DECATUR, Ala. – It was a big weekend in Decatur, Alabama, as B.A.S.S. celebrated the sixth annual Skeeter Boats Bassmaster High School Combine and the first annual Alabama B.A.S.S. Fest. In addition to those events, Bassmaster youth anglers (16U) competed in the first annual 2026 Bassmaster Back to School Invitational on Wheeler Lake.
Anglers faced challenging conditions with high temperatures reaching the low 90s and very little wind. Despite the tough bite, Parker Smith and Cooper Anderson of Scotts Hill Student Anglers took home the win with 14 pounds, 6 ounces.
A Big Comeback from a Slow Start
With just two fish in the livewell at 10:30 a.m., Smith and Anderson battled back in a big way to capture the victory. “At 10:30 our two fish in the box only went for about 4 pounds total, so we knew we had to change things up,” said Smith. “We kept our heads down because we knew our largemouth pattern was going to get better later in the day and thankfully it did.”
The duo from Tennessee kept it simple, fishing a variety of different depths with a one‑two punch of a 5‑inch Deps Sakamata Shad on a jighead and a 19 MM urchin‑style bait. “We started out on some brushpiles in the 15‑ to 20‑foot range, but as the day progressed, we figured out that the shallower brushpiles in the 6‑ to 9‑foot range were holding the bigger fish,” Smith noted…