Photos provided by: Kenneth Grover – Fishing North Alabama

What would have been the 12th Annual Rat-L-Trap Tournament on Lake Guntersville turned into the 1st Annual Battle of the Brands Tournament February 5, 2023. In 2022, GSM Outdoors purchased Bill Lewis Lures, Yamamoto Baits, Buckeye Lures and Steel Shad Lures. This provided an opportunity to expand the tournament to include any current product manufactured by any of these brands. Since it is February and the tournament is on Lake Guntersville, most people thought it would be won on a Rat-L-Trap. The added twist of having more options was a situation several of the anglers took advantage of.

Official registration took place at Guntersville Middle School Saturday afternoon from 3:00 PM until 6:00 PM. Afterward, an official tournament meeting and rules clarification was conducted by Xtreme Bass Series that started at 6:00 PM. GSM Outdoors also provided a “goody bag” when each team went through the official registration process. There were a lot of new products introduced at ICAST 2022 by Yamamoto Baits and Bill Lewis Lures. For a lot of anglers, this was the first opportunity to use these new offerings. Guntersville Tackle and Outdoors (GTO) had a lot of the available products setup at the middle school to make it easy for anglers to purchase that potential winning bait. There were a total of 220 teams that registered for this event which meant the payout would be for the top 42 teams along with the top 3 big fish.

There is not an official morning take off location for this tournament. Teams are able to use any launch on Lake Guntersville and each team has a specific start time that was determined by their boat number. Boat numbers were assigned as each team registered for this event. Those boat numbers also determined when the teams had to be at Guntersville Civitan Park to weigh their catch. The teams could return by water or by land but had to be checked in with the tournament staff by their assigned time. The first flight was due to weigh in at 3:00 PM. The scales would open at 2:30 PM for any team that wanted to weigh their catch early.

It did not take long for the big bags to start showing up. The first team to weigh their limit (5 fish) of largemouth had over 20 lbs. and got the weigh in started just after the scales opened at 2:30 PM. As 3:00 PM rolled around, a steady stream of teams began to come in and the weights would continue to be impressive. This event also paid out for the top three individual big fish that were weighed. It did not take long to realize there was a good chance it would take a largemouth weighing over 8 lbs. to have a chance at one of those top three weights.

Boyd Duckett (Major League Fishing President and Bass Pro Tour Angler) and Fletcher Shryock (Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour Angler) handled the emcee duties while the team at Xtreme Bass Series did an excellent job handling the fish and conducting the weigh in. Boyd lives on Lake Guntersville and has competed in many tournaments here over the years and was able to offer some good insight as the anglers came across the weigh stage. Fletcher has a lot of tournament experience and knowledge about fishing Lake Guntersville as well. Both of them were impressed with the fish that were brought to the scales during this event. It was good to see the number of 5 fish limits over 20 lbs. and big fish over 7 lbs. that were weighed.

The same question was always asked of each team as they weighed their fish, “what lures did you use to catch these fish?” Remember, this is the Battle of the Brands. Part of the added curiosity and excitement was finding out what baits were successful and how many baits were used that were not allowed in the past Rat-L-Trap events. It was no surprise to anybody that we heard a lot of teams using Rat-L Traps with some sort of version of red being a dominant color with shad colors being mentioned on occasion. Some of the other baits that were mentioned included Bill Lewis Lures MR6, MR12, SB-57, Echo 1.75, the new ATV Squarebill and the new Scope Stick. There were several teams that mentioned using Buckeye Lures jigs including the Mop Jig, Football Jig and Spot Remover Jig. We also heard about some teams that used 5″ Yamamoto Senko, the new 4″ Yamacraw and the 3.75″ Cowboy.

Based on the smiles on the faces of the anglers, the Battle of the Brands was a huge success.

Thanks goes out to the GSM Outdoors brands and all the other companies that contributed to supporting this event.

Tournament Results

COMPLETE RESULTS HERE

There was a separate Kayak Division this year with 55 anglers competing.

COMPLETE KAYAK RESULTS HERE

Registration Pictures:

Weigh-In Pictures: