Team DeWhitt Claims Bama Blues Night-Time Win on Wilson Lake, AL
Nooner Hall and Les Thompson score big fish too!
Wilson Lake was the site of the most recent Bama Blues Tournament Series event. Co-Tournament Directors Chris and Cory Ramsey (Pipeline Tackle) presented their June 26-27, 2021 event out of Safety Harbor Wilson Lake and the Tennessee River. The 3-fish tournament is part of the ACA Tournament Alliance.
The Safety Harbor event was the first night-time event of the 2021 season with teams from several states competing. Fishing hours were from 7:00 pm until 6:00 am. Given the hot weather, the spawn, and in the interest of catfish conservation the scales were open all night to weigh any fish that might require special care. Several teams used the opportunity to weigh struggling fish early.
“We put on night tournaments for a few different reasons,” explained Chris. “The main reason is for the safety of our anglers and the fish. Alabama summers can be brutal on both fish and anglers so the night tournaments allow the anglers to fish in the summer months at a cooler part of the day. Also at certain parts of the year, the bite really turns on after dark.”
First Place and Big Fish
Team DeWitt (Nooner Hall and Les Thompson) broke the 100-pound mark with 110.55 pounds of Wilson Lake blues to claim the top spot. They also had the Big Fish of the tournament at 60.6 pounds.
Hall and Thompson arrived on Friday night intending to get in some prefishing but fate had other ideas. The air conditioner went out on the lake house and they had to spend all night working on it. (They sent a special thank you to Eric for fixing it.)
After losing the opportunity to prefish they went to Wheeler Dam on Saturday morning and caught fresh skipjack for the tournament.
“It’s hard to beat fresh skipjack,” Hall said. “Although we didn’t get to prefish we had a starting point in mind for where we wanted to start fishing. It was at a place where we found fish a couple of months ago while fishing another tournament.”
“The plan was to drag and suspend baits through the area,” continued Hall. “We found the fish in the same area as before. We concentrated on that area and ended up catching 13 total.”
The team culled 6 overs and 4 unders during the tournament. They caught all but one fish while dragging. The smallest fish they caught came from suspending bait.
“We would like to thank our sponsors for all they do for us,” said Hall. “They include The DeWitt Company, T Force Worldwide, Tomlin Trucking, Smackdown Catfishing, Drury Hotels, MulTbar Rod Racks, Grizzly Jigs, and Big River Cats.”
“Finally we would like to thank Pipeline Tackle and Bama Blues for a well ran tournament trail,” concluded Hall.
Second Place
The runner-up spot went to Team REEL EM UP (Ron “Skippy” Goucher and Danny Ball). They teamed up to bring 99.7 pounds to the scales and earn the second-place spot. They also had Second Big Fish of the tournament at 55.75 pounds.
“It was a tough bite,” reported Ball. “We were using skipjack to drag shallow, deep, and flats without much luck. Then we tied on the new 3-ounce REEL EM UP LLC glow in the dark dragging weights. Then it was on.”
“It was like someone turned on a light switch,” continued Ball. “We started culling through about 20 fish before 10 p.m. Right around 4:30 am Ron hooked on to the 55 pounder to finish out our weight.”
The team thanked Slimecat Rods, Pipeline Tackle, Creek Bank Bait Tanks, RS Nets, River Rats Reel Repair, Dales Tackle, and REEL EM UP LLC Dragging Weights.
Third Place
The Team Doug Walker, Jack Woodall, and Walker’s daughter, Jaylee Partin were the first boat to weigh in. They ended up with the third-best weight at 82.5 pounds. Their bag included a nice 40.55 pound Wilson Lake blue cat.
“We were dragging in 35 to 50 feet of water,” reported Walker. “Skipjack was our bait. We caught a lot of fish, but just not many with any size.”
“We would like to thank our sponsors for their support,” concluded Walker. “They are Dales Tackle, Smackdown Catfishing, Bear Planer Boards, Meathunter Rods, and Yammer & Sons Bait.
Fourth Place
Terri Haraway and Caleb Kent finished out the money places with a total weight of 76.46 pounds to claim the fourth-place spot.
Haraway and Kent started out anchored without much luck so they decided to make a change.
“We just got a few nibbles off the rope,” reported Haraway. “I said, let’s go do something different and we started dragging bait.”
“We were dragging in about 45 feet of water on the lower end of the lake,” added Kent. “We caught fish from about 11:00 pm to 4:00 am. Skipjack heads caught the bigger ones.”
“We caught about 15 fish after we started dragging,” concluded Haraway.
“Of course they all came on Bama Skips,” he joked.
Final Thoughts
Bama Blues launched 32 boats in the nocturnal tournament. The Wilson event was the first nighttime event of the season with another one coming up in August after taking the month of July off.
“The night tournament was great,” said Co-Director Chris Ramsey. “We registered a series record number of boats not counting our 100 boat event in January. Of the 32 boats registered, 15 were from outside the state of Alabama.”
“We had some pretty good weights for being around the spawn,” continued Chris. “From what we heard the small fish were really biting as some boats reported catching more than a dozen fish but nothing with a lot of size.”
“As always, we want to thank all of the anglers that came out and fished with us,” concluded Chris. “We look forward to seeing everyone back with us in August on Wheeler Lake for the last night tournament of the series.”
Many Bama Blues anglers are participating in the ACA Points Race and the opportunity to win a new SeaArk Boat. Click here for more information on the ACA Points Race.
Chris and Cory Ramsey will now turn their attention to the next Bama Blues event. It is another night tourney out of First Creek Boat Ramp on August 28th. For tournament information, follow Bama Blues at https://www.facebook.com/BamaBluesCatfish.
