SHEFFIELD-A massive fleet of bass boats is headed for Colbert County.
Some 500 student anglers from throughout the state are expected in the Shoals Saturday, April 20 for an Alabama Student Angler Bass Fishing Association fishing tournament on Pickwick Lake. The tournament will launch from Riverfront Park. The weigh-in, which begins at 1 p.m., will be at Spring Park in Tuscumbia.
The tournament will attract the largest crowd of fishing teams among all of the stops on the ASABFA trail this year. Tournament organizers said the student anglers consider Pickwick to be the best lake they will visit in 2019. In 2018, Aaron Stephens and Daniel Meadows, of Mortimer Jordan High School in Kimberly, won the ASABFA’s Pickwick tournament by catching five bass that weighed 21.06 pounds. Organizers expect plenty of big bass to be caught during this year’s Pickwick tournament.
Colbert County Tourism and Convention Bureau is hosting the tournament. In addition to the anglers, almost 250 boat captains, who pilot the boats for the student anglers, will attend. Family members and friends of the anglers will also attend. Susann Hamlin, president and CEO of Colbert Tourism, expects more than 1,000 people to be at Spring Park April 20 for the weigh-in. Hundreds of family members and friends of the anglers will be at Riverfront Park in Sheffield that morning to watch the fishing teams head out onto the water.
Hamlin said the tournament will have a major impact on the local economy. The fishing teams and their families will stay in Colbert County hotels, buy fishing tackle and gas for their boats and vehicles and eat at local restaurants. While the anglers and boat captains are on the water, non-fishing family members will visit local attractions and shop.
For more details about the tournament, call Colbert County Tourism as 256-383-0783.
