By Jason Duran
The 2024 Alabama Bass Trail Championship was held on October 18-19 at Lay Lake. This highly anticipated event brought fierce competition from the best of the best in team fishing. Teams qualified for this no-entry-fee event with a guaranteed $50,000 first-place prize plus another $50,000 paid out though 25th place. The top 75 teams from the north and south divisions plus 5 college teams, 5 couple teams, 5 student teams, and the 10 winners from the divisional tournaments make up the 175 teams all converging on Lay Lake for the two-day shootout.
The event featured changing fishing conditions, with the cool October weather scattering the fish out and making locating fish tough for anglers. Each morning anglers were greeted with foggy conditions. Day two began with a 45-minute fog delay. This caused anglers looking for the early morning bite to possibly miss an opportunity to catch them up shallow early. Lay Lake provides an abundant population of spotted and largemouth bass. Teams used a mix of various strategies to target largemouth and spotted bass. Teams reported having to fish shallow and deep to put together a solid limit. Lots of teams said they just went “junk fishing” to locate and catch fish in the changing conditions. As the competition progressed, consistency would play a key role. The anglers that were able to make adjustments and catch fish consistently for two days ended up on top.
During the final day’s weigh-in, the tension in the air grew as the Phoenix Boat Hot Seats took center stage, occupied by Bret Harrel and Tyler Smart, the current leading team with 30.91 pounds. As the weigh-in progressed, each team brought their bags to the stage trying to surpass their weight and dethrone them from the hot seats. One by one, teams crossed the stage, but none were able to achieve a significant enough gain on the final day to claim control of the Phoenix Boats Hot Seats. The anticipation built as only two teams remained. The team of Nicholas Turner and Joe Lay were the day one leaders, and they were the last team to cross the stage. They needed only 13.51 pounds to win. When they dropped their catch on the scales it totaled 14.03, enough to take the lead and win the $50,000 as the 2024 Alabama Bass Trail Champions. It was a thrilling and unforgettable conclusion to an intense competition.
The Champs Nicholas Turner and Joe Lay are locals on the lake and beat the local lake curse to take home the win. They spent lots of time fishing their history on the lake. They described their style this weekend as “junk fishing”. They used a variety of baits, including soft plastics, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and trick worms, without any specific standout bait. “We really mixed it up.” The deck of their boat was covered with rods rigged for every opportunity. They spent lots of time just covering water. Lots of teams reported the fishing was tough and when asked why, Joe shared, “It just hasn’t got cold enough and the water temp is just not there. There are a few shallow fish; they just aren’t all there. There are a few fish offshore. Lots of fish are suspended currently floating around and scattered in between. This lake has lots of timber in it. The lake is up a little right now and you can not see the timber above the surface, and the only way to learn it is to just go fishing. The guys that do that will learn there are sweet spots in the timber and can be very productive. There are several of those places across the lake and you can only find them by taking the time to learn it.” They went out on day two as the tournament leaders after catching 17.40 on day one. They caught a couple fish early, but spent lots of time moving around trying to locate fish. The team shared, “We had a special small little area that we were able to get a key spot off every day. We had the plan to pull up the trolling motor at 3:30, and we caught the biggest fish and culled us up at the last minute.” They culled up to the winning weight of 31.43.
The Second Place Team of Bret Harrell and Tyler Smart are no strangers to the top of the leaderboard in the ABT Championship. They have fished the ABT Championship 4 times, and this is their 3rd top five. They have some heartbreaking finishes but have proven they are included in the best of the best in team fishing. The team shared, “We both have been working a lot and we came down the previous two Sundays and found some shallow grass that had some fish. We basically found a creek up here close and a couple of pockets on the lower end. The plan was to fish one day in each area. The cold front moved in this week and the water dropped 12 degrees, and the fish were still in the same places but seemed really lethargic. We just went junk fishing in those areas and we caught two or three solid fish in each area. The down-the-river area was a pocket in a creek with docks and grass mixed in. We primarily used a Spro Frog and Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver. The area was really close to deep water. We were sitting in 10 feet of water and casting up to 3 feet. The second area was a little shallower in the back of the creek. The area had a little bit of grass and rock. We went with these plans but every time we tried to build on the plan, it just wouldn’t pan out, and we had to try something else.” They ended day one in 15th place with 13.76 and sat in the hot seats for a long time. The team shared, “We hoped if we do lose, it is more than by a half of a pound because yesterday we lost a fish that would have given us that and maybe more.” They ended up with another top five finish in second place and collected a $10,000 payday.
The third-place team of Walker Brown and Sloan Pennington shared that practice for them “was not good.” Walker shared, “I grew up here and now live in North Alabama, but I still consider Lay Lake as my home lake. I thought the two days we spent practicing were going to be better. We practiced all the stuff we used to catch them on and both days we ended up not catching them. Normally this time of year, I would expect to throw a spook all day and you can catch 18 pounds plus a day.” The team shared, “On tournament day we abandoned the practice plan and just went fishing today. On day one, we didn’t fish a single thing we fished in practice and on day two, we didn’t fish a single thing from day one. We caught everything we weighed in on a Green Pumpkin on a Davis shaky head and flipped the grass with a Green Pumpkin NetBait B-Bug on a 1oz weight. Yesterday we lost a couple of fish that should have had us close to 18-pounds. We lost a 4-pounder at the boat and a 3.5 right at the net. Going out today, we were excited and planned on flipping all day long. We didn’t catch anything early so the fog delay didn’t hurt us. We felt we were in a position that if we did catch two of those that we lost yesterday, we would be in a good place and knocking on the door to win. Today we ended up catching only one of those but at the end of the day in the last 15 minutes, we culled with a 3-pound spot and another 2.5 spot.” Their total weight for two days was 30.21 pounds. With their third-place finish, they collected a $5,000 payday.
The event marked another successful chapter in Alabama Bass Trail history, solidifying Lay Lake’s reputation as a premier fishing destination. Visit the www.alabamabasstrail.or for more coverage and highlights from this unforgettable day on the Alabama Bass Trail!
The Top 8 places are below. For a complete list of standings, visit: https://www.alabamabasstrail.org/lay-lake/results/
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