Herren rode out scary storm during FLW Tour stop
Wired2Fish.com staff report
Alabama pro Matt Herren said reports of a tornado hitting the town of Cullman during the recent Wal-Mart FLW Tour stop on Smith Lake were accurate.
“I saw the thing hanging from the clouds when it went over our heads,” Herren said. “There definitely was a funnel hanging out of that cloud. I’ve been through some really bad storms and been in bad situations before, but that one was the worst I’ve ever been in. It really scared me.”
The storm hit north-central Alabama on the second day of the FLW Tour stop, bringing three tremendous thunderstorms and high winds. Anglers began the day under the threat of severe weather, but fished anyway and then found themselves scrambling in some portions of the massive lake to seek shelter.
Herren said he and his co-angler were fishing in Rock Creek, a popular tributary of the lake, and clung to the rocky wall as best they could to ride out the storm.
“I could see it coming but what was weird was one side of the boat was bright, sunny and clear, and the other side was black as midnight,” Herren said. “My co-angler lives in Alabama but isn’t originally from here, so I don’t think he grasped the entire situation. It definitely was dangerous and I hate being in that situation because we were just helpless. There was nothing we could do to control anything, other than to get against the bluff and hang on.”
The storm damaged several buildings and infrastructure in downtown Cullman, which is located on the northeast side of the lake. Trees were down and electricity was out, but no one was killed.
Storms are typical in the Southeast and Midwest in spring, when cold fronts coming out of Canada mix with warm air on the plains or from the Gulf of Mexico. That can be a recipe for disaster if conditions are right for severe thunderstorms, straightline winds or smaller isolated storms that can spawn tornadoes.
Sometimes, tournament directors call off a day due to weather, just like Trip Weldon did recently at the Bassmaster Elite Series tournament on Lake Amistad. Forecasts for the first day were for high winds, which could have presented a dangerous situation based on the location of the launch ramp. The winds never materialized and the Elite anglers had a day off, but Weldon was erring on the side of safety.
There are times, though, when storms may form during the day and pop up unexpectedly. That happened a few years ago at an FLW Tour stop on Old Hickory Lake near Nashville, when a tornado raked the area during a freak thunderstorm that materialized.
Herren said anglers anywhere should be aware of their surroundings.
“You should know what’s going on and the forecast for the day,” he said. “One other time on Lake Mitchell a storm blew in and I was trying to get back to the ramp. The winds were so bad it was lifting my boat up when I came off a wave. I had looked at the weather (forecast) before I went out, but this thing just blew up that afternoon.”