‘Most prestige’ fishing tournament returns, makes big impact

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The Mr. Clark Hill Fishing Tournament returned this year with over 180 participants.

For local businesses like Hadden Outdoors, it’s a way to generate more business. They saw an increase in sales by 100%.

People were buying things ranging from clothing to drinks to a variety of fishing supplies.

“It’s exciting when you blast off with 189 boats, and the sun’s coming up all those big Mercury motors running. It’s unbelievable,” said Bobby Gaston, fisherman and tournament participant.

People come to Clarks Hill to experience just that.

“There’s probably people as far as from Savannah, and probably as far north as Athens and maybe around Greenville. This is kind of our Daytona 500 on Clarks Hill locally,” said DJ Hadden, Hadden Outdoors owner.

The tournament is put on by the Clark Hill Committee.

“It’s the biggest one we do. We do about eight tournaments a year, and this is by far the largest. We average from 180 to well over 200 boats,” said Robin Whisenant, local bass club president.

The more people that come to the tournament, the more sales.

“It has a huge impact on my store. It drives a lot of, you know, pollards and pair of jacks and all of us here locally between gas and selling tackle, selling ice, selling drinks,” said Hadden.

The sales have been happening all week.

“It’s such a big deal. They’ve been coming to my store all week. Monday it started you know, Tuesday picked up a little bit more, and then yesterday was really big. Everybody had to get the last-minute baits to get prepared for today,” he said.

Once people get out on the water, it’s go time.

“I caught about 15. You can weigh in five, so it worked out pretty good,” said Gaston.

And this tournament means more. The winner gets the title of ‘Mr. Clark’s Hill’ as well as either a personalized jacket or ring.

“This is what we want to win. It’s not the biggest pay in, but it’s the biggest, most prestige,” said Hadden.

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