Coosa River Win Goes to Nathan Trammell and Jonathan Batton
by Ron Presley,
Photos courtesy of Coosa River Bottom Feeders/Alabama Catfish Series
A momentous day of catfishing leads Team Blessed Outdoors to a first-place win and Big Fish honors on Neely Henry Lake with the largest tournament bag ever recorded!
The Coosa River Bottom Feeders Catfish Trail directed by Cody “Coosa” Chambers and the Alabama Catfish Series directed by Marshall Hughey combined efforts to compete on Neely Henry Lake on the Coosa River in Gadsden, Alabama. The March 16th, 2024 event attracted a total of 22 teams from the two catfish trails to do battle on the Coosa River impoundment.
The Gadsden weather was cloudy on tournament day with a little wind and in most anglers’ opinion, it was a beautiful day for catfishing. Although the bite was slow at times, Neely Henry produced some nice cats at the weigh-in.
First Place and Big Fish
The top spot in the combined tournament on the Coosa went to Team Blessed Outdoors. Nathan Trammell and Jonathan Batton top the leaderboard with a total weight of 107 pounds including Big Fish of the tournament at 44.6 pounds.
Team Blessed Outdoors started their day as they always do, with a prayer before the tournament. Trammell asked God for his protection and blessings for all the anglers, and his direction to always be a light to a lost dark world.
“We started the day fishing the tail race of Weiss Dam,” recalled Trammell. “By 11:00 am we had caught around 20 fish with the biggest being around 30 pounds. All the fish were averaging around 15 to 20 pounds.”
The team made quite a few short moves as the morning progressed because the area they were fishing was showing loads of fish. They continued to look for a monster.
“It was only a matter of time before we caught the big one,” confirmed Trammell. “But it wasn’t until the last hour of the tournament that we finally landed our first big fish of 43 pounds. So at that point, we decided to finish out our day in that spot where we caught several more.”
The bite continued for Trammell and Batton. They were anchor fishing using gizzard shad for bait with great success. Finally, they landed their last big fish at 44 pounds which ended up being the Big Fish of the tournament.
“Our day resulted in one of the biggest bags we had ever seen on the upper Coosa River,” noted Trammell. “We ended the day with 34 fish weighing more than 500 pounds hitting the deck. It was an epic day of fishing!”
“There are so many great companies that help me tournament fish,” concluded Trammell. “Almost every weekend they provide me with great products to fish with. They include Anvil Rods, Smackdown Catfishing, B-Kat Boards, Holy Beardz, Blessed Outdoors, and Dedicated Outdoors. But God is the most important to me. With Him, I could do nothing. Matthew 4:19 — and he said unto them come, follow me, and I will make you fisherman of men.”
Second Place
The runner-up spot went to Jeff Helms and Chad Mayfield as they turned a never-say-die attitude into a second-place finish in the Coosa River Bottom Feeders/Alabama Catfish Series event. They teamed up to bring in a total weight of 79.5 pounds including a nice 38.9 pound brute.
“The day began very slow for us,” noted Mayfield following the tournament. “We only had 1 small fish in the livewell with only 2 hours remaining to fish. We had been working our way downriver spot-locking on structure with very little action.”
Finding no fish for the livewell they decide to make a major change. Instead of continuing to spot-lock on structure, they decided to cover more water by pulling boards.
“We changed over to our Draggin Master gear,” reported Mayfield. “We rigged our Slick Stix fishing rods and began pulling planer boards. After finding a cove that was loaded with shad we started pulling through.”
The action came all at once as Mayfield and Helms pulled boards through an area that was ranging in depth from 7 to 10 feet. Mayfield has a preference for using bait that is natural to the area he’s fishing, so he and Helms were baiting with redhorse suckers that they had previously netted near the dam.
“What a blast,” continued Mayfield. “It was exactly what we needed and a whole lot of fun. We had 4 fish weighing between 30 and 40 pounds hit the deck instantly. After the excitement and chaos were over we repositioned the boat with 30 minutes remaining but that was the end. The wind let up and the fish quit feeding so we made the long run back to the weigh-in.”
“I want to thank Slick Stix Fishing Rods, Precision Fishing Designs, and Draggin Masters,” concluded Mayfield. “They are all important to me, great friends and great products.”
Third Place
Third place went to the 706 Crew. Casey Jones and Herbie Saade had a big blue weighing 30 pounds to help them capture a total weight of 64.5 pounds and earn third place.
Fourth Place
Team Coosa Kid Catfishing consisting of Cody Haynes and Michael Yates brought 62.9 pounds to the scales. Their bag included a 26.8-pound blue to help them take the fourth-place spot.
Note: To view more photos and more winners from the event visit Coosa Chamber’s Facebook page.
Final Thoughts
Anglers often speak of the value they put on the camaraderie they experience at catfish tournaments. This joint event was a great example of that. Even though it came about rather serendipitously, the results were the same and they offered anglers the opportunity to compete in an angler friendly environment.
“I personally like doing events when you can combine trails together,” noted Hughey. “It generally makes for a bigger turnout. It was sort of an accident that it happened this year, but when I posted my schedule it was the same day as the Coosa River Bottom Feeder tournament.”
“I want to thank Cody Chambers,” concluded Hughey. “He is the director of the Coosa Bottom Feeders trail and he worked with me to put on this event. Congrats to all the winners.”
“I would like to thank all of our anglers for coming out and showing out,” added Chambers. “Congrats also to our first-place winners for having the biggest bag ever recorded on the Coosa River for our tournaments. Finally, I want to thank Marshall Hughey, the director of the Alabama Catfish Series trail, for helping me put all of this in place.”
For more information on The Coosa River Bottom Feeders, you can join their private group on Facebook. Their next event is right back on Neely Henry Lake in the upper river section on March 27, 2024. They will be using the Ferry Boat Ramp. After that, they travel to Kerr Lake out of Fort Smith, Arkansas on March 16th, 2024.
For more information on The Alabama Catfish Series visit their page on Facebook. Their next event is on May 18th on the Alabama River out of Cooters Pond. Next they travel to Roland Cooper for a July 20, 2024 event.
