Last Sunday we had a tournament at Lake Oconee.

In the tournament, 18 members and guests fished from 6:30 AM to 3:30 PM. In the nine hours of casting, we brought in 33 14-inch keepers weighing about 65 pounds. There were only two five-bass limits and seven fishermen didn’t land a keeper.

Niles Murray won with five at 11.04 pounds. Chuck Croft was second with five at a very close 11.02 pounds. Tim Puckett got third with three fish weighing 9.20 pounds and his 5.44 pound largemouth was big fish. Javin English rounded out the top four with four keepers at 7.87 pounds.

Niles, Chuck and Javin all said they caught one or two bass early on the shad spawn. Jordan and I fished two places with a lot of shad spawning, but we caught only hybrids. That seemed to doom us the rest of the day.

At 11:00 we didn’t have a keeper in the boat although Jordan landed a 15 pound channel cat on a drop shot worm. I had caught a few short bass on plugs and worms but that was it. We had fished from the ramp at Long Shoals all the way to the mouth of Lick Creek and were very frustrated so we decided to make a big move.

After running the 10 miles to Double Branches we pulled into one of my favorite coves this time of year. On a shallow secondary point Jordan got a keeper on his drop shot then I caught one on a jig head. Within a few minutes each of us caught our second keeper of the day on that point.

About 15 minutes later I got a hit beside a dock and landed my third keeper. That was it! Neither of us caught another keeper although we fished hard the rest of the tournament.

The Potato Creek Bassmasters fished Lanier on April 18 for their monthly tournament. Eleven members fished to land 38 14-inch keepers weighing about 80 pounds. There were three five-bass limits and only one fisherman didn’t land a keeper.

Donnie Willis won with a good catch of five weighing 13.25 pounds, Lee Hancock came in second with five at 11.19 and Raymond English was a close third with five at 11.13. It is always amazing how close the weights often are in a tournament. JJ Compton had four at 9.62 for fourth and his 3.78 pounder was big fish.