Saxton Long and his partner Braxton Johnson took the win in the Friday night tournament on Wheeler Lake this past weekend with a bag of 25 pounds! They also had big fish that weighted in at 6.09 pounds. Saxton told me they caught all their fish in about 45 minutes before dark on a homemade bait he made! They were fishing out of a small Bass Tracker boat and he told he they had to cramp the fish in the small live-well on the boat.
Saxton Long with the tournament lunker of 6.09 pounds
Dave sent me this photo yesterday after he and his fishing partner Tony Harvey won the Heartland Bass Tournament. Their combined weight which included three largemouth and two smallmouth bass that weighed in at 28.11 pounds. They also had a 7.83 pound largemouth for their win. Sorry for the quality of the photo, I did try to increase the quality. (April 20, 2013)
I got this today from Kenny Elkins from a recent bass tournament that he and his partner Blake Thomas. They fish with the University of North Alabama’s bass team. Looks like the bite was off with them catching only 9 pounds or so during the event.
I think from what I’ve been hearing lately that “The Alabama Rig” will be around for a long time in the future. Most of the local tournaments on the Tennessee River are being won on this amazing technique. When the water starts cooling down in the fall and reaches that magic range of 55* down to about 50* is the time to start throwing the “A-Rig“. When this happens the huge schools of BIG bass move out of the shallow water onto the long points and main lake structure and usually suspend for the rest of the winter period. Since this rig was designed to look like a school of fleeing bait fish the bass hone in on these small groups of bait fish and have a feeding fest!
If you have caught fish on the “A-Rig” especially bass over 4 to 5 pounds then you to have probably seen that these fish will sometimes have two and sometimes up to three hooks and swim-baits in their mouth when you get them to the boat. If you have ever seen a school of bait fish and seen bass chasing them you will sometimes see a smaller group of bait get separated from the big schools. These small groups usually never make it back to the big schools with out getting eaten. This is where “The Alabama Rig” shines!
In the spring when the water starts approaching the 55* – 60* range then the big bass move back to shallow water and start staging in the 10 to 12 feet structure getting ready to move shallow for the spawn. Once they move shallow then the “A-Rig” fishing is usually over for the year and it’s back to regular lures like spinner-baits, jigs, crank-baits etc.
Anyway back to the begging of this article, the local tournaments around North Alabama are all taking from 28 to 34 pounds for a five bass limit. the last few tournaments that i have heard about were as follows. A club tournament on Pickwick from a bass club from Collinwood, Tennessee to 32 pounds for the win. Then the next weekend it took almost 27 pounds for five smallmouth on Wilson Lake for a local “Fishers Of Men” tournament. The same day another tournament took four smallmouth and one largemouth pulled the scales down to almost 29 pounds. Then the next weekend again on Pickwick it took almost 30 pounds with the big fish at 11.08 pounds! This past weekend it too 34 pounds for the win on the south end of Pickwick with second and third place at over 30 pounds each. I also heard that a tournament on another Tennessee River impoundment was won with five bass weighing in at 44 pounds for a five fish limit!!!
Tight Lines……..
The Florence Falcon “High School” Fishing Club with host their 2nd annual “Fund Raiser Fishing Tournament”. This coming March 9, 2013.
**Guaranteed $1000.00 First Place**
Cash prizes for Big Largemouth and Big Smallmouth bass.
This will be a “Trailer Tournament Format” on “Wilson” or “Pickwick” Lakes only.
Entry Fee is $75.00 per boat. Tournament hours will be from 6:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. The weight site will be at Florence’s McFarland Harbor starting at 2:30 p.m. SHARP!
Registration forms can be picked up at Perkin’s Outdoors, Gray’s Tackle or at the front office at Florence High School. Registration will also be setup at Perkin’s Outdoors on Friday March 8th from 4:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. You can also register the morning of the tournament at either McFarland Park boat ramp or at Fleet Harbor on Wilson Lake.
Call or text Kevin Sledge at 256-762-3886 if you have any questions. You can also email ksledge@florencek12.org
Check out this five fish limit of smallmouth caught by Donnie Beck and Tony Harvey in last weekends “Heartland Anglers” tournament on North Alabama’s “Wilson Lake“. They pulled the scales down to 28.6 pounds.
Gerald and Robbie Olive took the win in the local “Fishers of Men” tournament this past weekend with a stringer of five smallmouth that pulled the scales down to a little over 26 pounds. The tournament was held on Wilson Lake in Alabama.
William Davis caught this 11.83 pounder working a ledge in the Waterloo, AL area on “The Alabama Rig”. The tournament out of JP Coleman State Park, Davis and Tim Cummings had a total of 29.48 pounds and first place in the tournament.
Check out this limit of bass caught this past weekend on “The “Big Doug” spinnerbait from a local tournament on Pickwick Lake. These five bass weighted in at 32 pounds! While everyone else was throwing the hottest lure around for cold water big bass (The Alabama Rig), Tony Morgan and his partner caught this limit and won the tournament they were fishing with the “Big Doug” spinnerbait.
I got a pleasant surprise this past week from Wes Higgins President of Rat-L-Trap. They want to reproduce one of my patterns into their line of Rat-L-Traps. the pattern will be named after me after the 2013 Rat-L-Trap tournament on Lake Guntersville was won on one of my custom painted traps.
