John and JT Denton Take 1st Place on Kerr Lake
April 8, 2024
CHOWAN RIVER
MAY 25
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The Eastern NC Bass Challenge is returning in 2024 as the biggest bass tournament trail in Eastern North Carolina. Our tournament trail has grown tremendously over the last 10 years and we’re very excited about continuing our tradition in 2024.
Our 2024 tournament features our classic tournament locations along with a new river we’ve never visited before. We begin our season on Saturday, March 16 on the Roanoke River and will end our year in August with our $5,000 2-Day Championship!
March 16 (Saturday) – Roanoke River
April 7 (Sunday) – Kerr Lake (Flemington Boat Ramp)
April 28 (Sunday) – Neuse River
May 25 (Saturday) – Perquimans River
June 30 (Sunday) – Chowan River **
July 13 (Saturday) – Roanoke River
August 17-18 ($5k Championship) – Chowan River
We’ve based our schedule on the feedback we received during our 2024 angler survey. Historically the Bass Challenge has focused on river systems in the east and we will continue to do that in 2024 along with visiting 1 lake. The tournament we’re most excited about in 2024 is the Perquimans River. This will be our 1st time visiting this location but is widely known by anglers to be one of the best fisheries in the east.
* Due to new policies put in place by the NC Wildlife Commission we have not received permits for all locations. They have a new 90 policy in which requests must be made within 90 days of the tournament.
** Tournament note – The Collins Bass for Cash will be visiting the Chowan River on Saturday, June 29.
Our entry fees for our regular-season tournaments will remain the same in 2024. $100 per tournament seems to be a good balance between entry fee cost and payouts. We will continue to have a $5 fee added to each entry fee that will go directly into our Championship fund. We’ve estimated that this $5 fee will add an extra $2,000 to our Championship fund. All of those funds will be paid out to our anglers.
Our Championship Entry fee will increase from $100 to $130. This small increase along with our $5 Championship Fund fee will help us ensure a $5,000 1st Place Championship Payout!
Our membership fee will remain the same in 2024 at $25 per angler. However, we are adding new stipulations in 2024 that will allow us to waive this fee to the following individuals:
Women
Children age 17 and younger
Men age 60 or older
This membership fee helps us pay for all the administrative costs associated with our tournament trail.
1st Place Payout – Last year we guaranteed a $2,000 1st place prize for every event. We are guaranteeing the same in 2024! With a minimum of 60 boats competing in an event, we are promising a $2,000 1st-place prize. That’s 20 times greater than the entry fee!
3 Tournament Big Fish Prizes (Yes 3!)
Returning this year is our Greenville Toyota $400 Tournament Big Fish prize. Greenville Toyota has been a sponsor of this award for the past 6 years and we’re excited to continue the tradition of having them sponsor our tournament Big Fish Award. This award will go directly to the team that weighs in the biggest bass at each event.
New in 2024, we will now be offering a second big fish prize. We’re always looking for ways to reward our anglers as much as possible and for years we’ve wanted to reward 2 big fish prizes to our anglers. Thanks to our brand new sponsor Derek’s Boxes, we will now offer the team that weighs in the 2nd biggest fish of the tournament a $100 cash prize. This reward is coming directly from Derek’s Boxes!
Dereks Boxes offers custom-built, all-welded aluminum dog boxes along with custom welding services for basically anything you can imagine. Located in Oak City, NC, Dereks Boxes is owned by Derek Whittemore who is an avid fisherman and hunter. In addition to this additional big fish prize, we will provide our anglers with a coupon to provide you with a significant discount for purchasing a dog box from Derek’s Boxes. These coupons will be available in person at our events. You can view the Dereks Boxes Facebook page for additional information.
Also new in 2024 is our 3rd place big fish prize! Again, we want to reward you as much as possible! So the angler who weighs in the 3rd biggest bass of the tournament will be rewarded with a tee shirt from Striker Apparel. Striker is an apparel company in based in Hudson, Wisconsin that makes some of the best fishing apparel in the industry.
In addition to this big fish award, every angler who competes in an NC Bass Challenge tournament will be given a discount code that will provide them with a 25% discount on any purchase at strikerbrands.com! This code will be printed on your boat check-in slip you receive on tournament morning.
These big fish prizes can be stacked. Meaning if you weigh in the top 2 biggest bass at an event you’ll win the 1st place prize and 2nd place prize. If you weigh in the 3 biggest bass of the event you’ll be rewarded with all 3 prizes!
The West’s Automotive Machine Shop has partnered with the NC Bass Challenge in 2024 to provide the 1st team outside of the money line a $50 cash prize. We began this partnership last year at our Championship tournament and it’s just another way for us to reward our anglers as much as possible. This reward will be $50 at our standard tournaments and $100 at our Championship! The West’s Automotive Machine Shop is owned by Zeb West who has been a dedicated angler of the NC Bass Challenge since we started 10 years ago! If you see Zeb at our tournaments tell him Thanks for supporting our trail and the anglers who fish it!
Sample Regular Tournament Payouts – We will be rewarding 1 in every 6 teams competing in our events with cash prizes. This is unchanged from last year. Below is a sample payout based on 60 boats.
1st Place: $2,000 + 2 Commemorative Trophies
2nd Place: $1,150
3rd Place: $750
4th Place: $450
5th Place: $275
6th Place: $200
7th Place: $175
8th Place: $150
9th Place: $140
10th Place: $125
West’s Automotive First Team Out Prize: $50
Greenville Toyota Big Fish: $400
Derek’s Boxes 2nd Big Fish: $100
Striker Apparel 3rd Big Fish: 1 Striker Tee Shirt
Our Super 6 points championship will return in 2024. We started this option in 2022 and it has grown each year. Once again we will be paying out cash prizes to the top 6 teams competing in our Super 6 Points Championship. Below are the guaranteed payouts for our top 6 teams competing in our Super 6:
1st Place: $1,500 + 2 commemorative trophies + Boat #1 in Championship
2nd Place: $1,000 + Boat #2 in Championship
3rd Place: $800 + Boat #3 in Championship
4th Place: $600 + Boat #4 in Championship
5th Place:$500 + Boat #5 in Championship
6th Place: $300 + Boat #6 in Championship
Our Super 6 Points Championship is sponsored by EL Jones Development. EL Jones Development has been a partner with the Bass Challenge for 6 years. Their support for our anglers is greatly appreciated. Without them, there is no way we could reward our anglers this much. EL Jones Development is owned by Lee Jones who is a regular participant in the NC Bass Challenge. If you see Lee at one of our events please tell him thank you. His support of the NC Bass Challenge and it’s anglers is very much appreciated.
There is a one-time $50 fee to participate in our Super 6 Points Championship. That fee must be paid by the 2nd tournament of the 2024 season.
We will once again be having a 2 Day Championship to conclude our season. Anglers must fish 3 of our regular season events to be eligible for this event. Our Championship will be on the Chowan River in Edenton, NC, and feature a $5,000 1st place prize! We’re able to pay out this reward by having a small increase in our Championship entry fee ($130) and by the $5 Championship Fund fee at each event. Our payout structure does change for our Championship. We will be paying out 1 place for every 10 boats that compete in the event. Our 2 day Championship will also feature additional prizes including a $1,000 big fish prize and a $1,000 Day 2 Big Sack prize. Please continue reading to find out more about these awards.
Please note: the $5,000 1st place payout is contingent on a minimum of 60 teams competing in the event.
Each year we continue to honor Kolby Jones who tragically passed away in 2022. In 2022, we began honoring Kolby at our Championship event with the Kolby Jones $1,000 Big Bass prize. That tradition will continue in 2024. In 2023, we also offered the Kolby Jones Day 2 Big Bag prize of another $1,000! Both of these rewards will be brought back in 2024.
The biggest trophy we will present all year will be the Kolby Jones Championship Big Bass Prize. That is a tradition that we will continue in 2024 and beyond! The $2,000 in rewards are funds donated directly by the Kolby Jones Scholarship Fund. This money goes directly to our anglers as our way of commemorating and remembering the life of Kolby Jones.
If you would like to donate to the Kolby Jones Scholarship Fund please contact us.
Based on the feedback we received in our 2024 angler survey, we will be implementing a strict off-limits period for our Championship Tournament. No angler shall be on tournament waters from Monday, August 11 at 12:01 am until Friday morning August 16 at 12:01 am. Anglers may only practice on Friday, August 16. Anglers who do not abide by this new rule change will be disqualified. This off-limits will only be implemented for our Championship tournament. Our standard tournaments will not have an off-limits period.
Anglers will be able to purchase the “All In” option on February 1, 2024 at 8:00 pm. Single-event tournament entries will be eligible for purchase the next morning, February 2 at 9:00 am.
Anglers will be able to pay all entry fees online with a credit/debit card or PayPal. For anglers who do not wish to make payments online, you may call Jeffrey Davis at 252.661.5454 to make payments over the phone. No entry fees will be accepted before February 1 at 8:00 pm. If you call and there is no answer, please leave a voicemail or send a text message and I will call you back immediately.
Anglers will also be able to pay at the ramp on the morning of each event. We encourage you to pay online to make things a little easier for you and our staff on tournament morning. But we’ll gladly accept cash payments in person. We will also accept Cash App and Venmo in person as well.
The All In option allows anglers to pay for all events upfront and get a guaranteed boat number for the entire season. Anglers will be able to Go All In in 2024 with a 50% deposit option as well. You may pay half of the All In fee initially and pay the balance due March 10, 2023. After March 10, the All In option will no longer be available for purchase.
The All In option pays for everything you need for the entire season to be eligible for all of our tournaments and prizes we offer. It also makes things easier for you as you never have to worry about making tournament entry fee payments for the remainder of the season.
Our White River Marine contingency prizes return in 2024! These include Nitro Tournament Rewards, Triton Gold, and Ranger Cup! This allows anglers to win additional prize money for winning one of our events. Last year we had multiple anglers win these rewards and their total tournament payout was well over $10,000!
We’re able to provide these reward programs to our anglers thanks to our continued partnership with the Collins, Inc boat dealership. For anglers looking to purchase a new Ranger, Triton, or Nitro boat and become eligible for these reward programs we recommend you contact the fine folks at Collins Boating today. Visit collinsboating.com.
To obtain information about these great programs please visit the following links:
Ranger Cup
Triton Gold
Nitro Tournament Rewards
Interested in being a part of the Eastern NC Bass Challenge? We’re always looking for new companies and organizations to partner with. Your support goes directly to our anglers. For sponsorship opportunities please contact us.
