By Jason Duran
The final stop of the 2026 Alabama Bass Trail North Division season delivered exactly what anglers have come to expect from Weiss Lake. Strong weights, shifting standings and an Angler of the Year race that wasn’t decided until the final teams crossed the weigh-in stage.
When the scales finally closed, Gary Thompson of Dallas, Georgia, and Billy Wallace of Tallapoosa, Georgia, stood atop the leaderboard with 22.27 pounds and a $15,000 payday. At the same time, Michael Wooley and Kyle Lewellen completed one of the closest Angler of the Year races in Alabama Bass Trail history, edging Chris and Smith McGregor by a single point to claim the 2026 North Division AOY title.
For Thompson and Wallace, the victory capped a strong finish to the season. After a disappointing event at Pickwick Lake, the team rebounded with a seventh-place finish at Neely Henry, a fifth-place finish at Wheeler Lake and finally broke through with their first Alabama Bass Trail victory at Weiss.
“It’s awesome, especially to win here where I’ve fished all my life,” Wallace said.
Their winning pattern centered around old-school shallow-water fishing. The duo relied primarily on a 5/16-ounce jig around shallow wood and cover throughout the day, mixing in a white frog for one key fish. Most of their fish came on a brown jig paired with a green pumpkin twin-tail trailer.
“We just fished old school,” Wallace said.
A 6.60-pound largemouth anchored their limit and earned Big Fish honors, helping separate them from a tightly packed leaderboard.
The victory also automatically qualified Thompson and Wallace for the 2026 Alabama Bass Trail Championship at Lake Eufaula.
Finishing second was the Weiss Lake team of Bret Harrell and Tyler Smart with 21.44 pounds, earning $7,500.
The local anglers spent their day targeting shallow wood, docks and other bank-oriented cover from the mid-lake region northward. Practice revealed quality fish were present throughout the system, but the bigger bites were scattered enough to create uncertainty heading into tournament day.
“We didn’t know how many big bites we’d run into,” Smart said.
The pair stayed committed to a slow flipping approach in four to five feet of water and capitalized on a strong mayfly hatch that many anglers believed contributed to the shallow bite throughout the lake.
Stephen McAvoy and John Kellett finished third with 20.48 pounds and collected $6,000 after finding a small stretch of shallow grass late in practice that proved to be loaded with quality fish.
The productive area measured only about 100 yards long, but it produced nearly everything they needed.
McAvoy caught a five-pounder before 6 a.m., and the team had approximately 17 pounds by 7 a.m. By 8 a.m., they had upgraded to nearly 19 pounds.
“We kept going through that stretch and every time we’d cull another one,” McAvoy said.
The pair primarily used a shad-colored Davis Swim Jig in less than a foot of water around shallow grass.
Rounding out the Top 5 were Zeke Gossett and Bryar Chambers in fourth place with 20.06 pounds and Bradley Jones and Brett Prince in fifth with 19.58 pounds.
While Thompson and Wallace celebrated a tournament victory, much of the attention throughout the afternoon remained fixed on the North Division Angler of the Year race.
Entering Weiss Lake, just six points separated the top three teams in the standings. Elliott Gault and James Swindle led the race with 808 points. Chris and Smith McGregor sat second with 803 points, while Michael Wooley and Kyle Lewellen were only one point farther back with 802.
Adding to the suspense, Gault and Swindle drew Boat 225, the final boat in the 225-team field. The points leaders would be among the last teams to weigh in, meaning the AOY race remained unresolved throughout most of the afternoon.
As the weigh-in unfolded, the championship picture shifted several times. The McGregors posted 17.14 pounds and positioned themselves firmly in contention. Wooley and Lewellen answered with 17.43 pounds, good for 11th place and 215 points.
Still, the title remained undecided until the points leaders arrived at the scales.
When Gault and Swindle finally weighed 13.30 pounds, their 46th-place finish opened the door for the teams chasing them.
The final math was razor thin.
Wooley and Lewellen’s 215-point performance earned them two more points than the McGregors received for their 13th-place finish. Those two points were enough to erase the one-point deficit they carried into Weiss Lake and secure the 2026 North Division Angler of the Year title.
“Me and Kyle stayed consistent all season in the Alabama Bass Trail North Division and were able to win Angler of the Year today,” Wooley said. “We haven’t been able to pull off a tournament win yet, but this is a big win in my book.”
After five tournaments and months of competition, Wooley and Lewellen finished with 1,017 points. Chris and Smith McGregor finished second with 1,016 points, while Trey Swindle and Sam George claimed third with 1,003 points.
The final North Division Top 10 Angler of the Year standings were:
With the regular season now complete, qualifying teams from both the North and South Divisions will advance to the 2026 Alabama Bass Trail Championship at Lake Eufaula. The no-entry-fee championship features a $50,000 first-place prize and will be contested October 16-17 at Lakepoint State Park.
The championship field includes all 10 divisional tournament winners, the top 75 teams in points from each division, and qualifying High School, College and Couple teams. It marks the final opportunity for teams to cap their season with an Alabama Bass Trail championship victory.
The Alabama Bass Trail is made possible through the support of its sponsors: Phoenix Boats, AMFirst, Larry Puckett Chevrolet, 13 Fishing, Rapala, VMC, CRUSHCITY, Buffalo Rock, Academy Sports and Outdoors, Jack’s, Garmin, Thompson Tractor Company, PiranhO2, Alabama State Parks, Halo Fishing, Snag Proof, NetBait, Bait Fuel, Alfa Insurance Thomas ALFA MAN Shelton, TH Marine Supplies, Power Pole, Pro Guide Batteries, Yamaha, SCUM FROG, E3 Sports Apparel, FishAlabama.org, Sweet Home Alabama and Alabama Mountain Lakes.
Download and listen to the ABT Podcast for tournament recaps, angler interviews and inside coverage from across the Alabama Bass Trail. New episodes are released every Tuesday.
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