By Jason Duran
WETUMPKA, Ala. — A hundredth of a pound separated Matt Adams and Jason Whitehead from Brian Stiffler and Wesley Gore at Lewis Smith Lake in January. Four points separate them now in AOY, with one tournament left and the Alabama Bass Trail 100 Angler of the Year heavyweight belts on the line.
Adams and Whitehead bring 188 points into Saturday’s season finale at Lake Jordan. Stiffler and Gore are second with 184, and Jed Lamb and Andrew Loberg are only seven points off the lead with 181. If the race ends in a points tie, the belts go to the team with the heaviest combined weight across all three tournaments. Only 10 points separate the top five. There’s also $25,000 on the line for the team that wins Saturday.
Their preparation has looked different, too. Whitehead spent the week seeing Jordan for the first time, searching for a stretch that would give up quality bites more than once. Gore knows the lake well enough to have a long list of places to check. His question is how many still fit a warmer-than-usual November.
Adams and Whitehead plan to swing
Adams and Whitehead got here with two top-10 finishes, taking fifth at Smith with 14.57 pounds and ninth at Neely Henry. At Smith, they went looking for largemouth in dirtier water, fishing hard structure and brush around creek-channel turns. After a fog delay, they put together the limit they ultimately weighed in roughly two hours. A four-pounder Whitehead pulled from a brush pile made the difference for a team that had gone into the opener thinking it needed to survive Smith. At Neely Henry, a lake Adams knows well, they backed it up with 16.96 pounds.
Both guide on Guntersville, and Adams says they often fish the same kinds of places but have different ways of getting a bite. He points to Whitehead’s skill with electronics and how easily the two trade off during a tournament. When one goes to the livewell, the other can take the trolling motor and keep fishing.
Whitehead’s first trip to Jordan took him from one end of the lake to the other. The water was clearer than he expected, and wind gusts of 20 to 25 mph were blowing upriver during practice. He saw little current in the water he covered. He caught smaller fish on several baits, but the quality bites were too scattered for him to settle on a bait or a stretch of water he could count on Saturday.
“Maybe this rain will get a little bit moving,” Whitehead said, hoping the current would help position fish and give him a pattern he could repeat. His research showed how much the lake can vary this time of year. Some results he looked up were in the low to mid-teens, while others showed it taking around 22 pounds to win. He could see five spotted bass winning Saturday and held off on a weight prediction.
Adams is watching the same variable. How much rain translates into current could determine whether the fish set up predictably enough for a team to put together a big limit. With fish in transition, his guess was 23 to 24 pounds. He said five spots could do it, but he expects a mix of spotted bass and largemouth on the winning team’s scales. That’s where their two reads on Jordan meet. Whitehead found enough bites to keep looking, but few he wanted to build a day around. Adams sees the potential for a big bag if moving water gives them a better idea of where to look for the next quality fish.
Adams learned from coming close in the Bassmaster EQs that fishing to do just enough can cost you. The belt and the bragging rights would mean more to him than the check, but he sees the same approach giving them their best shot at both.
“You better go in trying to win the event and then let it fall where it is,” Adams said.
There’s also a scheduling wrinkle for the points leaders. Adams said a two-day championship on Wheeler that starts Friday could leave Whitehead fishing solo at Jordan, depending on how Friday goes. Adams said the chance to win the belts weighs heavily in that decision.
Stiffler and Gore see a chance to make up ground
Brian Stiffler and Wesley Gore finished sixth at Smith with 14.56 pounds and 12th at Neely Henry with 16.70. They leaned on history to get within striking distance. They hadn’t put in a practice day before either of the first two stops, but Gore planned to spend a day or two on Jordan ahead of the finale. With plenty of history on the lake, the challenge is sorting out which of those places fit what the fish are doing now.
Stiffler and Gore shared that they expect Jordan to be warmer than usual for early November. They’re looking for water in the mid to upper 60s, compared with the low 60s or even upper 50s Gore has seen this time of year. That could spread the bite across several patterns. They expect some teams to throw topwaters down the bank, while others flip grass or work a swim jig through it. If the rain gets water moving, the dam could produce some checks, but they expect the main river channel to give up many of the better bags. Gore has seen the dam produce winning fish in late winter and early spring, when the South Division often visits. In November, he gives the edge to the channel, even if moving water makes the dam worth a look.
Gore also pointed to the New Lake section, where he’s had success in the past. He thinks it fishes best from late winter into spring, when fish move in to spawn. He expects it to play a smaller role Saturday, though a team that gets on a good grass bite could make it work.
The team’s clearest path to a winning bag starts early in the river channel. Gore expects suspended fish to be riding high in the water column at first light, where teams can reach them quickly with minnow-style baits and forward-facing sonar. He thinks some teams could put 17 to 19 pounds in the boat on that bite, then move shallow and try to upgrade with a sinking soft-plastic bait. One or two better bites, especially a kicker largemouth, could push a bag into the 21- to 22-pound range. He expects plenty of limits between 15 and 17 pounds. Gore said a swim jig or flipping bait can still produce a shallow upgrade. He gives the Coike the better chance of drawing that kicker bite. He sees room for a couple of 20-pound bags and thinks 24 or 25 will be hard to reach because the bigger fish haven’t settled into predictable places.
“There’ll be a lot of people that catch everything they weigh in before 8 o’clock,” Gore said. The tougher decision could come around 8 or 9, when the early minnow bite starts to fade. Gore said anglers can still catch fish on a minnow later in the day, but those fish are easier to reach early while they’re riding high. A team that stalls around 14 pounds then has to decide how long to stay on the channel bite before moving shallow to look for an upgrade. Gore said the 100-boat field should give teams room to adjust and find fresh water. In his experience fishing the larger South Division field on Jordan, the first stop carried more weight because it was harder to count on having water open later in the day.
Both teams see a way for Jordan to produce a bag over 20 pounds, but their forecasts hinge on different parts of the day. Adams is watching what current does to fish that are still in transition. Gore expects the early channel bite to give teams a chance to build weight quickly, with the harder work coming once that bite slows. A team sitting on an ordinary limit then has to decide how much time it can spend looking for one fish. At Smith, a hundredth of a pound was enough to change where these two teams stood. At Jordan, that kind of upgrade could change who takes home the belts.
Launch, blastoff and weigh-in
Teams will launch at safe daylight on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. Ramp assignments are based on the first letter of the last name of the person listed first on the team’s registration. Watch the online meeting or check your emails to see your ramp assignment.
● State Boat Ramp — 600 Boat Ramp Road, Wetumpka, AL 36092
● Bonners Landing — 504 Bonner Point Road, Wetumpka, AL 36092
Blastoff and weigh-in will both take place at State Boat Ramp.
Lake hosts
City of Wetumpka and Elmore County Economic Development Authority
How to watch
Fans are encouraged to bring a lawn chair to State Boat Ramp in Wetumpka and watch the teams cross the stage at weigh-in. Fans following from home can watch live on-the-water coverage and the weigh-in on the Alabama Bass Trail 100 Facebook page, the Alabama Bass Trail TV YouTube channel, and the official ABT 100 website.
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 100 Series is made possible through the support of its sponsors. They include Phoenix Boats, AMFirst, Larry Puckett Chevrolet, 13 Fishing, Rapala, VMC, Crush City, Buffalo Rock, Academy Sports & Outdoors, Jack’s, Garmin, Thompson CAT, 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, American Trailer Rental, Yamaha, SCUM FROG, Southern Protection Agency, E3 Sports Apparel, FishAlabama.org, Sweet Home Alabama and Alabama Mountain Lakes.
The Alabama Bass Trail is a cooperative effort between the Governor’s office, the Alabama Tourism Department, and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
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