pull
\nup to any place you wanted to, throw any bait you wanted to throw and expect to catch fish,\u201d
\nStewart said. \u201cWe had some incredible fish weighed in, mostly big spots. We hit it just right \u2014
\nand hopefully we will again.\u201d
\nThe final regional of the year, on Sebago Lake, will feature 180 boats with 396 anglers leaving
\nfrom Point Sebago, Maine. The 30,000-acre fishery, which is the state\u2019s second-deepest lake at<\/p>\n
316 feet, has excellent populations of largemouth and smallmouth bass as well as landlocked
\nsalmon and lake trout.
\nUnlike 2018, when the site of the Nation Championship was announced well after the regional
\nlineup, Lake Hartwell has already been identified as the site of the 2019 year-end event. The
\n56,000-acre fishery on the Georgia\/South Carolina border has hosted three Bassmaster Classics,
\nincluding the 2018 event that drew a record total attendance of 143,323.
\nThe event will be hosted by Visit Anderson.
\n\u201cOur team at Anderson county could not be more excited about hosting the 2019 B.A.S.S.
\nNation Championship again at Green Pond Landing and Lake Hartwell,\u201d said Neil Paul, executive
\ndirector of Visit Anderson. \u201cOur community enjoys a tremendous amount of success whenever
\nwe\u2019re hosting the great folks at B.A.S.S. We owe a great deal of credit to B.A.S.S. for their part
\nin helping to make Lake Hartwell a championship fishery and Green Pond Landing one of the
\ntop facilities in the nation.
\n\u201cWe look forward to welcoming the anglers, their families and the entire B.A.S.S. Nation in
\n2019.\u201d
\nThe Top 3 finishers from the 2019 Nation Championship will earn a spot in the 2020 Classic, and
\nthe overall Championship winner will receive an invitation to fish the 2020 Bassmaster Elite
\nSeries.
\n\u201cWhen we refer to the B.A.S.S. Nation as a grassroots organization, we mean exactly that,\u201d said
\nB.A.S.S. CEO Bruce Akin. \u201cIt\u2019s an organization that gives anglers from all walks of life an
\nopportunity to fish at the highest level of professional bass fishing.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s what makes it truly special \u2014 and that\u2019s why it\u2019s still growing after 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
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