The first fishing day of the 2017 Strike King Legacy Championship on Lake Wheeler in Decatur Alabama is in the books.  Thanks to the Decatur-Morgan County Convention and Visitors Bureau for hosting this great event.

Also thanks to the First Baptist Church of Decatur for providing us a great venue to meet on Thursday night. The meeting started with registration and door prizes for all the kids provided by our friends at Strike King and Pure Fishing. After everyone was checked in we were treated to a great meal of chicken and steak with all the sides. 

The evening got even better as Bass Elite Series pro Andy Montgomery was introduced to the crowd. Andy spent time in a question and answer period giving us insight into the life of a professional fisherman. After answering questions Andy talked to us about how God can show himself to us through nature and sometimes knocks at the door of our lives to let us know he is there. After Andy finished we received a double blessing when the Bass Chaplin Chris Wells finished the program with his salvation message. The evening ended with a final instruction for the fishing weekend.

Five A.M came early on Friday morning as the eighty seven teams started arriving at the Ingalls Harbor boat ramp to begin their day. By 6:00 A.M. all the teams were in place and the blast off began with lots of excited fishermen heading out in search of a big bag of fish. To help with fish care a three fish was set for the day. Three good bites and you are on your way.

At 1:00 P.M. the first flight started to arrive at the scales and continued to arrive until all the flights were accounted for. Finding the bigger fish was tough but seventy teams brought fish to the scales with forty four teams weighing in a three fish limit. One hundred sixty seven fish were weighed in with a total weight of 307.92 lbs.

The Alabama Northwest Team of Marty Carter and Bradford Mills are the leaders after day one with three fish weighing 9.49 lbs. In second is the Mississippi team of James and Lake Johnson with 9.10 lbs. In third is another team from Alabama Northwest Anthony McBay and Carson Heard with 8.85. Norman and Chase Ligon from Alabama Northwest are in fourth with 8.33 lbs. followed by the Alabama Northeast team of Kent and Emily Ware with 8.16 lbs. Day one big bass honor went to junior angler Carson Heard with a fish weighing 4.72 lbs.

Total standings are posted. Tomorrow is a new day and anything can happen. Stay tuned for day two.

For more pictures of the event, click the following link: https://www.facebook.com/TheNextGenerationofFishing/

Fishers of Men would like to thank all of our fine sponsors; BassCat Boats, Mercury, Stren, Pflueger, Strike King Lure Company, Farm to Feet, Marshall’s Marine, Kings Home,  Power-Pole, Raymarine, Duckett Fishing, ORCA Coolers, Buckeye Lures, T&H Maine, Gator Guards, Solar Bat, Kistler Rods, HydroWave, Enigma, KidCasters, Rigrap, Jacobs Glass, Rayjus Sportswear and Rejuvenade.

Place	Team	Members	# Fish	Big Fish	Gross	Penalty	Net Wt	Points
1	22206		3	4.26	9.49	0	9.49	200
2	22183		3	3.71	9.1	0	9.1	199
3	22041	Anthony McBay	3	4.72	8.85	0	8.85	198
4	15170	Norman Ligon Chase Ligon	3	0	8.33	0	8.33	197
5	17998	Kent Ware Emily Ware	3	3.47	8.16	0	8.16	196
6	21651	Randy Thrash Tucker Thrash	3	0	7.62	0	7.62	195
7	21638	Mitch Willoughby James Willoughby	3	2.67	7.25	0	7.25	194
8	22045	Jim Barnette	2	0	6.87	0	6.87	193
9	19601		3	0	6.87	0	6.87	193
10	18117	Greg Tomlin	3	0	6.87	0	6.87	193
11	16138	Kenneth Harris	3	0	6.84	0.25	6.59	192
12	16724	Julious Lively	3	0	6.49	0	6.49	191
13	21976		3	3.28	6.41	0	6.41	190
14	22177		3	0	6.4	0	6.4	189
15	19515	Bradley Baxter Boone Baxter	3	2.23	6.34	0	6.34	188
16	21975	Rodney Keel	3	3.56	6.8	0.5	6.3	187
17	21893	Barry Johnson	3	0	6.25	0	6.25	186
18	16132		3	0	6.17	0	6.17	185
19	21904	Andrew Lambert Grant Holt	3	0	5.95	0	5.95	184
20	17806	Jonathan Smith Hayden Smith	2	0	5.92	0	5.92	183
21	21691	Nathan Talley John Talley	3	0	5.92	0	5.92	182
22	13512	Bradley Cross	3	3.14	5.85	0	5.85	181
23	16767	Chris Todd Riley Todd	3	0	5.74	0	5.74	180
24	21324	Chris Cooper Logan Cooper	3	0	5.48	0	5.48	179
25	21539	Shane Bryson	3	0	5.42	0	5.42	178
26	15319	Donny Beck Colby Beck	3	0	5.66	0.25	5.41	177
27	22137	dan reagan grant olsen	3	0	5.41	0	5.41	177
28	22201	Jon Richardson	3	0	5.28	0	5.28	175
29	21912	Josh Bragg Noah Armstrong	3	0	5.08	0	5.08	174
30	21652	Trey Bullock Bryce Bullock	3	0	5.04	0	5.04	173
31	22170		3	2.8	4.92	0	4.92	172
32	12640		3	0	4.91	0	4.91	171
33	16338		3	0	5.15	0.25	4.9	170
34	16777	Richard Nearhoof	3	0	4.83	0.25	4.58	169
35	16169		3	0	4.52	0	4.52	168
36	22198		3	0	4.52	0	4.52	168
37	11488	Steve Neal Dawson Busenbark	3	0	4.48	0.25	4.23	166
38	19042	James Osborne Nathanial Eichelberger	3	0	3.76	0	3.76	165
39	14940	Jack Jr. Napier Ross Napier	3	0	3.75	0	3.75	164
40	21902		3	0	3.75	0	3.75	163
41	21920		1	3.61	3.86	0.25	3.61	162
42	22184	Victor Holt Sara Holt	3	0	3.61	0	3.61	162
43	16535	Richard McEarchern	3	0	3.59	0	3.59	160
44	21644	Martin Herring Phillip Herring	3	0	3.48	0	3.48	159
45	13828	Russell Nixon Amaya Nixon	2	0	3.43	0	3.43	158
46	21555	Jimmy Mitchell	3	0	3.68	0.25	3.43	158
47	18120	Steve Wilson Jessie Franklin	2	0	3.28	0	3.28	156
48	19639	Bradford Gambrell Sawyer Redmond	1	3.23	3.23	0	3.23	155
49	18093	Eric Weeks	3	0	3.46	0.25	3.21	154
50	18090	Bobby Myrick	3	0	3.17	0	3.17	153
51	22090	Darin Witherup Michael Witherup	2	0	3.14	0	3.14	152
52	16804	Tim Van Polen	2	0	3.05	0	3.05	151
53	22138	Bob Floro Lucca Floro	2	0	2.92	0	2.92	150
54	16532		2	0	2.88	0	2.88	149
55	21774		1	2.73	2.73	0	2.73	148
56	21775		2	0	2.2	0	2.2	147
57	21751	Jerry Sandretto Jake McNulty	2	0	2.28	0.25	2.03	146
58	21541		2	0	2.1	0.25	1.85	145
59	100001		1	1.64	1.64	0	1.64	144
60	21543	Greg Franklin Ethan Franklin	1	1.5	1.5	0	1.5	143
61	22024	Rick Freeze	1	1.42	1.42	0	1.42	142
62	21554	Edward Looper Jr Lauren Kate Looper	1	1.39	1.39	0	1.39	141
63	21234	Wallace Osborn Kaden Osborn	1	1.33	1.33	0	1.33	140
64	22033	Joe O Connell	1	1.15	1.15	0	1.15	139
65	19634		1	1.14	1.14	0	1.14	138
66	16335	Samuel Dyal Levi Dyal	1	1.02	1.02	0	1.02	137
67	21922		1	0.96	0.96	0	0.96	136
68	16144	Byron Haney	1	0.83	0.83	0	0.83	135
69	21791	Ben Franklin Hardy Franklin	0	0	0	0	0	134
70	21897	Walter Gurgacz Jonathan Gurgacz	0	0	0	0	0	134
71	18036	David Hanson Samuel Hanson	0	0	0	0	0	134
72	21465	Rick Jacobs John Luke Colvin	0	0	0	0	0	134
73	17655		0	0	0	0	0	134
74	16869		0	0	0	0	0	134
75	10420	Matthew King	0	0	0	0	0	134
76	19283	David Morrison Braxton Morrison	0	0	0	0	0	134
77	21901	Stan Riley	0	0	0	0	0	134
78	17997	Sean Terrell	0	0	0	0	0	134
79	21892	Donnie Gamble	0	0	0	0	0	134
80	14944	Jimmy Garrie Briana Tucker	0	0	0	0	0	134
81	22047	Joe Garrie	0	0	0	0	0	134
82	21900		0	0	0	0	0	134
83	19464	Dennis Defoor Kannen DeFoor	0	0	0	0	0	134
84	21391	Frankey Diviney	0	0	0	0	0	134
85	22181		0	0	0	0	0	134
Day 1 Leaders : Marty and Bradford James and Lake 3rd : Carson 4th : Norman and Chase 5th : Kent and Emily