DAYTON, Tenn. — Bass fishing fans are accustomed to seeing great competition when anglers head to the scales in each Bassmaster event.
Now, those same fans can get in on some friendly competition of their own, with the B.A.S.S. Nation Clean-Up Challenge.
B.A.S.S. plans to host clean-up efforts at many of its tournament stops during the 2020 season, said B.A.S.S. Conservation Director Gene Gilliland. Conservation efforts are a cornerstone of the B.A.S.S. tradition, and leading efforts to collect litter can have a sizable impact on the waterways the organization and its fans frequent.
“B.A.S.S. was founded on three things: tournament fishing competition, youth participation and conservation,” Gilliland said. “Ray Scott used to always talk about the three-legged stool. This is one of the legs, and it doesn’t get talked about a lot.
“So one of the things we’re trying to do is let people know we care about these resources and we want to preserve them. We also want to get kids involved in the process so they learn at an early age to take care of the environment.”
That effort was on display Saturday prior to the start of the final weigh-in of the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship presented by Bass Pro. Approximately 40 volunteers, including Tennessee B.A.S.S. Nation members and their families, Tennessee Valley Authority staff and more spent several hours collecting trash from the shores of Lake Chickamauga, including bank-fishing accesses and launches.
Several boats were on loan from Nation members and the TVA, which gave volunteers access to some harder-to-reach areas. After three hours of cleaning throughout the area, two boats of trash were filled to the gunwales with bags of litter. Another small pile of litter, including several tires and a giant piece of Styrofoam, was mounded temporarily in front of the Bassmaster weigh-in stage.
Participants gathered on the stage for a photo when the clean-up was complete, proud of the effort they gave to spruce up Chickamauga and its scenic shorelines. Gilliland remarked that the Rhea County (Tenn.) Government already does a good job of making sure the area is litter free, and that other clean-up events have gathered more trash with fewer volunteers.
The clean-up in Dayton was organized in response to a similar event held during a recent Bassmaster tournament on Lake Guntersville, which is farther down the same TVA chain of lakes. Gilliland said a group of volunteers from that area collected a couple thousand pounds of trash one morning, and a short video of the work was posted on Bassmaster.com.
Tennessee B.A.S.S. Nation Conservation Director Jake Davis saw the clip and posted his response online.
“Challenge accepted!” Davis wrote, which was a clarion call to the Tennessee Nation to organize and top the effort made by their peers in Alabama.
The clean-up group in Dayton consisted of a few adults, but most in the group were teenagers or younger. Gilliland said that’s not an uncommon thing.
“The younger generation is concerned about the environment,” Gilliland said. “They want to know what’s going to be here for them in 20 or 30 years.
“We want the B.A.S.S. Nation Clean-Up Challenge to be part of that, to inspire people to conserve these resources.
“The idea is ‘Look what we did last week. Can you do better?’”
