By By Mike Giles
June 29, 2001
The father and son team of Gordon and Jeff Collum caught a 7 fish limit of bass weighing 16.8 pounds last Saturday that was good enough for second place in the Palmer Home for Children's benefit bass tournament. This tourney was held as a way to raise scholarship money in memory of Ronnie Knox, who was a brother of Meridianite Richard Knox. The tourney was held at Aliceville on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
No strangers to the winner's circle in area tournaments, this team almost came away with the first place trophy on unfamiliar turf. As it was they had quite a day. However, the action didn't take place early in the morning. In fact, it was high noon before they arrived at their "honey hole."
Gordon Collum cast a crankbait onto a ledge and started his retrieve before it was rudely interrupted by a 10 pounder. After a terrific battle, the monster bass just straightened the treble hooks on the bait.
After a few minutes of regaining their composure, Collum cast the Norman deep diving crankbait back to the same spot. Another nice bass promptly tore into the bait and this time he managed to get the 4-1/2 pound bass into the boat. Shortly thereafter, Jeff got in on the action by landing a 7 pound 4 ounce bass on a Norman crankbait also. That bass proved to be the lunker of the tournament.
When all was said and done, the pair had limited out on that spot with a fantastic string of bass. There's something to be said for patience and perseverance, and it surely paid off on this day for this talented duo. Combined with their earnings in the lunker pot, their total winnings for the day came to $1,640.00.