At Bartletts Ferry last Sunday in the Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament 10 fishermen landed 41 keepers weighing about 54 pounds. Four fishermen had five-bass limits and no one zeroed in the 8.5 hours we fished. Of the keepers, 17 were spotted bass.

Sam Smith won with five weighing 10.70 pounds and had a 3.03 pound largemouth for big fish. Raymond English had four weighing 6.97 for second, Kwong Yu placed third with five at 6.78 pounds and Billy Roberts came in fourth with four weighing 6.47 pounds.

What a difference a year makes. Last year this same weekend I won the tournament there with five weighing 14 pounds and had a five-pound largemouth. Russell Prevatt had a five pounder a little bigger than mine for big fish.

When I got to the lake Sunday morning my heart fell. The lake was two feet lower than it was last year, and when I put the boat in my temperature gauge read 80-degree water temperature, seven degrees warmer than last year.

Hardheaded me still tried to fish like I did last year. The first place I stopped where I caught fish last year the water on a seawall was only a few inches deep rather than more than two feet deep like last year. I did not get a bite.

Several more places that were good last year were just too shallow and warm this year. At 10:00 I did not have a fish so I went into desperation mode, fishing a jig head worm just trying to land a keeper. Last year I caught fish on spinnerbaits and a jig and pig, baits that usually produce bigger bass.

I caught my first keeper off a ledge on the river where I have caught many bass in the past but there was no current and the fish just were not feeding there. My second keeper came off a small brush pile and my third was under a dock, all on the jig head worm.

My fourth keeper hit the jig head worm on a small rocky point then, with 15 minutes left, I caught my biggest fish, not much over a pound, under a dock. That shows how small my other four fish really were!

The weather guessers did their usual good job of prognostication. They were saying it would rain all day so at the ramp I put on my rubber boots and rainsuit. It is much easier to do that on the ground than in the boat, especially the rubber boots.

It did not rain a drop until 10:00 then the sun came out. It got very hot and I had to struggle to take off the rainsuit and boots in the boat, but was miserable with them on. It did not rain at all that day.

Sometimes I think I would be better off just ignoring what the weather guessers predict.