by Dan O’Sullivan

June 9, 2018 – Cropwell, Ala. – Any time one ventures out in a summer tournament, the chances of a lake resembling an ocean are great.  With the fourth tournament on the 2018 Alabama Bass Trail’s Northern Division schedule being on Logan Martin, those chances became reality.

Logan Martin is one of the bodies of water that is known as a playground for Birmingham, and when warm summer conditions were on the forecast for tournament day, people came out to play in the water.  The heavy boating traffic and hot conditions made for less than ideal navigation for the 203 team field, and put the Coosa River’s resident largemouth and spotted into a slight funk.

However, as with every tournament, someone will figure out how to do enough to win, and despite the weights being lighter than anticipated, the team of Allen Yarborough and Kyle Dorsett produced a 16.68-pound limit, which earned them the day’s victory and the $10,000 first prize.

The pair, who has vast knowledge of the lake were a little surprised by the result.  “We really didn’t think we had enough to win,” they said.  “We knew it was tough, but never would have thought that less than 17 pounds would have won today; this is a great surprise.”

Yarborough and Dorsett said that they spent their day fishing from the Logan Martin Dam on the lower end of the lake and working their way back upstream to the mid lake area.  They concentrated on Flippin’ docks with a 3/8 “green and blue jigs with Zoom Chunk trailers and Zoom Trick Worms and NetBait TMac worms, while catching a few key fish off of brushpiles throughout the day as well.  “We had to really scale down because they didn’t pull as much current as we thought they would,” they said.  “We just did the best we could, trying to get bites, and we’re really happy with the way things turned out.”

The second place team of Michael Stevens Jr. and Paul Arnold find themselves in a familiar position having finished second the last time the Northern Division made a regular season stop at Logan Martin.  The pair from Fayetteville, Tenn. and Woodville, Ala. said they were satisfied with how they fished, but slightly frustrated to finish in the runner up position again. “We had a great day on the water, but it’s frustrating to come so close and fall short again,” they said.  “We caught 50 fish upriver in current eddies on a Spot Remover head and green pumpkin Trick Worm.  It was a fun day, and while we would rather have won, we’re grateful for the good finish with one more event left.”  The pair earned the $5,000 second place prize, along with the $250 ABT Gear bonus for wearing an item of Alabama Bass Trail Apparel during the event and weigh-in.

The team of Jim Marona and Cory Jones caught a 5.28-pound largemouth that anchored their 14.42-pound limit.  Their effort earned them sixth place for the day, as well as the $500 Mountain Dew Big Bass bonus for weighing in the largest fish of the event.

The rest of the Top 10 Standings are below, for complete standings visit: https://www.alabamabasstrail.org/tournament-series/lml-results/

Place	Anglers	Weight	Big Fish	Winnings
1	Allen Yarborough / Kyle Dorsett	16.68	4.44	$10,000
2	Michael Stevens Jr / Paul Arnold	15.95	4.02	$5,000
3	Allen Hayes / Danny Bishop	15.71		$4,000
4	Russ Sapp / Joey Nania	15.54		$3,000
5	Bradley Jones / Andy Kilgore	14.69		$2,000
6	Jim Marona / Cory Jones	14.42	5.28	$1,500
7	Chad Hall / Jake Smith	14.37		$1,100
8	Charlie Cummings / Greg Pugh	14.33		$1,100
9	Tracy Robinson / Willie Staten	14.14		$1,100
10	Lanny Guthrie / Lee Hurley	14.11		$1,100