Category Archives: Tournament Fishing

January On Lake Sinclair Was Tough for Me To Catch A Bass In A Club Tournament

Last Sunday 11 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our January tournament at Lake Sinclair.  After eight hours we brought 21 keeper bass to the scales weighing about 27 pounds.   There was one five-bass limit and two people didn’t have a keeper.

Jay Gerson had the limit and it weighed 7.11 pounds for first place and his 2.94 pound largemouth was big fish.  Raymond English had four weighing 4.77 pounds for second and third was Robert Proctor with three weighing 3.28 pounds. Kwong Yu’s two weighing 2.86 pounds was fourth, beating my one at 2.52 pounds that gave me fifth place.

After catching four keepers the week before in the Potato Creek tournament I had some hope, but those four were on no pattern, just one here and there.  Will Mcclean fished with me, joining this club as well as the Flint River club, and we started trying to hook a fish after a very cold run first thing that morning.

At 10:00 neither of use had a bite after fishing four or five different kinds of places trying to find some kind of pattern.  We then made a cold ride to near the dam where I had caught my fish the week before.

After about 30 minutes the keeper I weighed in hit my spinnerbait near a grassbed in front of some rocks. I told Will I felt like you needed to catch at least three bass to establish any kind of pattern, but that one was all we had to go on.

For the rest of the day we fished similar places, making hundreds of casts around grass beds near rocks, but neither of us ever had another bite!

Lake Lanier Did Not Produce for Members of the Flint River Bass Club in February

Last Sunday six members of the Flint River Bass Club braved the cold windy weather to fish our February tournament at Lake Lanier.  After casting from 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM, we brought in five spotted bass that met the 14-inch size limit.  There were no limits and two members did not weigh a fish.

I won and had big fish with one bass weighing 4.04 pounds.  Alex Gober had two weighing 3.68 for second, my partner Will Mclean had one weighing 2.78 for third and fourth was Don Gober with one weighing 1.88 pounds.

Someday I will figure out the spots on Lake Lanier but it seems like not any time soon.  Like last year I went up three days before the tournament and camped at Don Carter State Park, a great campground.  At least it did not snow Saturday night like it did last year!

Last year I caught one bass in three days practice and zeroed the tournament as did everyone else except Brent Drake. He won with one keeper.  This year I did not hook a fish in three days practice. I mostly rode with my electronics looking for bass and bait.

Saturday afternoon I found some concentrations of bait – 80 feet deep!  Most of the local fishermen that know Lanier well say you have to be fishing around bait to catch winter spots, but I just cannot make myself fish that deep!

There are always some fish shallow and I told Will I felt like shallow fish were more likely to be eating.  So we were going to fish relatively shallow.  We went to a steep rocky bank and I kept the boat out in 25 feet of water. We cast up to a couple feet deep and worked out bait out to about 20 feet deep.

That seemed a good idea, Will caught his fish, his first tournament fish and also first spotted bass, on his fourth cast with a Texas rigged Senko.  I got three bites on a jig but missed all three, I think my frozen hands kept me from feeling the bites like I should, and Will missed two bites on that bank.

We tried a variety of similar places and I missed two more bites, and stupidly broke my line setting the hook on one fish. Usually I retie often, especially when fishing a jig on rocks, but my cold hands kept me from doing that. Will also missed a couple more bites.

I had just about given up at 3:05, with just 20 minutes left to fish, when I felt a thump on my jig and landed my keeper. We had gone back to where Will caught his bass and mine hit in almost the exact same place. We should have stayed there all day!

My motto is “Never give up!”

Fishing Jackson Lake In December Trying To Get Points

 The first Sunday in December 12 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our November tournament at Jackson Lake. After 8.5 hours of casting, we brought 35 keeper bass weighing about 43 pounds to the scales. Most were 12-inch spotted bass. There were three five fish limits and no one zeroed.

    Jay Gerson won with five weighing 5.72 pounds, Zane Fleck placed second with five at 5.35 pounds and Sam Smith was third with five weighing 5.05 pounds. Niles Murray came in third with three weighing 4.31 pounds and Carl Heidle had big fish with a 2.78 pounder.

I think I set my goals too low. My goal each year is to win the point standings, and I had a comfortable lead going into this tournament, with just two left. In my mind I thought if I just landed a keeper in each of the last two tournaments I would win.

When I landed a 13-inch spot at 7:45 I relaxed, I had my keeper. Then it hit me that with 12 fishermen I could lose over half my lead with a last place finish.  So I started trying harder but could not figure anything out.  I finally caught my second keeper at 2:00 and came in 11th place.

That finish did cause me to lose almost half my lead. So, with one tournament left this year, I gotta do better next Sunday!

Fishing a November Tournament At Lake Lake Lanier Trying To Find A Pattern

On a Sunday in November a few years ago ten members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our November tournament at Lake Lanier.  After eight cold, windy, rainy hours we managed to land 11 keeper bass longer than 14 inches, all spotted bass. There were no limits, the most any one fisherman had was three.  Four fishermen did not have a keeper.  They weighed about 26 pounds.

    I managed to win with two keepers weighing 7.11 pounds and my 3.81-pound spot was big fish.  Alex
Gober had three weighing 5.44 pounds for second, Chuck Croft was third with three at 4.67 pounds and fourth was Don Gober with one keeper weighing 3.30 pounds.

    The windy, cloudy day seemed perfect for throwing a spinnerbait on windblown rocky points and banks, usually a very good pattern this time of year. 


I hit three places like that quickly that morning and on the third one, at 7:25 AM, I landed the 3.30 pound spot on one of Ryan Coleman’s Mini Me spinnerbaits. That fish jumped two feet out of the water when I hooked it, unusual for a big spot, and made my heart stop. 

    That got me excited that I had a good pattern going so I fished it hard until 11:30, trying spinnerbaits, jerk baits and crankbaits. All I caught was two 13-inch spots, no keepers.  At 11:00 I got tired and tried some brush piles out of the wind but got no bites.

    At 1:00 I went back to rocky points and fished a jig and pig, working areas out of wind since I was so tired.  I caught my bigger fish within five minutes and again got excited, thinking that pattern would work. But two hours later I had not gotten another bite trying that pattern.

    Those big spots at Lanier fight hard and are fun to catch but unless you fish the lake a lot they are difficult to pattern.  The day of our tournament a guide there, Lanier Jim, posted pictures of the big spots he and a client caught.  He knows the lake well and fishes it every day.  They caught about a dozen keepers and their best five weighed about 18 pounds. And they fished the same area of the lake I fished. Knowing the lake makes a huge difference!  

    The Sportsman Club is fishing our November tournament there next Sunday.  I’m sure it will be tough but fun if we manage to hook any of those magnum spots!

Note – I won it, too, with a limit weighing 12.65 pounds i caught off wind blown points on spinnerbaits early and had big fish with a four-pound spot that came off the same rock as the 3.71 above!!

Last Minute Catches In A January Tournament At Jackson Lake

Sunday, January 9, eight members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our January tournament at Jackson Lake. After casting from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM, we brought 23 keeper bass weighing about 26 pounds to the scales. There were three five-bass limits and one fisherman did not have a keeper.

Alex Gober won it all with five weighing 7.35 pounds and had a 1.80 pounder for big fish.  Niles Murray came in second with five at 5.52 pounds and
Doug Acree was third with five weighing 4.34. Lee Hancock came in fourth with two weighing 2.50 pounds, beating my two at 2.48 pounds by .02 pounds!

    It was a tough day. Niles said he caught his five in about an hour.  This time of year there is often a “bite window,” a short time when if you are in the right place at the right time you can catch fish.

New member Will McLean fished with me and we fished hard.  But at 2:46 with five minutes left to fish I had gotten only one bite, a four-inch crappie that hit a spoon.  I found fish in many places, some of them set up under baitfish and looked like perfect places to catch one. But it did not happen for either of us.

As time ran out Will and I were working around a rocky point. I told him I would make a couple of casts across the downstream side of the point then we had to go in, even without anything to weigh.

On three casts I landed two keepers and lost one at the boat on a DT 10 crankbait. On my Panoptix I could see baitfish all over the end of the point with fish moving around under them, like in a few other places, but they were feeding better.

I wish I could have made a few more casts but we pulled up at the ramp two minutes before being late!

Fishing Griffin Georgia Bass Clubs

 Bass clubs have been an important part of my life for 48 years. Since Jim Berry invited me to join the Spalding County Sportsman Club in April 1974, I have missed few meetings or tournaments in that club. I joined the Flint River Bass Club a few years later, in 1978, then finally joined the Potato Creek Bassmasters about six years ago.

    Joining a bass club puts you in a group of fishermen that love bass fishing. We are at all levels, from beginners to a few that can compete on bigger money trails.  But the joy of a club is the camaraderie, learning experiences and fun, not the money you might win.

Right now is a great time to join a bass club. All three Griffin clubs are setting our schedules and starting our tournament years in January.  My goal each year is to do well in the point standings for the year, and it is hard to keep up if you miss a tournament. And fishing is often surprisingly good in January and February.

The Flint River Bass Club meets the first Tuesday of the month and fishes our tournament the following Sunday.  Potato Creek Bassmasters meets the Monday following the first Tuesday and fishes that Saturday.  Spalding County Sportsman Club meets the third Tuesday each month and fishes the following Sunday.     

All three clubs have some two-day tournaments, with two in Flint River, three in the Sportsman Club and four in Potato Creek.  All three meet at Panda Bear Restaurant.

Annual dues are $25 in Flint River and $50 in the other two. Monthly tournament entry fees are $25 to $30 with a variety of pots, like daily big fish at $5, that are voluntary. The Sportsman Club and Potato Creek both have year end Classics that members qualify for during the previous year.

We have a lot of fun at the meetings discussing fishing and telling some true stories about it. Tournaments are fun competition, mostly for bragging rights since entry fees are low and there is not enough money involved to really get serious about it.

There are many of us in each of the three clubs that often fish alone, so there is always room for new members without a boat. I am looking for someone to fish with me in Flint River tournaments.  If interested in joining one of the clubs call me at 770-789-6168 or email ronnie@fishing-about.com

    The 2021 tournament year is done and point standings are complete.  In the Flint River Bass
Club 100 points are awarded to first place, 90 for second down to 10 for tenth place.  If you catch a fish but finish lower than 10th, you get five points.  You also get 10 points for attending a meeting and 20 points for fishing a tournament, even if you zero.

    Last year in the Flint River Club I won with 1150 points and 42 bass in 12 tournaments that weighed 70.44 pounds.  Don Gober was second with 780 points, 28 bass weighing 44.64 pounds in 10 tournaments. Third went to Don’s grandson, Alex Gober, with 610 points and 19 bass in 10 tournaments weighing 24.4 pounds.

    Niles Murray fished six tournaments but had 580 points and 24 bass weighing 44.77 pounds for fourth. Fifth went to Chuck Croft fishing six tournaments with 510 points 13 bass and 29.52 pounds. He also had big fish for the year with a 5.39 pound largemouth caught at West Point in May. Lee Hancock fished only three tournaments but came in sixth with 310 points and 18 bass weighing 29.21 pounds.

The Potato Creek Bassmasters uses the same point system as Flint River but has a lot more members, and more fish every month.  Sam Smith won with 785 points, 45 bass weighing 86.62 pounds and I placed second with 765 points, 61 bass and 103.24 pounds.  Third went to Raymond English with 700 points, 73 bass and 116.35 pounds and Kwong Yu came in fourth with 695 points, 65 bass and 116.55 pounds.

Fifth place for the year was won by Lee Hancock with 680 points, 55 bass and 98.08 pounds.  Sixth was Mitchell Cardell with 660 points, 50 bass and 96.52 pounds. Big fish for the year was won by Jamie Beasley with a beautiful 7.23 pound largemouth caught at Eufaula in March.

It was interesting that the 12 tournaments in this club were won by 11 different members!

In the Sportsman Club 25 points are awarded to first, 24 for second down to one for 25th.  Each fisherman weighing in a limit in a tournament gets a bonus point, as does big fish. And each fisherman gets one point for fishing a tournament, even if they zero, and one point for attending a meeting.

I had 294 points and 52 bass weighting 86.38 pounds for first, second was a tie with Raymond English and Jay Gerson both having 274 points. Raymond weighed in 45 bass weighing 87.71 pounds and Jay had 60 bass weighing 84.19 pounds.  Fourth went to Glenn
Anderson with 233 points, 35 bass and 48.28 pounds. All four of us fished all 12 tournaments.

Kwong Yu came in fifth with 214 points, 38 bass weighing 69.4 pounds.  Sixth place went to Wayne Teal with 168 points and 28 bass weighing 39.85 pounds.  Billy Roberts won big fish of the year with a 5.15 pound largemouth caught at Clarks Hill in April.

Join one, two or all three clubs and have some fun with us and show us how to catch fish!

Last Tournaments of the Year At Jackson

Two weekends ago all three local bass clubs ended our tournament years at Jackson Lake. Saturday the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished from 7:00 – 3:30 and on Sunday the Flint River Bass Club and Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our annual two-club tournament from 7:30 – 3:30.

Saturday 21 of us weighed in 42 keeper bass weighing about 59 pounds. There were three five-bass limits and eight people didn’t catch a keeper.

Lee Hancock won with five bass weighing 7.35 pounds, Tom Tanner placed second with five at 5.53 pounds, Mitchell Cardell had four weighing 5.37 pounds for third and Mike Cox placed fourth with five weighing 5.15 pounds. Sport Hulon had a 4.08-pound largemouth for big fish.

On Sunday, ten members of the two clubs landed 31 keeper bass weighing about 41 pounds. There were three five fish limits and one person zeroed.

My five weighing 6.51 pounds was first, Niles Murray had four at 6.10 pounds for second, third was Don Gober with three weighing 5.69 pounds and fourth went to Jay Gerson with five at 5.64 pounds. Raymond
English had big fish with a 2.89 pound largemouth.

Fishing seemed much better Sunday with a lot fewer boats on the lake. Saturday was crowded with other fishermen, pleasure boaters and even skidoos. Weather both days was about the same, with cool cloudy weather and water temperatures in the mid-50s.

Fishing Lake Weiss in August

Lake Weiss again proved a good fisherman can catch fish under terrible conditions for others. In the Potato Creek Bassmsters August tournament at Lake Weiss, 16 members fished for 16 hours to land 45 keepers weighing about 81 pounds. There were two five-bass limits and six fishermen zeroed for both days.

Raymond English had a great catch Saturday, bringing in a limit weighing 13.68 pounds and big fish of 4.52 pounds. He added four more at 6.26 pounds for first place of 9 bass weighing 19.94 pounds and the 4.52 pounder was big fish. 

Sam Smith had a limit on Sunday and weighed in 8 bass weighing 16.24 pounds for second place. He had a 4.49 pounder to anchor his stringer. Third was Kwong Yu with five keepers weighing 11.87 pounds and Lee Hancock came in fourth with six bass weighing 10.84 pounds.  Niles Murray came on strong on Sunday and had five weighing 9.50 pounds for fifth.

I left for Lake Weiss last Tuesday with such anticipation.

Five fishing days and two keeper bass later, I am disappointed, to say the least. I tried everything I could think of for three days of practice. Fished up above causeway Wednesday looking for anything shallow – docks, grass, rocks, not a bite. Rode ledges and found all kinds of cover and fish but could not get them to hit.

Thursday went down below the causeway and did the same thing. Schools of fish in brush on ledges but nothing would hit crankbaits, worms or drop shot.

I went back up Thursday and got a three-pound spot on a buzzbait at 10:00 AM on a shady bank, so I decide to gamble on that pattern and run shady banks in that area all day in the tournament.

Saturday I caught nine short fish, lost two keepers at the boat and landed a 3.10 spot. It hit a whacky rig on a seawall at about 11:00 AM when I got tired of watching the buzzbait not get hit.

Sunday I missed one on a buzz bait early then got one 11 inch spot on a whacky rig. Never hooked a keeper in seven hours of casting!

The one spot got me 9th out of 16 people so it was tough for a lot of us.

Weiss is a beautiful lake with miles of shoreline grassbeds, seawalls and docks to fish.  The Coosa River channel winds through flats and is joined by numerous creeks to form ledges that drop from shallow to deep.  I found dozens with five to ten feet of water on top dropping to 25 to 30 feet deep in the channel.

Many of those drops had brush on them, both natural stuff that washed down the river and hung up or brush piles put out by fishermen. Time after time I watched fish follow my bait around those brush piles but not hit it.

Weiss is known as “The Crappie Capitol of the World” and is full of big ones. They have to be 10 inches long to keep, so that insures a good population of quality fish.  I am sure many of those fish I saw were crappie and you could catch a lot of good eating fish on live minnows fishing them.

Getting A Lucky Feeling In A November Club Tournament at Lanier

On a Sunday in November 12 members and guests fished our November tournament at Lanier.  After eight hours of casting, we weighed in 31 keeper bass longer than the 14-inch size limit there.  There were two five fish limits and one zero.  There was only one largemouth, all the rest were spots.

    I won with five weighing 12.65 and had a 4.01-pound spot for big fish.  Zane Fleck had five at 10.26 pounds for second, third was Billy Roberts with four fish weighing 7.65 pounds and Kwong Yu placed fourth with three at 7.15 pounds.

    I guessed right.  While we were getting boats ready that morning I talked with fellow club member Russell
Prevatt.  He had been out with Lanier guide Jimbo that week and they had caught some good fish in 40 feet of water jigging spoons.  Other guides on Lanier had been posting pictures of all the three and four-pound spots they were catching from 35 to 50 feet deep on spoons.

    From all that I knew most of the big fish were deep. But I told Russell I was going to stick with what I feel most comfortable doing. If I got a limit, which I felt was very unlikely, I would try to catch fish deep. I planned to start with a spinnerbait then a jig and pig on rocky points, the way I won the Flint River tournament two weeks ago there.

    We took off at 7:00 and I ran out of the creek. As I went by the point I started on in the Flint River tournament I considered stopping there. I have caught a lot of spots there up to four pounds. But I had a feeling I should run to another point to start, mostly because I knew the wind would be blowing right on it.

    After making the short run I picked up a spinnerbait and started casting, quickly hooking a good spot. After putting it in my livewell I looked at my watch, it was 7:05!  I put my second keeper in the livewell at 7:10 and my third one that I estimated weighed about 3.5 pounds in it at 7:25.

    I felt pretty good about my catch. By now the sun was bright so I went back around the point to the shady side and fished it with spinnerbait and crankbait without a bite.  Back on the sunny side I picked up a swim bait and caught my fourth keeper at 8:00.

    I started to go look for deeper fish to try to fill my limit but decided to fish around the point more slowly with a jig and pig.  With the brighter light I could see rocks under the water. At 9:00 I cast my jig and pig to the same boulder where I had caught the 3.81-pound spot that was big fish in the Flint River tournament, got a bite on the same jig and pig as I caught it on, and landed the 4.01 pound spot.

    I had six hours left so I started looking for deeper fish, playing with my electronics, fine tuning them and looking for baitfish and bass in 40 to 50 feet of water. I fished several places that looked good but had no bites.

    With one hour left to fish I ran around to the point I almost started on and quickly caught a keeper on the jig and pig, but it was not big enough to cull anything in the live well.  That was it, I got no more bites before having to go in for weigh-in.

    I had a feeling that morning about what to do.  I get that rarely, but I think really good fishermen get it often.  I call it a sixth sense for fishing and I think pros and other really good fishermen have it often. That is what makes them so good. 
    I wish I had it more often!

November Camping At Don Carter State Park and Fishing Lake Lanier

  Camping in November is an iffy proposition, as last week proved to me. I went to Don Carter State Park on Lake Lanier last Wednesday and came home Monday after fishing the Flint River Bass Club tournament on Sunday.

    Wednesday afternoon was nice enough driving to the north end of the lake and setting up my slide in pickup camper. I went back into town to meet a friend that lives on the lake, get some information from him, and eat some delicious fried scallops at the Atlanta Street Seafood Market.

    On the way back to the camper it started sprinkling rain a little. By the time I showered it was getting cold and the rain was steady but light. It lasted all night and all morning Thursday and I just could not make myself launch my boat and go fishing in the cold mess.

    When the rain stopped around 1:00 and my weather radar app showed no more heading toward me, I put in at the state park ramp and fished around that area way up the river. I never got my boat up on plane, just fished around the ramp since it was cold and windy.

The water had a stain to it and was a surprising 54 degrees, but the fish bit pretty good. In just under three hours I landed six largemouth and one spot and lost two more. All hit a crawfish colored Rapala DT6 on steep rocky banks back in small creeks. Two of the largemouth were about three pounds each.

It got colder Thursday night and I slept in Friday morning, getting to the ramp in Balus Creek about 30 minutes from the park around 11:00. The water was clear and 64 degrees, but warmer water did not help. By 4:00 I was disgusted, I had tried everything I could think to do and had hooked one small spotted bass on the crankbait. That was the only bite I got.

Saturday morning was similar and I started fishing down around Balus Creek just before noon.  When I quit at 4:00 I had not hooked a fish. I spent a lot of time riding and trying to fish baitfish and bass deep, but everything that looked good did not work.

Saturday night got cold. My camper has an electric rooftop heater but it is either wide open or off, there is no thermostat.  Even though it was 37 degrees I had to turn it off, it was stifling hot after 15 minutes. The small electric heater I carry kept the camper tolerable but not comfortable.

When I got up at the new too-early time to be at the ramp at 6:30 AM there was frost on my windshield. My truck thermometer read 32 at one point driving to the ramp in the dark. 

I ran to my favorite point when we took off at 7:00 AM but never got a bite. After fishing a couple more places I seriously considered making the 15-mile run back up the lake where I had caught the largemouth, but the cold made me want to stay where I was.

At 8:30 going to a deep point to try I noticed two big pine trees had fallen into the water down the bank from it. I thought the water was too shallow but decided to fish them anyway. My first cast with a shaky head worm produced a 15-inch keeper spot and I put I point the live well. I would not zero!

My very next cast to the same tree produced another keeper spot. As I put it in the livewell I got in too big a hurry to make another cast, stumbled and stepped on my net handle, breaking it. Just my luck, if I hooked a big fish I would be in trouble.

By the time I got back up front my boat had blown into the tree, messing it up. But I went to the next tree and on my second cast to it I caught another keeper! Three on four cast – my day was looking up.

As I eased around the deep point, trying to remember more trees nearby to fish, I saw four or five fish suspended 15 feet down over 45 feet of water on my Garmin Panoptix. When I cast my shaky head to them I watched them go to it as it sank. When they started swimming off was disappointed until I realized I couldn’t see my bait falling any more, set the hook and landed a 15-inch spot.

A few minutes later on the same point there were three fish cruising about five feet off bottom 25 feet deep. When I cast to them they went to my bait and followed it down. When it hit bottom I felt a tiny little tap and set the hook on another 15 inch spot. I had a surprising limit at 9:00!

 When I went to another bank with some blow down trees with a little wind on them, I caught my sixth keeper, then hooked a big fish. I thought it was a catfish but when I got it close to the boat I saw it was a big spot. Then I remembered my broke net!

It was a comedy for the next few minutes but somehow I landed the 4.07 pound spot.  Fishing that pattern the rest of the day produced only two more fish but I was thrilled with nine keeper spots.

At weigh-in my five weighed 11.88 pounds but got beat by Don Gober’s five at 11.96 pounds. Chuck Croft had two at 7.75 pounds for third and his 4.11 pound largemouth beat my 4.07 pound spot for big fish. Alex Gober had two weighing 3.35 pounds for fourth.

It hurt to be so close but I am thrilled to have what I had after my poor luck Friday and Saturday, and glad I did not make a long cold run.