NEWS

Vice and Staley Win the ABT Championship With 49.91 Pounds

By Jason Duran

The Alabama Bass Trail concluded the 2026 season on October 16 and 17 with a two-day, no-entry-fee Championship on Lake Eufaula. The event marked the Championship’s return to Eufaula for the first time in 10 years. The top 75 teams from the North and South divisions, along with additional championship qualifiers, made up a field of 170 teams competing for more than $100,000 and a $50,000 first-place check.

Strong winds on the second day made Lake Eufaula a different challenge for teams that caught big weights on day one. Hunter Davidson and Bryant Fikes led with 26.49 pounds Friday but did not catch a fish Saturday. Teams had to adjust to rough water, changing fish positioning, and areas they could no longer fish effectively.

The first-place team of Brad Vice and Jake Staley caught 23.32 pounds on day one and 26.59 pounds on day two for a total of 49.91 pounds. They collected $50,000 and the title of Alabama Bass Trail Champions in their first year fishing the trail. The North Division team finished ahead of two South Division teams on a lake familiar to many of the South anglers.

Vice and Staley became friends while fishing at the University of North Alabama and have continued fishing together over the years. They finished eighth in the North Division standings before closing their first ABT season with the Championship win.

Practice began with the team looking for offshore fish downlake. They spent time scanning ledges and bars, fishing brush and trying a shallow bite. They caught fish, but most were smaller than what they felt they needed to win.

“We’re fishing for $50,000,” Vice said. “This ain’t a let’s try to get a check tournament.”

Late in practice, Vice caught a fish around seven pounds from shallow wood and another over five pounds from a similar area. They began scanning for more of that cover, finding isolated stumps and brush on shallow flats and bars near Lakepoint. Vice said the area reminded him of Wheeler Lake, where he has spent much of his time fishing.

“It’s shallow offshore fishing is what we were doing,” Vice said.

Their main area was similar to a back channel with isolated wood in three to five feet of water. The team scanned its best area without making a cast there in practice. Staley said some targets were brush piles, while others were small pieces of cover that might hold only one or two fish. Every fish they weighed came on a HIDEUP Coike Fullcast. They made repeated casts close to the wood, working each target carefully to get those fish to bite.

“We didn’t see a ton of boats doing what we were doing,” Staley said.

On day one, they started downlake on the shallow bite they had found in practice, but it had gone away. They moved back to the area where they had caught their bigger practice fish and put together 23.32 pounds. With time remaining, they continued scanning and found additional cover.

That decision became important on day two. Fishing close to Lakepoint allowed them to spend more time with a bait in the water as conditions became rougher. Vice caught a three-and-a-half-pounder and a fish over five pounds early. By approximately 9:30, they estimated they had 22½ pounds, but their limit still included a fish around a pound and a half.

They carried that small fish for several hours as the wind shifted and waves made their area more difficult to fish. Around noon, Vice caught another fish over five pounds from a place they had found while scanning during day one. The cull added roughly four pounds and helped them reach 26.59.

“That paid off sitting down and doing that scanning, even though it’s hard to do in a tournament when you know you need to have a rod in your hand,” Vice said.

They continued fishing before heading back to the ramp a little early. They knew they had a good catch but had spent the day thinking about the 3.17 pounds they needed to make up on the leaders. At the dock, they learned the day-one leaders had zeroed.

“The first nerves of the weekend came when we were idling in,” Vice said.

Both anglers said the $50,000 Championship was their biggest tournament win. For Vice, winning with a longtime friend made it even more special.

“Me and Jake talk every single day,” Vice said. “He’s one of my best friends and has been for a long time.”

The team has already registered to return to the North Division next season. After winning the Championship in their first year, they hope to add a regular-season win and contend for the points title.

The second-place team of Blake Davenport and Phillip Easterling caught 19.45 pounds on day one and 23.92 pounds on day two for a total of 43.37 pounds. The South Division team collected a $10,000 check.

They also earned the $2,500 Phoenix Boats payday as the highest-finishing team fishing from a Phoenix, bringing their combined payout to $12,500. Davenport recently switched to a Phoenix 721 ZXL powered by a Yamaha. In the Championship preview, he described the ride difference as “literally night and day” compared with boats he had owned before and said he considered it his best setup yet.

Davenport spent much of practice idling after finding the lake had cleared. Their biggest practice fish weighed approximately 2.85 pounds, but he had avoided fishing the places he thought were best.

Starting as boat No. 79, they found boats on the places they wanted to fish Friday morning. They eventually got on a place and caught approximately 11 pounds before moving to brush piles to improve their weight.

“I caught a six-pounder off one and a three-pounder on back-to-back casts,” Davenport said. “I pulled off one that was bigger than the six-pounder.”

They left that area alone, knowing it would be protected from the wind on day two. A late four-pounder helped them reach 19.45 pounds. Davenport said every fish they weighed during the tournament came on a green pumpkin HIDEUP Coike Fullcast. A crankbait had worked in practice, but he could not get it to produce the same way during competition.

Day two began with a four-pounder from a brush pile. They worked through protected areas and built their catch to approximately 14 pounds. Their big-fish area did not produce on the first visit, and Davenport decided to make a run farther downriver. As the water became rougher, he turned around.

“I said, ‘Let’s just go back up here; we’ll fish this stuff out of the wind, and we’ll catch what we can catch and just try to get a check,’” Davenport said.

When they returned to the key area, he caught a 5.60-pounder and another around five and a half pounds on consecutive casts. They later tried fishing grass near Lakepoint without success before returning once more. Another five-pounder helped them reach 23.92 pounds.

The area was one Davenport had found while practicing for an earlier Toyota Series event. It produced a six-pounder in practice then but did not deliver during that tournament. Recognizing its potential and leaving it alone Friday gave them somewhere to return Saturday.

“I said, ‘It’s going to be protected tomorrow. We may make something special happen right here,’” Davenport said.

They initially thought they were fishing for a check. After talking with other teams and learning how difficult the second day had been, they realized their catch had moved them into contention.

The third-place team of Frank Bradfield and Tyler Morgan caught 22.72 pounds on day one and 19.44 pounds on day two for a total of 42.16 pounds. The South Division team earned $5,000 targeting spotted bass upriver.

They found flipping fish around midlake during practice as a backup, but they planned to make the long run upriver. On their final practice day, Morgan checked one place and caught a 5.80-pound largemouth and a spotted bass around three pounds before leaving. They also located places to stop along the return trip if they needed more weight.

On day one, they worked into their best current seam with the trolling motor. Once they reached it, they quickly caught their fish.

“We caught our 22 pounds in like 30 minutes,” Morgan said.

Their first five weighed approximately 19 pounds. After replacing a smaller fish with one over four pounds, they backed off. Their smallest keeper was approximately 3.68 pounds, and they wanted to save fish for day two.

The key baits were a Spook, a Senko, and a Monkey Nuts Tackle Urchin. Morgan caught three of their big spotted bass on the Urchin Friday. The fish were in two to five feet of water, and the team said the low water had concentrated them.

Stronger current and a strong north wind changed the way the fish positioned themselves on Saturday. It also made it difficult to line up the boat and fish the same water effectively.

“The exact stretch we caught the bag on day one, we didn’t catch anything,” Morgan said. “You couldn’t fish it.”

They backed off and began targeting isolated rock with a Spook. Walking the bait over the rocks produced a four-pounder and another close to that size. They also lost a fish around four and a half pounds near the net.

“You could walk that Spook over the rocks and you could see them come up and just be swarming under it, fighting over it,” Morgan said.

The team felt the rough conditions might help their chances by making offshore fishing more difficult for other contenders. They caught the weight they thought would give them a chance, but Morgan gave the winners credit for producing in those conditions. He said their lost fish would not have been enough to close the gap on first place.

“We fished as good a tournament as we could have with what we had,” Morgan said.

Their Yamaha made the approximately hour-long run each way both days without problems. Morgan was pleased their plan worked and that they were able to show what the upriver spotted bass could produce.

“I’m really just glad I kind of got to showcase them spotted bass,” he said. “That’s what I kind of had up my sleeve.”

The fourth-place team of Zeke Gossett and Ethan King caught 39.60 pounds and earned $4,000. The fifth-place team of Jim Murray and Flint Murray caught 36.98 pounds and collected $3,000.

Fans can watch coverage of this event and others on the Alabama Bass Trail Facebook page and the Alabama Bass Trail TV YouTube channel.

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

The 2026 Alabama Bass Trail Team Series is made possible through partnerships with industry-leading brands: Phoenix Boats, AMFirst, Larry Puckett Chevrolet, 13 Fishing, Rapala, VMC, CRUSHCITY, Buffalo Rock, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Jack’s, Garmin, Thompson Tractor Company, Piranh02, 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..