Last Sunday members of the Flint River Bass Club had a tough tournament on Lake Oconee. Fishing from 6:00 AM until 2:00 PM the 19 members and guests landed 33 keeper bass weighing 56.94 pounds. There was only one five-fish limit and five members did not catch a keeper during the tournament.

Doug Kohn had the limit and his 7.94 pounds won the tournament. Lee Hancock had three bass weighing 7.17 pounds for second and his 4.30 pound bass won the big fish award. Bobby Ferris places third with 6.80 pounds and Jack Ridgway was fourth with 6.73 pounds.

Doug said he caught some of his fish on topwater plugs. Lee said the big bass hit a crankbait and his others were caught on a Texas rigged worm. Bobby said he caught his fish on a jig and pig. Fish were caught on a lot of different baits so no one pattern really worked better than others.

We lucked out on the weather. It was cloudy and windy all day, which usually makes fishing better. As I pulled out of the parking lot at 2:30 PM to head home a few drops of rain hit my windshield. By the time I got to the main road it was pouring and it rained hard all the way back to Griffin. I surely am glad the rain held off until the end of the tournament!

I had gone to Oconee on Saturday to check some deep water holes where I have caught fish this time of year in the past. I also wanted to try a pattern I was told was working there. I thought I had found something that would help me in the tournament but it may have actually hurt my fishing.

I rode over a point with some brush down in 20 feet of water and saw baitfish and bigger fish around the area. This was the brush where I caught a 7-7 bass and several other keepers in a July tournament a few years ago so I felt good about catching something there and did not even cast to them, not wanting to bother them the day before the tournament.

The second point I went to and checked I also saw brush with baitfish and bigger fish around it in 20 feet of water. I threw out a marker and cast a Carolina rig a few times, but nothing hit. I picked up a Mag 2 worm Texas rigged and the first cast produced a hit. When I set the hook the back half of the worm was torn off.

I quickly rigged another worm and cast back to the same place. When I felt a fish I set the hook and this time was rewarded with something pulling back. It was a 3.5 pound bass and I marked that spot to fish the next day.

For the next few hours I rode over points and found three more that looked just like where I had caught the bass. Brush, baitfish and bigger fish seen on a depthfinder is usually a good indication you can catching something this time of year so I planned on fishing those spots. I had caught one of my five keepers off one of the places two weeks before in the Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament so that also gave me confidence.

Brent Terry fished as my guest in the tournament and we stopped on a main lake bank with docks on it first thing Sunday morning. I started throwing a spinnerbait and Brent chose a buzzbait. On the first pass I hooked and lost a bass that looked like it would be a little short of 14 inches long, then caught three more short bass before we left.

Fishing similar places I finally landed a good keeper on the spinnerbait and then another one on a Texas rigged worm. After a couple more hours without a fish in the shallows I told Brent we should start hitting the deeper holes. I felt sure in the four hours we had left to fish we could catch some keepers.

That feeling was bolstered when Brent got a keeper on the first point we fished, the place I had landed a keeper two weeks before. Although we fished all the places that looked good the day before, and we caught some short fish, we did not catch a single keeper the rest of the day.

My two keepers weighed 3.76 pounds and put me in 9th place. That just goes to show the best laid fishing plans often go astray! Now I wonder if I had kept fishing shallow water if I would have done better. Sometimes practice for a tournament may be counterproductive. Who knows?

That’s why we call it fishing, not catching!