Tournament

Alabama Bass Trail 100 Lake Logan Martin Lake with Zeke Gosset and Ethan
King
By Jason Duran

The 2024 Alabama Bass Trail 100 season is here. Teams have been excited
and ready. The field sold out in 11 days. This year’s schedule includes three
stops: Logan Martin Lake, Weiss Lake and Wheeler Lake. The City of Lincoln
has worked hard to provide one of the most state-of-the art tournament launch
facilities at Lincoln’s Landing. The team of Zeke Gossett and Ethan King call
Lake Logan Martin home and are primed and ready for this event. 100 teams
are fishing for a total purse of $100,000 with a first-place payout of $25,000.

It seems with all ABT events we have come to understand that weather will
always play a factor. The winter storm that has moved across the country this
week has produced some extremely low temps as well as ice and snow for
the upper portions of the state. The temps are forecasted to be in the single
digits Saturday and has caused the need to move the event to Sunday, when
temps will be a little warmer at blast off and even warmer though out the day
on Sunday. ABT anglers have learned to be prepared for the changes and it
has made them among the best Team Anglers in the sport of bass fishing.

The team of Zeek and Ethan have fished Logan Martin Lake all their lives.
They both have fished tournaments here in January and February and have
done well in the past. This week throws a curve ball to all anglers with the
weather change. With their knowledge of the lake they know where the fish
should be this time of year and will do their best to catch them. However, Zeek
shared. “A team that is not from here has the potential to do well in this event
because they won’t be fishing history and could show up on a clay point and
find a good bag of fish just by staying there all day long.” The plan for Zeek
and Ethan is to cover as much water as they can and hit as many spots as
they can to locate the active fish.

The team also shared earlier this week. “Practice has been really tough based
on the current weather conditions.” When asked about the typical winter
patterns they shared, “Our lake sets up well this time of year for the Rapala
Shad Rap bite and the small crank bait bite because of the rock and clay
points, that is typically a good pattern for this time of year. Another good way
to catch them is the popular Damiki Rig for suspended fish. The problem
when the sub-freezing temps come and drop the water temperature down

really fast it causes a shad kill and that can cause some of the toughest
conditions on the lake. When the fish start to feed on the dying shad they
really don’t want anything else and that typically changes everything anglers
would normally do. The water temps have dipped into the low 40s and caused
the fish to not want to bite as much and commit a bait, especially a bait that is
not a dying shad. We hope by tournament time the conditions will settle out to
where the fish can adjust to the changes. With the temps possibly warming up
on Sunday it could really help the bite. If the water has the chance to clear up
the Jerkbait bite could possibly actually play on tournament day and not
during practice.”

Zeek and Ethan said, “The winning weight should be in the 16-pound range,
and they would be surprised if it got as high as 19-pounds which it is possible
this time of year, but the conditions are just not favoring it.” The conditions will
be tough, but the anglers will rise to the occasion and will continue to prevail
as the Best of the Best and take home the $25,000.

The Pre-Tournament Virtual meeting was held Thursday, January 18 at 6:30
and is available on the ABT 100 Facebook Page. All anglers should check text
messages and email for any updates and changes for this event.
Tune in to the Alabama Bass Trail 100 Facebook page and the Alabama Bass
Trail 100 Website (www.alabamabasstrail100.org) for live on the water
coverage and live weigh in. All friends and family are welcome to attend this
event; bring lawn chairs and dress warm. Blast off and weigh in will take place
at Lincoln’s Landing 740 Travis Drive Lincoln, AL 35096. Download and listen
to the ABT Podcast on your favorite Podcast app by searching for “Alabama
Bass Trail Podcast.”  The Podcast is released each week on Tuesday. 
 
The sponsors of the 2024 Alabama Bass Trail 100 include; Phoenix Bass
Boats, Landers McLarty Chevrolet, McGraw Webb Chevrolet, Bajio
Sunglasses, Garmin,  Power-Pole, America’s First Federal Credit Union,
CrushCity, Bait Fuel, Pro-Guide Batteries, Sweet Home Alabama,
Alabama State Parks, Jacks, Snag Proof, Yamaha, T-H Marine Supplies, Big
Bite Bait Company, VMC, Black Rifle Coffee Company, Anheuser - Busch,
Inc., fishalabama.org, Rapala, Halo Fishing, NetBait.