NEWS

Grubbs and Ferguson Stay with the Right Fish to Win ABT Pickwick with 24.87

By Jason Duran

Pickwick Lake looked like it was setting up to be wide open. A warming trend early in the week had fish moving, the calendar lined up with the late March pre-spawn push, and there were plenty of signs this one could turn into a multi-pattern event where the lake spread the field out.

Then the front hit.

A sharp temperature drop the day before the tournament, combined with 15 to 20 mile per hour winds, reshaped the lake overnight. Areas that looked right in practice became difficult to fish. Fish that had been pushing forward stalled or repositioned. And just like that, Pickwick turned from opportunity into execution.

Stop No. 2 of the Alabama Bass Trail North Division became a tournament about timing, not patterns. Craig Grubbs of Tishomingo, Mississippi, and Matt Ferguson of Pontotoc, Mississippi, timed it better than anyone. With 24.87 pounds, anchored by a 7.41 pound largemouth, the duo claimed their second Alabama Bass Trail victory and their first on what they consider home water, earning $15,000 for the win.

“It feels great,” Grubbs said. “Two time ABT winner sounds awesome.”

Fishing the Pause

The key to their win wasn’t just finding fish. It was understanding where those fish pulled back to when conditions changed.

Practice had been strong. They believed they could bring in five five pounders. But the front forced those fish to hesitate, and instead of chasing new water, they leaned into the most reliable part of the seasonal cycle: the pause before the push.

“We were focusing on pre spawn bass,” Ferguson said. “We were looking for the last deep water before the pockets.” That decision kept them around fish that were still catchable.

Not fully shallow. Not fully committed. But positioned. “If you know where they’re going and where they are, you can follow them,” Grubbs said. At blastoff, they made a decision that reflected that confidence.

They turned right.

Avoiding heavier pressure, they committed to a stretch of water where fish were set up on flats leading into spawning pockets. They rotated through multiple areas, caught numbers throughout the morning, and built an early limit by around 8:30.

From there, it became about one bite.

That bite came on a place they had checked multiple times during the week, a staging area holding a small group of fish.

“We’d looked at that school three times,” Ferguson said. “There was one on it today, and it was the right one.” The 7.41 pound largemouth came on a 5XD crankbait and anchored the winning bag.

Around that key bite, they filled out their limit with a jig and a Zoom pitching bait, targeting pre spawn fish positioned along staging areas.

They caught an estimated 25 to 30 fish throughout the day, but the rhythm mattered more than the number. Once the front settled in, the bite tightened “After lunch, it kind of fell off,” Grubbs said. By then, they already had what they needed.

Seven Bites, One Window

Chris and Smith McGregor didn’t have the luxury of numbers.

They had a window.

With 23.73 pounds, the Birmingham based team finished second and earned $7,500, while also moving into the Angler of the Year lead after two events with 440 points.

Their day was built on efficiency.

“We only caught seven fish all day,” Chris McGregor said. “But we had about a 30 minute stretch where it happened.”

Fishing points with stumps in 8 to 10 feet of water, they targeted pre spawn females using forward facing sonar and a jighead minnow paired with a CrushCity Freeloader.

Those fish had shifted slightly deeper with the front, but they were still positioned in predictable places “You’d see them cruising the bottom or sitting on those stumps,” he said. Between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m., everything lined up.

That short window produced the weight they needed to contend and showed a different side of the same equation, less about covering water, more about hitting the right fish at the right time.

The finish vaults them to the top of the AOY standings, followed closely by Hunter Betts and Roman Calvert with 435 and Blake Hall and Jeremy Lamb with 428.

One Bank, Fully Committed

Wendell and Richard Ison took a third path to a third place finish. The Indiana father son team brought in 23.71 pounds and earned $6,000 by committing to a single stretch they discovered in practice.

Practice overall had been tough, but one bank stood out. “We pulled up on that bank and caught four in about five minutes,” Wendell Ison said. “I said we need to leave.”

They protected it.

When they returned on tournament day, they had it to themselves. Making multiple slow passes, they pulled nearly 20 pounds from that one stretch, pre spawn fish stacked on a bank leading into a flat.

“It set up a lot like Kentucky Lake used to for me this time of year,” he said.

They added an early key fish they had located during practice and built around a simple approach, working that bank methodically with moving baits and presentations suited for pre spawn fish in transition.

For a team fishing just their second ABT event, the result was more than a finish, it was validation.“These guys are hammers,” Ison said. “It’s an honor to even be in the top ten with them.”

The finish moves them to sixth in the AOY standings with 419 points.

Tight at the Top, Tough Below

Pickwick didn’t produce a runaway event, but it produced a tight one.

Less than two pounds separated first from sixth, with multiple teams eclipsing the 23 pound mark, including Jade Keeton and Greg Diggs with 23.60, Hunter Betts and Roman Calvert with 23.22, and Donny Beck and Tony Harvey with 23.15.

By 10th place, it still took 22.27 pounds. But below that, the drop off was noticeable. Limits were common. Quality was not.

The cold front and wind didn’t eliminate patterns, they refined them. Fish repositioned, feeding windows shortened, and anglers were forced to make decisions that matched the moment, not the expectation.

Grubbs and Ferguson did that by staying with the right phase of fish. The McGregors did it by maximizing a short window. The Isons did it by fully committing to one place. Different approaches. Same requirement. Pickwick didn’t reward guesswork. It rewarded understanding.

For a complete list of standings please visit https://www.alabamabasstrail.org/pickwick-lake/results/

Anglers and fans can watch all the live coverage and follow all Alabama Bass Trail events by visiting www.alabamabasstrail.org.

Download and listen to the ABT Podcast on your favorite Podcast app by searching for “Alabama Bass Trail Podcast.” The Podcast is released each week on Tuesday.

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