Donny Beck and Tony Harvey win 2018 Alabama Bass Trail Lay Guntersville
by Dan O’Sullivan
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March 10, 2018 – Guntersville, Ala. – Lake Guntersville is dead… That’s been the cry of anglers throughout the region for the past year and a half. If that was the case, then the Alabama Bass Trail’s Northern Division teams resurrected it.
The first stop of the 2018 ABT Northern Division proved that Guntersville appears to have a heartbeat again as the winning weight reached the 30-pound and 38 teams eclipsed 20 pounds; it took 19.87 pounds to get the last paycheck spot in 40th place. Seems Lake Guntersville has borrowed from Mark Twain and issued its own “the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” statement.
The team that issued the loudest statement on Saturday was the Pickwick Lake local team of Donny Beck and Tony Harvey who crossed the stage three quarters of the way through the weigh-in and dropped 30.02 pounds of largemouth on the ABT scales at Guntersville State Park to claim the $10,000 winner’s prize. Included in their bag was an 8.56-pound jumbo that earned them the Mountain Dew Big Bass bonus of $500.
While that statement was the exclamation point of the day, it wa mic drop” moment as the second place team of Brett Coggins and Adam Christen weighed in immediately after them and put a scare into the leaders before their 28.81-pound limit was announced; they earned $5,000 for their spectacular day.
Beck and Harvey said they were thrilled with their day. “This is one of the biggest tournaments we’ve ever won, and we’re really excited,” they said. “We had a really good practice, and while we weren’t expecting this big of a weight, it’s great that it worked out this way; this is always a really tough field.”
The pair reported fishing 12-foot deep on the pinch points of bridges in North Sauty Creek with a 1/2-ounce black and blue Johnston Lures Arkie style jig with a matching Zoom Super Chunk. “We caught a few on a crankbait, but everything we weighed came on the jig,” they said. “We caught fish all day, but the one’s that we weighed all came before one o’clock.”
Coggins and Christen said they were excited about their day as well. “We had a great day, we did everything we could and got beat by a massive bag,” they said. “We practiced for a day and a half last week, and wouldn’t have expected things to turn out like this; what a day.” The reported targeting sparse grass next to shell beds, south of Siebold with 3/8-ounce Bad Gill colored Jakked Baits SKKatterbait bladed jigs with matching Zoom Swimming Super Fluke. They said they slow cranked it on the bottom.
The Top 10 Standings are below, for complete standings visit: http://www.alabamabasstrail.org/tournament-series/lg-results/
| PLACE | ANGLERS | WEIGHT | BIG FISH | WINNINGS |
| 1 | Donny Beck / Tony Harvey | 30.02 | 8.56 | $10,000 |
| 2 | Brett Coggins / Adam Christen | 28.81 | 6.79 | $5,000 |
| 3 | Lanny Guthrie / Lee Hurley | 28.02 | 7.44 | $4,000 |
| 4 | Bryan Douglas / Blake Douglas | 27.61 | $3,000 | |
| 5 | Hadley Coan / Scott Keeling | 27.49 | 7.16 | $2,000 |
| 6 | Kent Keys / David Campbell | 27.08 | 7.8 | $1,500 |
| 7 | Hank Miller / Andy Miller | 26.38 | 7.47 | $1,100 |
| 8 | Duane Edel / Brandon Edel | 26.22 | 8.38 | $1,100 |
| 9 | Chad Sykes / Walter Sykes | 25.32 | $1,100 | |
| 10 | Darien Craig / Houston Calvert | 25.12 | $1,100 |
The sponsors of the 2018 Alabama Bass Trail include; Phoenix Bass Boats, Bill Penney Toyota, Garmin, Academy Sports & Outdoors, America’s First Federal Credit Union, Wind Creek Hospitality – Wetumpka, Wind Creek Hospitality – Montgomery, Alabama Tourism Department, T-H Marine Supplies, Wedowee Marine, Buffalo Rock, Jack’s, Fish Neely Henry Lake.com, Alabama Power Company, Trapper Tackle, Lew’s Fishing, AFTCO, YETI, and E3 Apparel.
For information about Alabama Bass Trail and for complete tournament standings visit www.alabamabasstrail.org.