Last Sunday 16 members and guests fished the Spalding County Sportsman Club June tournament at Oconee. We lucked out and it was a rainy, cooler than normal day for late June. Fishing from 6:00 AM until 3:00 PM we brought in 43 keeper bass weighing about 72 pounds. There were six 5 fish limits weighed in.

Mike Dalton brought in a limit weighing 12.25 pounds to win the tournament, and his 3.57 pound bass took the big fish pot. I had five weighing 10.35 pounds for second and my 3.54 pound fish, just 3 hundredths of a pound smaller than Mike’s big one, didn’t win anything!

James Pilgrim, Jr. had four bass weighing 7.66 pounds for third, Butch Duerr had five weighing 7.22 for fourth and Ben Puckett had 3 bass weighing 6.53 pounds for fifth.

Mike said he caught his fish on crankbaits. Butch said he caught his on buzzbaits. There were a good many fish caught on worms and spinnerbaits, too. The cloudy weather made the fish bite pretty good.

I used all my bass fishing skill to land my five keepers. I headed to a favorite point to start but there was a boat on it, so I went to a nearby point to wait and see if they left. My second cast with a spinnerbait to a dock there produced my biggest bass of the day. After the boat finally left I went to that point and caught a second keeper on the spinnerbait.

Linda fished with me and needed a break so at about 9:30 I went to a nearby marina. While she was inside I cast a Texas rigged worm to the gas dock and landed a 16 inch keeper. When I headed back to my favorite point there was a boat on it again, so I went to the other side of them and caught my second biggest bass of the day on a worm from a dock there.

My fifth keeper came on a Carolina rig on a point. So, of the five keepers I landed, three came from places I did not plan on fishing. Maybe I should plan where to fish then change my mind at the last minute from now on.

Linda and I caught a bunch of bass. We probably had 30 with many in the 13.5 to 13.9 inch range, just under the 14 inch minimum. Linda had one 16 inch keeper and placed 11th in the tournament. She also caught three channel cats of a crankbait. I have caught them on crankbaits before but never three in one day!