NEWS

Wheeler Lake Feature Story

The 2025 ABT Season Comes Down to a Two Day Shoot out for 50K
By Jason W. Duran

When 175 of the best teams in Alabama bass fishing back their trailers into Wheeler
Lake this Friday and Saturday, every ounce will matter. It’s Championship Week, the
culmination of a season’s worth of grind, growth, and competition. For veteran team
Mitch Mitchell and Candler McCollom, it’s another chance to chase the a title that’s
eluded them, Alabama Bass Trail Champions. “We haven’t won one of these yet,”
Mitchell admits. “It’d be nice. Fall fishing’s always been different, the fish never set up
the same way from year to year, and that makes practice hard to come by. But that’s
part of the challenge.”

Wheeler Lake in mid-October is a puzzle even seasoned pros struggle to solve. This
year is no different. With stable weather and a warming trend unusual for the season,
Mitchell and McCollom know that traditional fall patterns may not hold, and that the
playing field is wide open. “Everybody’s seen it from the BASS EQ and Elite events that
were here recently. Just like those events, this week there’s some spooking and scoping
going on,” Mitchell says. “The dam might play a little, but it gets pressured so much.
Somebody’s going to have to find something new.

The fishery’s small, and nothing’s guaranteed.” The once-reliable grass flats, which
made fall tournaments a topwater frenzy just a couple of years ago, have largely
disappeared, and with them, a predictable bite. “That’s a killer,” Mitchell says. “When
there was grass, you could just take off down a stretch and catch them on topwater.
Now it’s going to be more of a ‘stump game.” With water levels dropping, fish are pulling
from shallow backwaters toward deeper current edges. The team expects those subtle
depressions and river-channel stump fields to be key targets. “They’ll pull out to places
where there’s a little deeper water and some current,” McCollom explains. “That’s where
we’ll focus.”

The tools of the trade will look familiar, but the execution will be everything. “Topwater
baits like spooks and buzzbaits will definitely play,” Mitchell says. “A minnow-style
swimbait will be important too, and someone will probably catch them on a jig or
Carolina rig.”

Still, anglers shouldn’t expect fireworks. “It’s going to be tough. You’ve really got to get
the bait right in front of them,” he adds. “Nobody’s going to sit on a spot and catch a
hundred fish. It’s going to be a grind to catch five good ones, especially two days in a
row.”

For teams used to one-day ABT shootouts, the Championship’s two-day format forces a
strategic shift. Patterns break down. Fish vanish. And yesterday’s hero spot might be
tomorrow’s ghost town. “Practicing too much could hurt you,” Mitchell warns. “If you
catch one in practice, he might be the only one there. We’re just going fishing, hitting
places we think fish will move to. You’ll probably fish a lot of new water both days.”

Day One will set the tone. “If you don’t have 15 pounds the first day, I don’t think you’ve
got a chance,” he says. “It’s going to take 40 pounds or more to win. I’d say probably 42
to take the whole thing.” McCollom agrees: “There’ll be a lot of 12- to 14-pound bags
two days in a row. The difference will come from those teams who crack a big bag one
of the days.”

Two factors could flip the script entirely: TVA current and gizzard shad. On Friday, heavy
current could be possible, but by Saturday, the flow may taper off, complicating the bite.
“They’ve been pulling about 25,000 CFS,” Mitchell says. “I like it at 40,000. That’s when
they really fire. At 25, it’s not great. If it drops more, we’ll have to adjust.”

And then there’s the gizzard shad. “If somebody finds a rare spot where big bass are
chasing gizzards shallow, they could blow it wide open,” Mitchell says. “But it’s hard.
You’ll fish fifty places and find five. They might be there one day and gone the next.”

There’s even a chance an “oddball” strategy could pay off, like running far up Elk River
or deep into a back creek. “Sometimes that’s how championships are won,” McCollom
says. “One little overlooked pocket can change everything.”

When fish are scarce and space is limited, boat number draw becomes critical. “There
are a few places fish get caught every tournament,” Mitchell says. “If you get an early
draw, you can hit those first and then go explore.”

But with 175 boats and two days of competition, pressure and etiquette come into play.
“It’s dog-eat-dog out there,” McCollom admits. “If it’s a community hole, that’s one thing.
But if somebody finds a sneaky spot you didn’t know about, you leave them alone.”

For Mitchell and McCollom, a Championship win would mean more than a trophy. It
would be a validation of years spent competing at the highest level. “It’d be nice to win
one of these,” Mitchell reflects. “Fall fishing is tough. We don’t get to practice like we
used to. But to fish against the best all year and finish with a championship, that’s
special.” And with $50,000 on the line for first place, plus payouts down to 25th and
bonuses for daily big fish, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Despite the pressure, the veteran duo is keeping things simple. “We haven’t practiced
much at all this year,” Mitchell admits. “Work and other things have really kept us busy
this year. We’ll be there Friday morning and just go fishing. One day of practice is a win
for us. We spent some time last weekend looking around” And maybe that’s the
essence of the Alabama Bass Trail Championship the idea that, at its core, bass fishing
is still about two anglers, a lake, and the belief that anything can happen. As Mitchell
puts it: “One of these days, we’re going to retire and reintroduce ourselves to the ABT.
Until then, we’re just going fishing, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll walk away as
champions.”

When the dust settles Saturday afternoon at Ingalls Harbor, expect the leaderboard to
reflect two days of tough, tactical fishing. Somewhere in the mix, five or six teams will
likely crack the low 40s in total weight. Many others will grind out 12- to 14-pound limits
and hope for a check.

And in a tournament where you can’t win it on the first day but can lose it in a heartbeat
the 2025 Alabama Bass Trail Championship promises to test not just skill, but grit. On
Wheeler Lake in October, that’s exactly how it should be.

Event Schedule
Registration & Check-In Ingalls Harbor, 802-A Wilson Street NW, Decatur, AL 35601
Thursday, October 16, 2025 -4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Pre-Tournament Meeting: 6:30 p.m.
Friday and Saturday friends and family are encouraged to attend. Bring lawn chairs and
enjoy the action as some of the best bass teams in the country cross the stage. Each
day Fans can also catch over four hours of live on-the-water coverage beginning at
blastoff and continues during the weigh-in livestream on the ABT Facebook page,
YouTube, and the official ABT website.

The 2025 Alabama Bass Trail is proudly supported by:
Phoenix Boats, AMFirst, Landers McLarty Chevrolet, McGraw Webb Chevrolet, Rapala,
VMC, Crush City, Buffalo Rock, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Jack’s, Garmin, Lew’s,
Strike King, Southern Protection Agency, Alabama State Parks, Halo Fishing, Snag
Proof, NetBait, Bait Fuel, TH Marine Supplies, Power-Pole, Pro Guide Batteries,
American Trailer Rental, Yamaha, Anheuser-Busch, American Baitworks, E3 Sports
Apparel, FishAlabama.org, Sweet Home Alabama, and Alabama Mountain Lakes