Fire up the Evinrude and break out the rod-and-reels: another fishing tournament is on its way to the Demopolis City Landing.

This one will be held by the Gilbertown Bass Club next Saturday, June 18, and is sponsored by the Gilbertown Bass Club, Sumter Timber Company, and KNK Logging. Mike Thorn with the Gilbertown Bass Club says he’s expecting a solid turn-out with entrants from across the area.

“We’re hoping so,” he says. “We’ve got 13 or 14 entries now, and [Saturday’s] the deadline for pre-registration.

We’re hoping we’ll have 40 or 50 boats.”

Thorn added that while entrants are encouraged to make the pre-registration deadline, there won’t be any problems with competitors registering the morning of the tournament.

“We’ll be there by 3:30 or 4 Saturday morning,” he says, “and we’ll take registration up until ‘blast-off.'”

Blast-off will occur as soon as there’s enough daylight for safe driving, which Thorn estimated would be at approximately 5:30 a.m. the tournament will conclude at 3 p.m.

Thorn said that the Gilbertown Bass Club is excited about being able to host one of their three annual open tourneys in Demopolis.

“We wanted a different place than we’ve been having them.” He said. “We’ve had some club tournaments in Demopolis and found some good fishing, so we thought we’d hold an open tourney and see what kind of response we’d get.”

Thorn said the confluence of the city’s two rivers makes Demopolis Lake an ideal environment for bass fishing.

“It’s a good place to fish,” he said.

Weather problems are a concern with the rash of inclement weather

that has struck the area recently. Thorn said the tournament would proceed even in the case of all of the worst rain, but that if the tourney had been scheduled for Saturday–with tropical storm Arlene expected to reach the Demopolis area this morning–it likely would have been cancelled.

“We’re real happy about that, believe me,” thorn says, noting that dates for the tourneys are scheduled months in advance. “We tell everyone if we’re able to launch, we’ll have the tournament, rain or shine. But thank goodness we didn’t have it scheduled for this weekend.”

Entry fee for the tournament is $80.00 per boat, which includes the lunker pot ($5) and the launch fee. Payout is 70 percent of the entry fee and first-place will be $975 based on 50 boats participating. For more information call Mike Thorn at 251-843-2668 or Tim Windham at 251-246-0421.