This week on the Alabama Saltwater Fishing Report, host Butch Thierry sits down with Dylan Kiene and welcomes Gabe Tidmore and Captain Matt Swiggum of Back Bay Charters for a tournament-driven breakdown of the Windsor Winter Classic. With neap tides, wild wind swings, and rapid water-level changes, the conversation turns into a practical playbook on how trout behave when conditions change overnight, how to make better decisions under pressure, and what tackle tweaks actually helped keep fish pinned and alive.
Conditions Recap
The weekend was the definition of “same place, different world.” Saturday started relatively calm and humid with light winds and skinny water in tidal river systems. By Sunday, the wind howled and shoved water back into the rivers, flooding banks and wiping out visual references from the day before. Multiple anglers noted how dramatic the water-height change felt even without meaningful tidal range, and how quickly the bite turned from solid thumps to short strikes, skin-hooked fish, and “swinging at air” as fish slapped at baits instead of committing.
Neap tides played a major role in the decision-making, too. With limited natural current, anglers leaned heavily on wind-driven water movement to create feeding situations. After the line of storms pushed through, runoff and distinct color changes became a key clue, with some of the better post-front bites happening right on those edges.
Windsor Winter Classic Recap and What Changed Overnight
Gabe Tidmore and partner Joey Overkirch pieced together two near-identical bags (around the 11-pound mark) and finished fifth, but the margin was razor thin. A few key fish dying on Day 1 highlighted how valuable the live-well bonuses can be in this format. Their biggest takeaway was consistency: the fish largely stayed in the same 10–12 foot depth band despite the water rising and falling, meaning the “zone” didn’t move as much as the anglers did. On Day 2, they made a smart mid-storm move during the early thunder to reposition and upgrade, and their best bites came where runoff created a defined color line.
Dylan and Matt’s crew saw the other side of the coin. They were able to get a five-fish limit early on Day 1 and found quality bites, but Day 2 turned into a grind as the wind and weather shifted hard. They described a frustrating trend where fish would thump the bait and then race straight at the boat, making it difficult to come tight through slack line and heavy wind bow. The clear lesson: when the forecast calls for two totally different days, you need A, B, and C patterns ready, not just one “best” plan.
Where the Fish Were Holding and How to Approach Them
Depth mattered, but so did edges and positioning. Gabe’s best window came from working the 10–12 foot zone where bait was staging, then adjusting boat position as water pushed up and out. Post-front, runoff seams and color-change lines acted like fish magnets. The fish did not necessarily get “picky” after the weather line, but the feeding window was shorter, so getting in the right water at the right time mattered more than constantly swapping lures.
Dylan and Matt also emphasized the value of recognizing when bait is actually pressured. Nervous mullet pinned against a shoreline, or bait flicking and acting uncomfortable, was a better sign than bait simply existing. One of their most memorable electronics moments was scanning a deeper hole and seeing what looked like a massive concentration of trout marks mixed with big fish, even though they could not get the school to bite during that window.
Lures, Colors, and Presentations That Produced
Despite the chaos, a few patterns showed up repeatedly. Dylan and Matt leaned heavily on Slick Lures, especially darker profiles with purple backs, and occasionally added a touch of orange on the nose or belly using customization dye. They also found a surprising second bite on a crystal-clear grub-style bait, showing that two totally different looks can work in the same conditions when fish are acting strange.
Gabe and Joey split success between a Slick Jr in black-and-gold and a Z-Man PaddlerZ in the “New Penny” color. When the bite turned into short strikes and slap-bites, Gabe went smaller with a Z-Man Slim SwimZ (2.5-inch) paired with a light 1/8 oz jig head to force fish to commit. For upgrades, he dusted off a Marker 54 shrimp, favoring the slow fall and how long it stayed in the strike zone in deeper water.
Retrieve speed leaned slower across the board. Dylan described extending pauses on the twitchbait-style presentation (3–5 seconds in winter), but wind, shallow structure, and line bow made true “slow and controlled” retrieves harder on Day 2. Both teams noted that changing cadence can trigger bites briefly, but it often did not “stick” for long in these pressured systems.
Gear Notes: Keeping Fish Alive, Managing Wind Bow, and Confidence Tools
Live-well management was a major difference-maker in this tournament. Matt shared a simple system that dramatically improved survival rates using Ocean Salt to raise salinity and G Juice (described as “fish crack”) to help fish recover and stay lively. He used a small bubbler/bubble box setup and measured salinity with a digital hydrometer. The goal was keeping fish healthy enough to earn the live fish bonus, which can swing standings fast in a tight leaderboard.
Wind and slack-line management came up repeatedly. Dylan discussed the idea of experimenting with lower gear ratio reels to force slower retrieves, plus downsizing braid and leader diameter to reduce drag and bow in heavy wind. They also talked through fluorocarbon (including the idea of spooling all fluoro for sink) and how braid’s tendency to float can alter presentation when wind-driven current is the only current you have.
For a “hook-up and information” bait when fish were slapping at soft plastics, Dylan mentioned gaining confidence in a treble-hook-style soft bait from PAV Lures, the lil POV, which casts a mile and can convert more of those non-committal strikes. It also helps confirm what’s actually in the area when you need to see fish at the boat.
Electronics and Decision-Making Under Tournament Pressure
Matt and Dylan emphasized that electronics are best used to answer specific questions: is bait present, are fish suspended or glued to the bottom, and are you seeing “big arches” that suggest quality trout in deeper water. In very shallow water, side scan becomes more valuable than down scan, and even when fish will not bite, scanning can tell you whether you should revisit that area during a better window.
They also stressed a hard-earned scouting lesson: pre-fishing a spot too hard can educate fish and shut a school down for tournament day. A better approach is to confirm presence with a couple bites, then leave. Interestingly, several anglers reported the reverse pattern during this event: schools that were not chewing in scouting were the ones that lit up during the tournament, while the “easy” scouting fish became stubborn under pressure.
Local Intel: Staggered Flights and Strategy
The Winter Classic’s staggered flight system added a new strategic layer. Instead of a chaotic “drag race,” anglers had assigned departure minutes after the safety check. That forced teams to think through alternate starts and contingency plans, especially with popular water temporarily off limits due to marine construction restrictions. The consensus from the group was that the format rewarded intentional planning and reduced risky, reactionary decision-making at launch.
