Florence, AL. The American Bass Anglers Team Series National Championship brought two-person teams from across the country to compete over three days on famed Pickwick Lake, launching from McFarland Park in Florence, AL. Official practice days were April 11-14, followed by competition April 15-17. Teams targeted a mix of largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass on the renowned Tennessee River fishery known for stumps, bluffs, islands, creeks, canals, and dams. The event was won by two anglers, Scott Barnes & Steven Beard from Pennsylvania, with 44.91 pounds in three days of competition.
During Practice and the Tournament, Pickwick Lake was transitioning from winter to full/summer pool, which scattered the fish for spawn. The anglers found both pre- and post-spawn fish. While this kept overall weights down, it forced the anglers to adapt, find new patterns, and become better anglers. A recent shad spawn was also a key to some of the teams weighing in limits.
1st Place: Scott Barnes & Steven Beard (Schellsburg, PA / Manns Choice, PA)
Day 1: 13.31 lbs | Day 2: 14.21 lbs | Day 3: 17.39 lbs | 15 fish | Total: 44.91 lbs
“Scott and I enjoyed Pickwick Lake. Our practice was hit and miss. We settled in on two areas for the tournament days: one was in Bear Creek, where we were fishing stumps in 5-9 feet of water. We caught 2 5 plus lbers there in practice, and the other was around Kogers Island, where we targeted stumps in 8-12 feet of water. We knew there was a big population of fish in the 2 and a half to 3 and a half lb range there.
The first day of the tournament, we ran 40 miles to the Bear Creek spot. We caught a 13 lb limit on a 3/4 ounce jig and a drop shot, but we never caught any of the big ones we knew were in the area.
The second day, we made the run back to the same spot. We just knew we were gonna catch a couple of big ones in there. We fished the spot till noon and never had a bite, so off to Kogers Island we went. We got there, and they were biting. We caught a little over 14 lb in 2 hours to salvage the day.
On the final day, we knew to go back to Kogers Island and fish it all day. We got there first thing in the morning, and they were biting. We had a 15 lb limit before 8 in the morning, all on a drop shot. Fished there just making circles, throwing at any stump we could find all day, and managed to cull up to a little over 17 lb, just enough for the win. Thanks for having us.”
2nd Place: Brian Metcalf & Michael Roush (Pensacola, FL / Huntsville, AL)
Day 1: 12.07 lbs | Day 2: 19.57 lbs | Day 3: 12.71 lbs | 15 fish | Big bass 5.65 lbs | Total: 44.35 lbs
3rd Place: Jim Boyle & Troy Woodham (Camp Hill, AL / Prattville, AL)
Day 1: 12.34 lbs | Day 2: 13.13 lbs | Day 3: 16.82 lbs | 15 fish | Day 3 big bass 4.78 lbs | Total: 42.29 lbs
4th Place & Team of the Year: David Sneed & Clinton Carter (Clanton, AL / Alabaster, AL)
Day 1: 13.49 lbs | Day 2: 10.61 lbs | Day 3: 15.64 lbs | 14 fish | Total: 39.74 lbs
Team Of the Year!
Not only did David and Clinton finish 4th in the Championship, but they were also the highest-finishing TOY Team from Division 4, located in Central AL.
Practice Monday: “We started around the 7-mile island area, but unfortunately arrived too late to see a shad spawn activity, thanks to a forgotten cell phone that resulted in an unexpected extra hour of travel time that morning.
We spent most of Monday just familiarizing ourselves with the area. We found some offshore fish, but they weren’t cooperating. We hit a few islands without any luck either. Finally, we checked out some bluff walls and had some success with a 3” grub on an underspin and umbrella rig over brush and bigger rock piles at the base of the bluffs. Although we caught several fish, including a couple of nice smallmouth, we weren’t set on it.”
Practice Tuesday: “Since we had looked around and fished the 7-mile island area on Mon. we decided to fish around the McFarland Landing area up to the dam.
We started the day at the dam, throwing 3.3 and 3.8 Keitech Swing Impact FAT Swimbaits in blue chartreuse on 3/16 and 1/4 ounce homemade jigheads. We hooked up with a 4lb class smallmouth, but were catching drum and stripers on almost every cast, so we headed to the Horseshoe area to look around. There were several other boats already there, and we wondered how the pressure might play.
After leaving there, we checked out the barge tie-offs and the canal. We cranked these areas and tossed an umbrella rig around, picking up several solid bass, both smallmouth and largemouth, with a couple in the 3lb range. From there, we hit the bluffs up toward the dam, down to across from McFarland, where we caught a couple of bass as well.”
“Based on Mon and Tues practice, we felt our best bet would be to run the canal, dam, and bluff areas due to their close proximity to each other and the solid fish we had caught.”
Day 1 Wednesday: “We started the morning in the barge canal, cranking a Berkley Dredger 10.5 in blue chartreuse and tossing an Umbrella Rig with 1/4oz heads and 3.8 Keitech Swing Impact FAT Swimbaits in electric blue and chartreuse. The water was very clear, but there was a lot of bait, and we wanted something that stood out slightly different and showed well in low light. We had a limit in the first hour, but it was several small spots and a couple of keeper largemouth.
Around 9 a.m., we ran up to the dam and hit a seam perfectly with the 3.8 Keitechs. Three casts resulted in 3 upgrades in the form of two smallmouth and 1 largemouth. Unfortunately, as quickly as it started, it was done. Another hour of fishing and no more bass, just drum and stripers. We caught several more bass the remainder of the day, bumping around the three areas, but no additional upgrades. We ended up with 13.49#, which had us in second.”
Day 2 Thursday: “Our plan was to repeat Day 1 rotations, but by 10 am, we did not have a keeper in the boat, and things just seemed off. The canal was slam-packed with shad spawning, but the only thing we caught were drum and catfish. We ran to the dam, and it was stripe after stripe, but no bass. We made the decision to run back down to 7-mile island area to change it up because Plan A just was not working.
We ran down and found a couple of islands with partially submerged grass and brush that looked promising. We used both white and bream-colored swim-jigs in 1/4 oz, with Rapala Crush City CleanUp Craw as a trailer, to probe the areas and cover water quickly. We ended up boating only 4 keepers to weigh in; unfortunately, we had two others come unpinned on the way to the boat. One was in the 5lb range, and the other was in the 3lb range. We ended up with 4 for 10.61#, dropping us from 2nd to 8th.”
Day 3 Friday: “We started with one plan in mind, leave it all on the field, or in this case, in the lake. We had one rod each on the deck, both with a 1/4 ounce white swim jig. We ran to the island area first, and upon arrival, we thought we hit gold. There was a major shad spawn going on. Unfortunately, we only had gar biting. After the first hour, we decided to go check the back of several pockets and creeks that we had seen in practice, or felt may have similar semi-submerged vegetation from 7-mile island to Waterloo.
The first stop, we picked up a couple of 3lb class largemouth, and a couple of stops later, we had our 3rd keeper. By noon, we had our 4th keeper in the well, but number 5 was still eluding us. Around 1 pm, although we had caught several more bass, we were still at 4 keepers. We decided to hit the island again since it had produced later in the day on Day 2. Shortly after arriving, we had number 5, but it was so close to 15” that if it gilled, it might measure short. Another trip around the island with the swim-jigs, and we were able to cull him out with a better quality largemouth with about an hour to spare. We continued to fish the area until time to make the run to McFarland for weigh-in, but could not entice any additional upgrades.
We finished Day 3 with 15.64#, but were not certain where that would place us. In the end, we jumped from 8th back up to finish in 4th and to receive the honor of being named Team of the Year.”
5th Place: Scott Smith & Jerry Wood (Both from Crossville, TN)
Day 1: 11.63 lbs | Day 2: 13.50 lbs | Day 3: 13.18 lbs | 15 fish | Total: 38.31 lbs
“We recently competed in a three-day event on Pickwick Lake and were fortunate to finish in 5th place with consistent weights each day. The tournament turned into a great learning experience and required adapting to changing fish positioning throughout the event.
During practice, we initially located a few keeper fish on a north bank near the dam spillway. However, once the tournament began, that pattern did not produce, and we were forced to adjust quickly. We shifted to the mouth of a creek channel and discovered a concentration of fish within the first half of the creek on both the east and west banks.
Our primary pattern throughout the event involved positioning the boat in 10–12 feet of water and casting toward the bank. The fish were set up in a transition zone, and a finesse approach proved to be the most effective. We relied heavily on a Texas rigged finesse worm, which allowed us to maintain a slow, natural presentation that the fish responded to consistently.
Over the course of the tournament, this pattern produced a steady mix of keeper spotted bass and smallmouth. By Day 2, we were able to refine the pattern further and focused primarily on smallmouth, finishing the day with 13.5 pounds, anchored by a 4.06-pound fish.
On the final day, we started in the same area but struggled early, catching only one keeper spotted bass. Late in the morning, we caught a quality smallmouth on a slightly larger profile stick worm in about 8 feet of water, which gave us confidence to expand our search. That decision proved critical. As we moved further down the bank into new water, we began catching largemouth bass in the 2.5 to 3-pound range. This adjustment revealed a secondary pattern that had been overlooked earlier in the tournament. We also hooked a largemouth we estimated in the 6–7 pound range, but unfortunately lost it during the fight.
Looking back, the tournament became a balance between a consistent smallmouth pattern that allowed us to secure limits each day and a late-developing largemouth pattern that showed the true winning potential of the area. We were very satisfied with our 5th place finish and the adjustments we made throughout the event.”
6th Place: Eric Silverstrim & Tommy Spainhoward (Indian Mound, TN / Woodlawn, TN)
Day 1: 16.35 lbs (Day 1 leader, big bass 4.85 lbs) | Day 2: 15.15 lbs | Day 3: 5.29 lbs | 12 fish | Total: 36.79 lbs
7th Place: Michael Fry & Rodney Swope (Gallitzin, PA / Harrisonville, PA)
Day 1: 10.61 lbs | Day 2: 12.37 lbs | Day 3: 12.68 lbs | 14 fish | Total: 35.66 lbs
8th Place: Al Cleghorn & Josh Guy (Fitzgerald, AL / Ocilla, GA)
Day 1: 9.73 lbs | Day 2: 16.29 lbs | Day 3: 7.22 lbs
12 fish | Tournament big bass 6.91 lbs (Day 2) | Total: 33.24 lbs
9th Place: Justin Whitaker & Bryson Bryhan (Sevierville, TN / Sevierville , TN)
Day 1: 10.89 lbs | Day 2: 14.30 lbs | Day 3: 6.25 lbs
12 fish | Tournament big bass 6.91 lbs (Day 2) | Total: 31.44 lbs
10th Place: Rick Southerland & Stephanie Nemkovich (Leesburg, FL / Lake Panasoffkee, FL)
Day 1: 8.70 lbs | Day 2: 10.20 lbs | Day 3: 8.12 lbs
14 fish | Total: 27.02 lbs
“We knew the fishing was going to be different from Florida, and boy, was it. We literally started practicing by the Wilson Dam and worked our way to the Pickwick Dam. All we caught at Wilson Dam were stripers. We tried the bluffs and caught rock bass.
We hit a cool little creek called little black bear creek and found a couple of largemouths. Then we went to Eastport, which was great!!! We found the largemouth using top water and worms at the residential boat docks. But for the absolute best fishing, the Pickwick Dam had numbers. From top water by the rocks to spinner baits, Pickwick Dam was loaded with fish. We really enjoyed this fishery and experience. Thank you, ABA.”
There are always a few special surprises when you fish a fishery as diverse as Pickwick Lake. For example, Deacon Collins tried to set the new Alabama line class record on a Blue Catfish just below Wilson Dam. This big blue cat was caught on 10-pound test line after a 40-minute fight. It appears Deacon won the battle!
Special thanks to the Florence-Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, Florence Parks and Recreation, the City of Florence, and Lauderdale County for hosting the event on Pickwick Lake. McFarland Park, a scenic venue nestled along the Tennessee River near downtown Florence with public boat ramps and recreation facilities, served as the launch and weigh-in site. Pickwick Lake is a top national bass fishing destination, renowned for its strong smallmouth, largemouth, and spotted bass populations, ledges, stumps, and consistent tournament-quality fishing, and a community with amazing southern hospitality. Anglers from other states, including GA, PA, VA, TN, TX, and South Florida, traveled long distances and reported very positive experiences in Florence. American Bass Anglers looks forward to the American Fishing Tour Championship in Florence in October.
If you haven’t visited Florence and Pickwick Lake, this summer is an ideal time to explore before the National Championship in October. Pickwick Lake ranks as a top national bass fishing destination, famous for its excellent smallmouth, largemouth, and spotted bass fishing. Families can enjoy boating, swimming, picnicking, nature trails, and park activities at McFarland Park.
There is plenty to see and do for the entire family, making it a perfect summer vacation spot. Check https://www.visitflorenceal.com/where-to-stay/ for lodging options. Please stay on the north side of the river in the City of Florence or within Lauderdale County, as they support the Championship events.
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About American Bass Anglers
American Bass Anglers, committed to providing low-cost, close-to-home tournaments, offers an exciting platform for individual angler progression. With the support of industry-leading companies, ABA continues to advance the sport of bass fishing.
For more information about the American Fishing Tour and other series, visit www.americanbassanglers.com or call (256) 232-0406.
About American Bass Anglers: American Bass Anglers is dedicated to organizing affordable, local tournaments for weekend anglers while offering opportunities for individual angler advancement. To learn more about American Bass Anglers, please visit www.americanbassanglers.com or call (256) 232-0406.
