SHEFFIELD, Ala. – Winning the fourth annual Timmy Horton High School Bass Anglers Challenge on Pickwick Lake was an answered prayer for Briana Tucker.
“I was praying all week that God would bless me with five big ones,” Tucker said before she placed her five-bass limit on the scales during the tournament weigh-in that was held Saturday, Oct. 22 at Riverfront Park in Sheffield.
The crowd applauded and Tucker, a senior at Hartselle (Ala.) High School, had a huge smile on her face as emcee Tim Horton announced that her catch weighed 16.73 pounds. The catch was anchored by the biggest fish caught during the tournament, a largemouth bass that weighed 7.71 pounds. Tucker won two college scholarships totaling $4,500 and a $300 rod and reel.
Tucker plans to fish competitively in college and then hopes to become a professional angler after graduating. Horton, a professional angler and outdoors television personality from Muscle Shoals, Ala., said he has been keeping up with Tucker since she was in elementary school, and he is confident that not only will she earn a spot on one of the professional bass fishing tours, she will do well. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 25 degrees or 110 degrees, she is out there fishing and she is catching fish. I expect to see her in the Bassmaster Classic someday.”
Tucker began competing in bass tournaments when she was 8.
Rounding out the top five in the senior division were Ross Napier, also of Hartselle High, with 12.32 pounds; Gabe Wallace of Russellville (Ala.) High with 6.49 pounds; Clayton Birdyshaw of Rogers High in Florence, Ala., with 6.17 pounds and Brody Montgomery of Vinemont (Ala.) High with 4.45 pounds.
Luke Linley, an eighth grader at Deshler Middle School in Tuscumbia, Ala., won the junior division with a five-bass limit that weighed 5.27 pounds. He won a $3,000 scholarship. The junior division is for anglers in grades 7-9.
Thomas “Kole” Key of Northside Middle School in Tuscaloosa, Ala., with 5.07 pounds; Dalton Steele of Russellville (Ala.) High with 3.55 pound; Landon Beard of Muscle Shoals Middle School, with 3.37 pounds; and Conner Handley of Vinemont High with 3.34 pounds rounded out the top five in the junior division.
Almost 100 anglers competed in the tournament that was organized by Colbert County Tourism and Convention Bureau. Since the tournament began in 2013, $80,000 in college scholarships have been awarded.
Highlights from the tournament will be broadcast on the Timmy Horton Outdoors television show on the World Fish Network channel. The broadcast date will be announced.
