By Jason Duran
The first stop for the Alabama Bass Trail 100 was held at Logan Martin Lake and Lincoln’s Landing facing tough weather conditions. One hundred of the best teams in bass fishing were all competing for the first-place prize of $25,000 and a total payout of over $100,000 in this event.
Teams faced some of the toughest weather conditions. At take off the air temp was 14° and the water temp was 39°. The event was moved from Saturday to Sunday to allow for warmer conditions. Anglers who rose to the occasion and didn’t let the weather distract them were the teams that found success in this event. The team of Jed Lamb and Andrew Loberg made a long, cold run to catch 17.52 pounds to win $25,000 plus bonuses and become a new ABT 100 Winner.
The team of Jed Lamb and Andrew Loberg
To win this event the team of Lamb and Loberg used a little history they learned growing up fishing and matched it up with a fresh perspective on the lake. The team shared it was “Andrew’s first time to the lake.” They spent time in practice just fishing all over the lake. Andrew said, “Growing up fishing river systems helped me break down the lake. The fish in river systems want to get out of the main current and get in eddies or off the main lake.” With that knowledge, they knew they needed to spend time in practice looking for those kinds of areas.
With the rain from earlier in the week the team also shared they knew a key “would be finding cleaner water to get fish to bite.” They were able to locate an area down the lake that met all their criteria. They put together a pattern they felt would be productive. On tournament morning they made the long cold run down the lake with the hope of finding the fish active. They shared, “The cleaner water was able to make these fish bite. There are fish all over the lake; these fish were just ready to bite because of the cleaner water.”
They caught their fish on two baits: a Lucky Craft Stacysee 90 in a few colors and a 3/8 oz, Buckeye Lures G-Man Balling Out jig, brown with a little orange and a Zoom Chunk. They used a team pattern where Andrew used Garmin Live Scope at the front of the boat and targeted those fish with the jerkbait. They said, “The fish really wanted to be right on the bottom and the jerkbait makes them want to bite.” Jed fished from the back of the boat and slowly dragged the jig around to target the less active fish.
Preparing for the cold was important and eventually just blocking it out was key. To prepare for the cold they bought two big boxes of hand warmers and a can of non-stick cooking spray to keep their rod guides from freezing. With the 17.52 pounds, they collected a $25,000 ABT 100 Check and an $8,000 Phoenix Boats Bonus.
The second-place team of Zeke Gossett and Ethan King.
The second-place team of Zeke Gossett and Ethan King were a team to watch in this event. They both have been very successful fishing Logan Martin Lake, and Zeke grew up fishing here. They shared, “We have talked about this tournament for months. We really didn’t want to get the “home lake curse.”
With the day off on Saturday, nobody knew what the water temps were going to be on Sunday. Gossett and King said, “Nobody knew what to expect going out today. We started out this morning running some history. We pulled up on one spot that we normally catch fish off of this time of year. They were there and they were good ones. We had 13 pounds and we felt we were ahead of our plan. So, we decided to make the run down the lake and try another area. That is where we caught a 5-pound fish on a jerkbait and that was the only fish we caught down there.
“We don’t see these kinds of conditions here very often.” Zeke said, “I was in high school the last time we had water temps this low and I remember fishing some tournaments then and it was a grind and only 9 pounds won tournaments back then. We were glad to have the weight. We had our plan come together and we are not sad at all. We used a Strike King 300 deep jerkbait in bone color all day long.” They caught 16.74 pounds for second place. With their second-place finish, they collected a $12,500 check, a $300 Garmin bonus, and a $1,000 AmFirst bonus for a total of $13,800 in winnings.
The third-place team of James Swindle and Paul Earnest.
The third-place team of James Swindle and Paul Earnest caught 16.07 pounds. Practice for them was two days of cold and they didn’t catch many fish. They said, “We got lucky and just pulled up on the right two spots at the right time and caught them. We fished slow and bared down on areas we fished in the past. We made a long run south and fished in 5-10 feet of water and focused on fishing current breaks using a square bill and a shaky head. We caught 7 fish all day and it was 10:30 when we caught our first fish. We have fished the ABT Series a couple of years and our highest was 7th. We gave the 100s a shot this year. We haven’t been on this lake in quite a few years. Today for us we just capitalized on everything we got and ended up working out.” With their third-place finish, they collected $10,000.
For a complete list of standings please visit:
https://www.alabamabasstrail100.org/logan-martin-lake-results/
