SHEFFIELD-A bass tournament coming to Sheffield’s Riverfront Park on April 16 is unlike most fishing competitions held in Shoals.
Bass tournament competitors typically strive to catch five largest fish that will be weighed in at the end of the day.
Instead of weighing in their catch at the end of the day, anglers competing in the Fishlife Big Bass Battle on Pickwick Lake, presented by Fishlife Fish Care Products, will return to Riverfront Park every hour to weigh their fish. Anglers will fish from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. and have seven opportunities to weigh a fish.
“A few big-fish-only tournaments have been held on Lake Guntersville over the years, but we wanted to start a tour to give anglers all over Alabama, and from surrounding states, a chance to fish for big money and big bass,” said Jody Harrison, founder and CEO of Sportsman’s Media Group, which operates the tournaments.
At Fishlife Big Bass Battle events, anglers compete for a $500 cash prize, awarded every hour for the largest bass weighed during that hour. The prize for the overall largest bass of the tournament is $1,000. If the weight of the overall largest bass ends in .00, the prize is $25,000. The entry fee for the tournament is $50.
“We’re putting the excitement back in tournament bass fishing,” Harrison said. “You don’t have to weigh-in a fish every hour, but if you bring one to the weigh-in and cross over a line, that we will have set up, you have to weigh that fish. Some anglers will stand just outside the commitment line, as we count down that hour’s weigh-in, debating if they want to weigh their fish or if they want to save it for the next hour.”
Unlike many tournaments that are limited to a single angler or two-angler team per boat, the Big Bass Battle events permit as many anglers to fish from a boat as allowed by the vessel’s capacity plate.
“You can have three anglers fishing from a boat, four anglers, or as many as the boat is designed to carry, or you can fish alone,” Harrison said. Each angler is allowed to weigh only one fish per hour.
Susann Hamlin, president and CEO of Colbert County Tourism and Convention Bureau, in Tuscumbia, said a big-fish-only format on a lake that is filled with huge largemouth and smallmouth bass promises to create plenty of excitement at the Sheffield tournament. “It’s going to be the most interesting bass tournament ever on Pickwick Lake.”
Complete rules and registration forms are available online at fishlife.net. For more information call Harrison at (205) 243-4572 or email him at jody.harrison@fishlife.net.
