I found out last week how much fishing with a good bass fisherman can help. Bobby Ferris had taken me to Oconee Sunday before last to show me some patterns for a March Georgia Outdoor News article. I met him through my bass club partner, Carson Browning. Bobby and Carson’s mother work together and Carson had been telling me what a good fisherman Bobby was.

Bobby took Carson to Jackson Saturday morning to practice for our tournament the following day. Either they hit it just right on the warm, cloudy morning, or Bobby’s knowledge put them on fish. When I picked Carson up Sunday morning he was so excited he could not wait to get to the lake.

Fishing for just a few hours Saturday morning they had caught a lot of big bass, including a 7 pounder and several more over 4 pounds. Carson said their best five, a tournament limit, would have weighed 25 pounds. That is the kind of bass you see caught on the TV shows!

Carson and I headed to the first spot Bobby had shown him, and we were a little disappointed to see the water temperature had dropped 10 degrees overnight. The cold night and wind had cooled the surface temperature from 60 on Saturday morning to 50 Sunday morning. That is not good for bass fishing this time of year!

I did manage to catch two keepers in that cove but they were small one-pound fish. We headed to the next spot, and I soon caught a 1 3/4 pound fish, my best of the day. Since it was still early morning, I was sure I would get a five fish limit before weigh-in at 4:00! I felt a little sorry for Carson since he had not caught a fish, but not too much!

Soon after I caught my third bass Carson set the hook and started saying he had a huge fish on. He fought it to the boat and I put the net in the water, but could not see the fish because the water was so muddy. When it came close enough, I was able to net it and it was big – 9 or 10 pounds!

I was picking at Carson, holding his huge fish over the water in the net, when it gave a mighty flip and jumped back out of the net! Carson’s plug had tangled the net and the hooks were keeping it closed, so the fish was not down in it like it was supposed to be. When the fish flipped out of the net back into the water, the plug stayed tangled in the net. Carson lost his huge fish.

We both would have been real sick, and I would have never been playing with the net like that, but Carson’s big fish was a bowfin. It was the first mudfish I have ever seen at Jackson, and it was a big one! I really did not want it in the boat, anyway!

I guess that changed Carson’s luck. He caught five bass before I landed another keeper! He ended up winning the tournament with five weighing 5-1, smaller fish than the day before but enough to win. My four weighed 4-9 for second. Kwong Yu had two at 3-8 for third and Billy Roberts’ two at 2-11 placed 4th.

Sixteen members of the club fished for 8 hours for a total of 23 keeper bass, so Carson’s guide really helped us, even thought the big bass never showed up on Sunday. I hope he can show Carson where to fish in all our tournaments this year!