After fishing all four Division 2 Turtlebox Bassmaster Open presented by Battery Tender tournaments in 2026, Alabama’s Brody Robison leads the point standings. In his first season fishing the Opens, the 23-year-old finished fourth at Sam Rayburn, 35th at Grand Lake, 11th at Kentucky Lake and 14th on the Upper Mississippi River.
Fishing early
Several ponds on his grandparents’ farm sparked Robison’s passion for fishing. He started at age 5, casting a Zebco spincast outfit for whatever would bite. The largemouth swimming in the ponds soon became his focal point.
At age 11, his mother, Tammy, began dropping him off at the farm around 6 a.m. He would cast from the bank or from a kayak until his mother returned to fetch him at dark.
The largest pond had timber and a maximum depth of 15 feet. A graph on Robison’s Kayak allowed him to see submerged trees, the summer thermocline and where the bass moved to under various conditions. In the smaller ponds, he caught bass from matted vegetation, buck brush and other visible cover.
“Brandon Palaniuk was my guy growing up,” Robison said. “I would watch him on YouTube, buy whatever he was using and fish with it.”
He gravitated to finesse tactics because the pond bass became harder to catch due to his relentless pressure.
Driving the boat
Robison’s bass fishing world expanded exponentially when he obtained a boat driver’s license at age 14. Alabama regulations allow those 14 and older to run a boat unaccompanied.
His mother or father, Daniel, would launch him at Weiss Lake before going to work. Robison would fish from the family’s late ’90s Skeeter until one of his parents came for him in the evening.
“Fishing at Weiss Lake was a huge learning curve for me,” Robison said. “I would watch something about a bait or technique on TV or YouTube and do my best to perfect it on my own.”
Whatever money he earned by mowing lawns determined how far he could run. The boat’s electronics included side-imaging and 360 sonar, which taught him a great deal about finding offshore bass and structure. Side-imaging continues to be his primary tool when searching for bass before a tournament.
Tournament beginnings
At age 12, Robison began fishing club tournaments with his father, who is a member of the Dekalb Bassmasters. They later initiated a bass team at Sand Rock High School to expand Robison’s tournament opportunities.
“God bless my dad for how much work he put into it,” Robison said. “The high school team started with four boats and dwindled to two boats by my senior year. But we were a strong two boats.”
The team competed in several high school circuits, including Bassmaster, MLF, TBF and others. These events took Robison to “about every lake in Alabama” as far north as the Upper Mississippi River and as far south as the Harris Chain. He competed in two Bassmaster High School Championship events at Kentucky Lake and another at Lake Chickamauga.
College fishing
These experiences provided a solid foundation when he joined the University of Montevallo’s bass team. The team ventured as far as the California Delta, but most tournaments took place from Virginia to east Tennessee and south to Florida.
Robison and his partner, Peyton Sorrow, won an MLF national championship and qualified for Redcrest, which they fished last spring. Another highlight was finishing third at the 2023 Bassmaster College Championship at Pickwick Lake. This qualified him for the Bassmaster College Classic Bracket, where he also finished third. Easton Fothergill won that event, which launched his Elite Series career.
After completing two more classes at Montevallo, Robison will earn a master’s degree in marketing. Besides fishing the Opens this season, he has competed in Bassmaster college events, notching 11th at Kerr Lake, second at Santee Cooper and fifth at the Kissimmee Chain.
When not fishing in a tournament, Robison guides for bass on Lake Guntersville. His goal is to make a career as a professional angler, and he wants “in a bad way” to qualify for the Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series.
His sponsors include Little Kamper Propane, the Cast Fishing Co., the Cherokee Chamber of Commerce (Weiss Lake) and Griffith’s OK Tire.
