Alabama Bass Trail: Love For The Outdoors

Love for the outdoors runs deep in ’Bama, and with the return of B.A.S.S. to Birmingham in 2011, many anglers feel a renewed enthusiasm for bass fishing.

Love for the outdoors runs deep in ’Bama, and with the return of B.A.S.S. to Birmingham in 2011, many anglers feel a renewed enthusiasm for bass fishing.

Alabama is already internationally recognized for the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, and now the Alabama Bass Trail  will bring anglers the same sort of world-class venues to pursue their favorite sport.

“Anglers spend some $700 million in Alabama each year, and that enormous financial engine will only grow more powerful with the guidance offered by the trail,” says Alabama Bass Trail Program Director Kay Donaldson. “It’s a way of reminding resident anglers of the tremendous resource they have here in the state and of getting the word out to anglers in other states that Alabama is the place to go if you love bass fishing.”

The trail will offer anglers from around the nation an opportunity to fish where the pros fish. Alabama’s waters have been home to hundreds of regional and national tournament competitions drawing all the biggest names in the sport to the state repeatedly. It’s also home to many top touring pros, both those who grew up here and those who moved here to enjoy the great bassing resources in a year-around fishing climate.

The 11 lakes on the trail are by no means the only outstanding bassing lakes in Alabama, but they represent a great cross-section scattered across the 52,400-square-mile state, where the combination of a top-quality fishing experience merges with excellent marinas and boat ramps, great accommodations and a welcoming atmosphere among local businesses.

“Whether you want to fish Guntersville for an 8-pound largemouth, visit the upper end of Pickwick for that 5-pound smallmouth, pull a 20-pound striper from Lewis Smith or catch a boatload of tidewater bass from the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, there are high-grade fishing opportunities from one end of Alabama to the other,” Donaldson says. “We know anglers can’t hit them all, but it would make a great vacation to visit two or three in a week, and over a year anyone who loves fishing could follow most of the trail and have some real stories to tell because there’s always fishing weather somewhere in the state.”

For more information on the Alabama Bass Trail, visit AlabamaBassTrail.org.