Happy New year to you all. I hope the holiday season has treated everyone well. As hunting season is slowly starting to come to an end, fishing season is slowly starting to take off. 

With that said we have the new 2021 Schedule posted up. Please take a look and start marking your calendars. We will have a state wide digital copy to email out soon, so you can print or store on your phone/laptop etc. 

We will be hosting a wildcat on Jordan, for Jan 16th. Jordan fishes very well especially this time of year. Be sure to take advantage and knock the rust off before the season kicks off. 

Also, the ​Club Spotlight tab is up. If you have made the state team and would like your information posted please send me an email with the details. 

Finally, we did have a handful of prospects that fished with us at the last wildcat that we still need to get voted on. Trying to nail down a venue that will allow a meeting is still a bit unpredictable right now. We may attempt to do this via email so please keep an eye out for that. 

More to come soon! Derb Season is almost here!

First things first, a big congratulations to the B'ham Bass Club Angler of the year winners Jacob George and Shawn Price! As a club we was met with a lot of challenges this year, and through it all we showed up and showed out. Also a big shout out to this years TD Scott Holmes, President Josh Dees, and Membership Director Matthew Hebert, for making this year successful even under conditions this club has never seen before.  

Angler AOY:
Jacob George with 790 points, Scott Holmes finished just behind with 785 points in what was a tight battle all year. Great stuff guys. 
CO-Angler AOY:
The two time, the back to back, Shawn Price took home the top spot with 788 points. Keith Junkins made it an even closer race on the co-side, and proved to be a contender finishing second with 785 points. 

First year competitors Brian Jones brought home the bacon with Big Largemouth of the year weighing in at 6.23 lb's caught out of Pickwick, and Kent Glass solidified the big Spotted Bass of the year with a 4.3 lb stud caught on Lay Lake. Congratulations gents, I can't wait to see what you guys bring to the scales next year. 

As you all know, we are a federated club which allows all BBC members access to fish in the notorious Alabama Bass Nation trail. This year the club represented and produced four members on the state team, and two out of the three slots available to the team championship. Lee Byrd took the top spot winning the Angler of the Year. We had six members finish in the top twenty on the boater side, and four members on the co-angler side. We also had four teams place top ten overall at the championship. The State Team anglers will advance on to fish at the regional in April on Lake Hartwell located in Anderson, SC. The Teams Division advance to fish at Harris Chain Lakes in Leesburg, FL in Dec. All anglers are one step closer to fishing in the Bass Master Classic! Outstanding job this year guys, and we wish you all the best of luck at the next stage! 

State Team:
Lee Byrd (AOY)
Scott Holmes (1st at Neely Henry)
Jeff Greene (1st at Martin)
Charles Nowling (1st at Martin)
Team Championship anglers:
Scott Holmes and Travis Culbreth (2nd overall)
Bruce Sargent and Wallace Williams (3rd overall)

 
B'ham Bass Club Winter Wildcats:
We are in the process of finalizing a mini-winter trail. These are wildcats and will not count in any point standings for the 2021 season. Look for an email coming out shortly to register. Note dates are subject to change. These events will be open to bring friends and family, or any interested prospects to fish. Must have one BBC member per boat. 
Lay Lake - Nov 21st 
Neely Henry - Dec 19th
Cooter's Pond - Jan 9th 

​Finally we will be hosting our year end meeting on Thursday Dec 3rd at On Tap Sports Café located 1600 Main St, Fultondale. Meeting will begin at 6PM. Reminder that 2021 membership fees are now due, so please bring them with you. If you are not able to attend, please send them to Bruce by check, cash, or PayPal.  

You know, there was a saying in the Marine Corps the Old Timers used when ever us young bucks started getting frogy. 'Son there is a reason I am still alive'. Short, straight to the point, and I remember the feeling of awe and respect the first time I heard those words.

This week started out a lot like that. Fiery, passionate, young guns ready to fish our hearts out, while the cool calm seasoned old timers grinned with wisdom, walked very softly but carried the winning stick. 

Other than the lake dropping a clean foot if not more, Hurricane Laura proved to not have much of an effect on the big waters at Guntersville. The predicted heavy rains in the morning never showed up, and the winds really wasn't that bad. The sky's parted later on and by lunch time the Sun was out. Jeff Greene, and Kyron Jones took the boat total weight 14.52 lb's, and reported culling several times through out the day. These guys proved that you can catch nice G'ville bass with a spinning rod and a ned-rig, all the way up swimming a worm on a bait caster. Top water and many other baits also proved to be part of their days catch. 

Bill Kervaski and Sonny Burroughs brought in the biggest bass of the day weighing in at 5.55 lb's. Bill and Sonny put in some heavy work with a chatter-bait and it paid off in big dividends. Their biggest and final fish came in the last few minutes of the day, fishing a bridge in Spring Creek. Keeping their bait in the water to the very last minute to cap off a great day of fishing for these two well seasoned veterans and showing us why you never quit before its over. 

Thanks to those guys for sharing with me their days report. 

Congratulations to the Old man team! Great job to my fellow young team mates for working extremely hard pre-fishing, and communicating like a true team through out practice and game day. Very organized and full of competitors. 

Old man team - 59.96 lb's
Young man team - 41.78 lb's

Our next event is coming up on September the 12th between Logan Martin, or Mitchell Lake. Starting thinking about your votes, 

​​

• Location: Lake Guntersville - Tournament Director Matthew Hebert
  • Date: August 29th
  • Times: TBD
  • Launch: TBD
  • How Many Fish: 5 fish per boat
  • $60 a boat (with two people in it).  $30 Per Person
    • $40, So $20 goes towards each individual on the winning team.
    • $10 goes towards Big Fish
    • $10 goes towards individual boat weight
  • We will get everyone signed up for the tournament, and then we split it in half by date of birth.
  • We will assign a team captain, so.  Once I see who is in, Ill will assign a captain for each team. 
    • The team Captain will do the pairings for that team. 
      • I don't care if you have a boat, you might get paired as a no boater.   
    • Everyone will have a boat partner. 
  • Rules:
    • You will be able to talk on the phone. 
      • You can call your team during the tournament and get help from them if you need it or give them advice. 
      • Make sure you have everyone's number.
    • The same rules apply as a regular BBC tournament with these few exceptions.
    • What do Matthew needs from you? 
    • Are you fishing it?
    • Do you want to be a boater or non-boater?
    • Age? (we split the teams based off birth date)
    • We will start putting teams together on August 24th.  So please let Matthew  know if you are fishing before then. 

This is a fun tournament!  NO POINTS.

The results are in and, Lay Lake large mouth bass have officially decided to self quarantine. Most of them anyway...
Pops (David George) called it before the tournament. "You know the virus is affecting your business when you have to go fish to make some side change". That he did. David took first place on the boater side with 5 Spots coming across the scales at 13.8 lb's. Lee Byrd brought in 5 fish for 9.95 lb's for second place on what set up to be a weird day of fishing. Lee did his damage using  6'lb test and a slider head (I had to google it). New comer Kent Glass finished up 3rd on the angler side with 9.02 lb's and a Big Head that weighed 4.22 lb's proving that he can be consistent. With two events now in the books Kent is holding the number one spot in Boater-AOY with 194 points, with Charles Rosato in a close second at 192 points. Now if we can just get Kent to show up on time we may have something  ;) Jeff Corley took BF of the day with a 4.57 stud. 

On the CO-Angler side Shawn Price once again put the hammer down, by taking 1st place fishing out of the back of Sonny's boat with 5.68 lb's. Kyle Kimbrell took a very close 2nd place with 5.34 lb's, and Jeremy Carter finished 3rd with an even closer 5.3 lb's. The CO's AOY race is Shawn, Jeremy, and Kyle first, second, and third. 

In other news, I would like to extend a BBC welcome to Charles Nowling who was voted in yesterday at the scales. Welcome to the club Charles. ALSO we will not be meeting next week due to COVID19.

As you guys know, there is just a short 13 more days until out next tournament held on April 4th. This was originally designated as a 2 day event between either Eufaula or Pickwick. This will be a 1 day event now, if we are able to still host this event at all. Scott is monitoring things closely and will keep everyone posted on the matter, so stay tuned in. 

We had some new faces, and some familiar faces make their mark on BBC's first tournament of the year. Game day set up a little bit different from those that reported great practice days. However high pressure, stained water, and cool water temps didn't stop angler Scott Holmes (12.02), and co-angler Shawn Price (7.00) from taking that top spot on Saturday. 

Charles Rosato, and Will McRee took 2nd, and 3rd place on the boater side, while Jeremy Carter, and Lincoln Stewart did the same on the co-angler side. 

New comers Kent Glass, and Lincoln Stewart showed up with some no doubt studs at the weigh scales. Kent Glass took the big fish title with a 4.96 large mouth bass. Congrats guys! 

We will be hosting our next 1 day qualifier on March 21st. Voting will be between Lay Lake, and Neely Henry. Please do not forget, our format for this year will allow for 3 drops. 1 Day of fishing will count as 1 drop. So if you elect to skip a 2 day event, this will count as 2 drops against you. 

Y'all smell that? Derb season is officially upon us. We kick off the first points qualifier this weekend on Saturday, Feb 29th. Lake choice is going to either be Lake Mitchell, or Lake Martin. Most of you have already cast your votes for which lake (if you haven't already, email Scott asap).

You can also cast your vote at the meeting, which will be held at Hickory Tavern in Brookwood Mall on Thursday, Feb 27th. We will draw for boat paring while there, so if you plan to fish please try to attend. We STILL have a few OPEN seats on the no-boater side, so if you are a prospect or a member that would like to fish this event, please let someone know ASAP. 

Joey Hu$tleMoney has a literal ton of Brand Spanking new Molix baits he is bringing to sell at a deep deep discount. Jigs, Flipping weights, Spinner Baits etc. Also Bruce is bringing some Powell, and Hammer rods, so bring some green-backs with you to take advantage of these great deals.

See you guys there, 

It was extreme conditions for the BBC members fishing the first AL Nation qualifier on Lake Guntersville last Saturday. From golf ball sized snow falling, mixed in with sleet and rain, to dirty blown out water it made for some tough fishing across the board. 

However that didn't stop these guys from getting it done. Congratulations to Josh Dees (9th place), and Charles Rosato (11th place) from the front of the boat. From the back of the boat Kryon Jones (3rd place) and, Anthony Mills (14th place) got a great jump on the year in the points race. 

The next stop on the Al Bass Nation Trail will be at Eufaula on March 14th. 

Don't forget, our next club meeting will be on Feb 27th at Hickory Tavern 5:30-9:30. See you there!

Photo credit: Greg McCain

Birmingham Bass Clubs Bruce Sargent, and President Josh Dees have been down in Okeechobee, FL practicing for the 2020 TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Southeastern Regional tournament on Lake Okeechobee.

Day one of the event kicks off tomorrow on Jan 29th, and will end on Jan 31st. The winners will advance to 2020 TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S Nation Championship scheduled for Nov. 11-13 on Pickwick Lake located in Florence, AL. From there the top three anglers from the overall standings in both the boater and non-boater divisions will earn a berth to the 2021 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster classic presented by Huk. 

I will post updates as they come in. You may also follow along on B.A.S.S. website by clicking here.

Good luck men, and give em' hell.