St. Jude Bass Classic will kick off the 44th annual event this weekend.

Fishing will be held Sunday, May 29 at Sardis Lake with weekend activities kicking off at the Batesville Civic Center Friday and Saturday, May 27 and 28.

Special Masters of Ceremony include Bill Dance, Mark Rose and Roger Stegall. 

A live auction will start at 3 p.m. Some of the auction items (open to the public) will be a penthouse condo in San Destin which sleeps 10 and a deep sea trip out of Destin on the “Twilight” for six. 

There will also be furniture, jewelry, a Honda generator, kid’s 4-wheeler, autographed footballs from Hugh Freeze/Ole Miss, Nick Saban/Alabama, fishing tackle, Redbirds tickets, Riverking tickets, restaurant gift cards and Stratton House B&B gift card. 

Live music will start at 1 p.m. Sunday at Sardis from “Crossing Dixie”.  There will be food from Moe’s and Humdinger’s. Weigh-in begins at 2 p.m.

On Saturday, check-in for the fishermen is 1-4 p.m. also at the civic center. 

Sunday at 5:30 a.m. is blast off for the tournament with all events at Engineers point on Sardis Lake. At 4:15 p.m., winners will be announced and the drawing  for the grand prize will be held.

There are guaranteed payouts for the $10,000 for the top three winners. Grand attendance prize is a fully rigged War Early 761 Renegade boat with 115 horsepower Yamaha Outboard courtesy of War Eagle Boats and Yamaha Marine.

For more information, contact Tracy Williams of Performance Marine, 662-487-0009 or tracydw08@wildblue.net.