Jeff Kirby and Mark Justice weigh 21.95 lbs. of Lake Guntersville bass to win the 2022 Freedom Marine Center 8th Annual Fishing Tournament

Pictures and Story by Kenneth Grover

The 8th Annual Freedom Marine Center Tournament had an electric start with storms combined with thunder and lightening arriving in the middle of the night. The rain and storms ended just in time for 144 teams to launch into Lake Guntersville, go through single file boat check and begin the tournament day. Once the teams started to return back to the boat check-in at Civitan Park at 2:00, we quickly learned that it was a great day for catching fish and the weights looked to be very close. By the end of the weigh-in, that initial thought continued until the last team weighed their catch.

It was the team of Jeff Kirby and Mark Justice with a catch of 21.95 lbs. to take the win. They were tight lipped on the techniques they used but did say they struggled to get bites until 10:30 or 11:00. The early morning struggle did not matter as they were able to catch enough quality largemouth bass to take the first place prize of $5000 plus $1000 for highest finishing Phoenix Boat owner plus $1000 Phoenix Boat owner drawing for a total payout of $7000.00.

The second place team of Ryan Salzman and Matt Lee weighed 21.83 lbs. They reported catching bass on their third stop on a True Bass Perfect Head 5.5 in Citron color rigged on a 1/2 oz. True Lock Swimbait Heads. They slow rolled this bait over eelgrass in 4′-8′ of water on secondary points. Later in the day they used a bladed jig fished over scattered milfoil and eelgrass. They earned $2500 for the second place finish and also $1000 as the highest placing Military team. Ryan Salzman served 10 years in the military that included serving in Kuwait and Iraq.

The third place team of Rodney Evans and William West weighed 21.58 lbs. They said they were using Scottsboro Tackle Company Swimbaits over grass. They earned $2000 for the third place finish and $1000 as the highest finishing First Responder team.

The fourth place team of Travis Wisener and Mark Brooks weighed 21.39 lbs. They said their practice was kind of spotty. They decided to fish an area of the lake where they caught one good fish during practice and stayed there all day. They reported catching all of their fish on topwater baits. They earned $1500 for the fourth place finish.

Big fish of the tournament was a beautiful 7.24 lb. largemouth weighed in by the seventh place team of Scott Ashley and Taylor Ashley. They earned $500 for the seventh place finish and $1000 for the Big Fish.

The highest finishing Parent / Child Team was Jimmy Mitchell and Cole Mitchell finishing in 24th Place with 17.38 lbs. They earned $1000.

All the anglers were treated to a shrimp and crawfish boil provided by Crawmama’s. There were plenty of hungry anglers taking advantage of this after spending the day chasing fish on Lake Guntersville.

The team at Freedom Marine Center deserve a lot of praise and thanks for an event that was very well ran. Phoenix Boats and Yamaha Outboards pro Davy Hite was on hand again offering his services as the emcee and did an awesome job during the weigh-in, offering up door prizes, handing out the payout checks and trying to get some of the details as to how the fish were caught during the day. Over $50,000 in cash prizes was handed out including five (5) $1000 cash drawings to Phoenix Boat owners, $1000 to the highest finishing Phoenix Boat owner, $1000 to the highest finishing Co-Ed team, $1000 to the highest finishing Military team, $1000 to the highest finishing First Responder team, $1000 to the highest finishing Parent / Child team and $1000 to the team that caught the biggest fish.

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