The Flint River Bass Club held its first 2023 tournament last Sunday at Jackson. In it, six of us fished for eight hours in a mudhole to land 12 bass weighing about 14 pounds.  There was one five bass limit and no one zeroed.

I landed five weighing 5.70 pounds for first, Doug Acre came in second with two weighing 3.36 pounds and had a 1.94-pound fish for big fish and Lee Hancock had three weighing 3.1 for third.  Fourth went to Alex Gober with one at 1.71 pounds and new member Scott Smith had keeper weighing .63 pounds for fifth.

When we started at 7:30 AM I could tell the water was very muddy even in the cove at the ramp. My first cast I found out how muddy, my crankbait disappeared about two inches deep.

I fished one place in the muddy cove without a bite for about 30 minutes. When I headed up the river to try to find some clearer water to fish, I was shocked and scared when I saw all the wood floating in the water.  Everything from twigs to logs twice as long as my boat covered the water from bank to bank.

That made me stop on a point and try to fish, although it was very muddy and almost every cast produced some kind of trash on my line and lure. After about 30 minutes the light breeze had moved the wood away from one side of the lake enough to run on plane if you were slow and careful.

I had hoped to go up the Alcovy River above the mouth of the South River where the water is often clearer, but when I got to the mouth of Tussahaw Creek I changed my mind. The wood going up the river covered it even worse from bank to bank and the wind had not made any open water at wall.

That condition made me go up Tussahaw Creek where there is often some clear water.  And it did get better above the bridge, I could see my bait down a solid six inches!

I caught a small keeper spot by casting a brown three sixteenths ounce Bitsy Bug jig with a green pumpkin Creepy Crawler trailer to a cement seawall. Of course I dipped the tails of the trailer in chartreuse JJs Magic. There are rocks at the bottom of most seawalls and bass will hold against them to feed on crayfish and baitfish.

I kept fishing seawalls like that and every one of my fish, two more spots and two largemouth, hit the jig on a seawall.  Lee was fishing the same area and caught his three on a variety of baits.

I invited the spots I caught home for dinner. When I cleaned them they had parts of small crayfish in their stomachs. That is why they liked my brown jig with the twin trailer arms!