U.S.A. Bassin Bass Cat Classic Winners / Cheatham and Mckinney
May 03, 2021
Cheatham and Mckinney with a new Bass Cat Caracal!
The Bass Cat Classic was held on Chickamauga Lake out of the Dayton Boat Ramp and featured a grand prize of a brand new Bass Cat Caracal and 225hp Mercury Pro XS. Taking the top prize was the team of Rick Cheatham and Trey Mckinney with a two-day weight of 40.81lbs.
They feel especially fortunate to win the event after boat troubles greatly shortened their first day of fishing. Even with less fishing time, they managed a 17.92lb bag and ended the first day in 5th place.
"We had some problems with our trim this week and didn't start fishing until 10:00 on the first day," the team said. "We got it working fine the second day and had the whole day to fish."
During the second day, they brought in a day's best 22.89lbs including a 9.20 lunker caught by McKinney to win the event.
Had a wonderful time fishing the USAbassin Bass Cat Championship ended up 1st with a little over 40lbs for two days with a 9.20 kicker and blessed to take my first ever boat home and a huge thanks to all my sponsors and all the people behind me - Trey
"We are really fortunate with the win and have to thank the Lord for how it all worked out for us," said McKinney. "That was my new personal best bass and usually that's something you catch in practice, not in a tournament."
Relying on a junk fishing pattern, the duo caught fish on a variety of different baits. They used their experience fishing events in the days leading up to the event, including the Lucas Oil Tournament of Champions, to dial in the right areas.
"We had a lot of things going on," they reported. "We had some fish on docks, some offshore and some on the river channel. We caught fish on all of those places."
Their selection of baits was also extensive and they listed frogs, a Strike King Sexy Dawg topwater, a NetBait Dagger creature bait, squarebill crankbaits and a jig with a NetBait Paca Slim as a trailer as producing fish for them. All of the baits were fished on Seaguar line.
"It was a massive junk fishing event for us," they added.
Top 5 Results
Rick Cheatham / Trey Mckinney 10/40.81
Tristan Wagler / Stan Kemp 10/37.02 7
Todd Wilson / Ted Grigsby 10/33.15
Kevin Meunier / Kenny Heckel 9/32.31
Larry Hornung / Steve Harvey 10/32.16