Water Level: The lake level has risen slightly over the past week to .54 feet ABOVE full pool.
Water Temp: Temps mellowed out a little bit with the cold fronts. I am seeing 64-67 on Garmin.
Water Clarity: The lake is clearing up with the main lake being clear and the rivers above hwy. 369 starting to look more like summer clarity than winter/early spring.
I have been on Lanier for 7 of the past 7 days and the fishing has been good to very good depending on the day. It has been a roll of the dice on which category any given day will be.
We are still fishing shallow by Lanier standards. I don’t think we boated a fish that came out of more than 15ft of water all week. For moving baits, the Mini-Me spinner bait was the most consistent. It played a notable role throughout the week. We stuck with the same retireve I discussed last week. A steady, slchmedium speed retrieve was still best. As with last week, we targeted rock and clay banks with the Mini-Me. Interestingly, this bait/ pattern produced spots, LM and even stripers this week.
It is April and the next presentation should not come as much of a surprise to many readers who have followed along over the past couple of years. The “Pitch Shot” is back in play and we are loving every minute of it. This technique is phenomenal for both numbers and size this time of year.
We have targeted shallow structure with the Pitch Shot this week. While most finesse soft plastics will work, this time of year, it is all about the 4in Zoom Dead Ringer. There is something about this profile that is absolute killer. As the name implies, we are pitching this around and not fishing it all the way to the boat. It is all about putting the bait in as many likely places as possible as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is a technique where anglers can drop the trolling motor and just go fish as they would with a shaky head, however, you are going to cover a lot more water.
Due to the overall number of bites that can occur, this technique is also great for teaching what a worm and more specifically a DS bite feels like. My equipment for this presentation is listed below and here is a link to a short video I made last year on the presentation: https://jeffnail.uscreen.io/programs/pitch-shot-40ee5a
Rod – St. Croix Legend Extreme and Legend X 6’10” MLXF
Reel – 2500/3000 series Shimano Stradic or SEVIIN GX
Line – CAST fishing 12lb Braid with a 8lb Sunline Sniper leader
Hook – 1/0 or 2/0 Owner Down Shot
Sinker – 1/8 or 1/16oz tungsten
The daily videos I publish cover these techniques in greater detail and all other techniques that were effective over this past week. In these videos, I cover the conditions, part of the lake, and how I caught fish (or did not) for most days that I am on the water. All subscribers will have access to all historical videos as well (245 videos). You can sign up and view videos at https://jeffnail.uscreen.io
For the new few weeks, I have the following dates available: April 30, May 1-3, 11-14, 16, 17, 19-22. If you are interested in a trip, please reach out and I will get you on the calendar.
We are not quite there with the weather yet, but we had a more consistent week weather-wise than we have had all spring. This helped add to the bite as the bass were not on the move as much as they had been, allowing us to find the fish quicker each day. It was, however, the most consistent week of the year, and we had a blast.
We pretty much stuck with moving baits all week, Duckett Spinner Baits, Tight-Line swim jigs, SPRO crank baits, and some Missile Bait 48 stick baits up in the day. The bites were active, and the post spawn bite got better each day, I love this time of year especially the deep crank bait bite.
Benefits of Fishing the Shad Spawn
When it comes to an exciting and active time in bass fishing nothing beats fishing the shad spawn; there is a very good reason for this and that is the abundance of large amounts of food source. There are no doubt large numbers of shad making the bass easy bray and abundance of food to feed on. This phenom known as the shad spawn increases the bass activity making the bass more susceptible to your bait and much easier to have some great catches not only in numbers but in size. Just about any moving bait fished during the shad spawn causes reaction bites as the bass attack rapidly and continually when this occurs.
Your chances of targeting active fish, feeding fish and big fish increase 3-fold; your bait gets slammed and attacked by feeding bass and in most cases you’re in for the time of your life in bass fishing. The bass generally feed near the surface over the top of structure like wood or grass and generally in shallow water. This makes baits like top-water fishing extremely active and rewarding as the bass strike without hesitation on surface baits moving over their heads.
Fast moving baits like swim jigs, chatter baits, spinner baits all become great choices along with your top-water baits as you look for feeding during the shad spawn. It’s a time when you can easily plan a fishing trip just by looking at the topographical maps and fish the shallow water areas close to the deep-water drops putting you in position to target pre-planned areas easily during the shad spawn. This phenomenon is predictable and occurs every year as the water temperatures warm into the low 70’s on most bass fishing impoundments. Although the shad spawn out continually during the year for about 9 out of the 12 months the first one that occurs during the warming water is the most active and most productive as the bass have been healing up from their spawning activity, they are hungry and competitive and the overabundance of food cause them to feed aggressively. It’s a time that makes bass fishing easy, fun and extremely productive.
Come fish with me I have days available the movement into spring patterns is close and the best is yet to come. Call today to schedule your trip to Lake Guntersville. We fish with great sponsor products, Mercury Motors, Ranger Boats, Lowrance Electronics, Dawson Boat Center, Toyota Trucks, Vicious Fishing, Duckett Fishing, Lew’s Fishing, Power Pole, Missile Baits T&H Marine and more.
Call it a tale of two Sinclairs. Or a tale of three lakes in only three days. Last weekend showed how fast bass fishing can change this time of year.
Last Friday I met Ricky Layton to get information for my GON April Map of the Month article. The weather guessers were right for a change when they predicted high winds, bluebird skies and cold weather. That combination is usually the kiss of death for fishing in the spring.
Ricky said we would meet at Bass’s Boat House, an old marina where the clubs used to put in back in the 1970s. It was near the dam and the water might be slightly clearer in that area, and we would be more protected from the wind. All this spring the flooding rains have made our lakes fill up with very muddy water.
We waited until 9:00 AM to go out since it was cold. The first two hours seemed to show the weather and muddy water was working against us. Ricky took me to some places he had caught good fish the weekend before, but the water was even muddier than it had been and we got no bites.
At 11:00 Ricky was starting to look at the article pattern and caught an eight-pound largemouth on a bladed jig. The fish was up shallow near a grass bed, the pattern for April. That is a big fish for Sinclair, it has been a long time since I have seen one that big there, although there have been several that were close the past few years.
About noon we started fishing and marking places for the article, working bass bedding and shad spawning areas. Ricky caught a five-pound largemouth out of a grass bed on what will be hole #2. A few minutes later he caught one weighing about six pounds there.
The next place we fished Ricky caught another fish right at six pounds, on the same pattern, halfway back in a creek with grass beds up shallow on the bank. One of the last places we fished he landed his smallest fish of the day, one that weighted about 3.5 pounds. In all that time I landed one weighing about 2.5 pounds, but my excuse is I was too busy netting his fish and taking pictures and notes to fish.
Ricky ended up with five bass weighing a conservative 28 pounds. That is the kind of catch you dream about and expect on Guntersville, not Sinclair, especially under bad weather conditions. The water temperature was 58 to 59 degrees where we fished, making those big largemouth were looking for bedding areas.
On Saturday Ricky took his son fishing at Sinclair. Although colder, the weather was better, but the fishing was not. He said they did land a seven-pound fish out of hole #10 but their best five weighed “only” about 14 pounds, not great compared to the day before.
I could not wait to get on the water Sunday morning in the Flint River Bass Club March tournament at Sinclair. I should have known better.
After fishing from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, 13 members landed 20 bass weighing about 36 pounds. There was one five bass limit and five people didn’t catch a 12-inch keeper.
Travis Weatherly won with five weighing 9.02 pounds and his 4.99 pound largemouth was big fish. My three weighing 7.47 placed second and I had a 4.57 pounder for my biggest fish. Niles Murray placed third with three weighing 5.75 pounds and Brent Drake came in fourth with three weighing 4.20 pounds.
The cold air made me shiver on my run to my first stop. Luckily there was enough wind to keep the fog down, it was wispy and hanging just off the water. But there was enough to make it scary trying to watch for all the floating wood.
I stopped off a grass bed that was perfect for the pattern Ricky caught his big fish on Friday, but my heart sank when my temperature gauge hit 49 degrees. A nine or ten degree drop just had to affect the bass. It surely did affect my optimism!
I fished three places in three hours without a bite. Around 11:00 the weak sun was warming the water a little, raising the temperature to about 51 degrees in the cove where Ricky caught a six pounder. I cast a Chatterbait across in front of a grass bed, something thumped it and I set the hook.
My rod bowed up and the fish headed for deep water. I just knew I had a six pounder on, but suddenly my line went slack. The fish just pulled off without me ever seeing it.
At noon I was in the area where Ricky caught two fish, hole #2. I was very down, fishing half the day without a keeper. The water had warmed to 52 so I had some hope. I cast my Chatterbait into some grass and hooked the four pounder I weighed in. That improved my attitude a lot.
After another hour of fishing without a bite, I caught a two pounder in front of some grass, then at 2:00 PM landed my third keeper, a one pounder, from another grass bed. That was it. I fished hard for the rest of the day without another bite.
It’s this time of year when people who fish gather in a variety of locations. It might be at a sportshow, maybe a fishing seminar, sometimes at a bait shop. The talk will start with current subjects like the Super Bowl, college basketball, families, or almost anything else. Eventually the conversation will turn to fishing. In late winter and early spring, fishing equipment will be a popular topic. One area that gets lots of attention is fishing line.
The line that we fish with is so important. Your line is the only connection between you and the fish. In today’s fishing world there are three primary types of line, and they all have their own personalities and features.
Monofilament has been the go-to line since most of us have been fishing, but braided and fluorocarbon lines possess desirable qualities and have become popular in recent years. In a very unscientific poll, it appears that most anglers still mostly use monofilament. Monofilament handles well on a reel, it has some stretch which provides forgiveness when fighting a fish, is usually less expensive, and has the trust of most anglers.
Braided lines are often favored when we’re after largemouth bass in heavy cover. Braid is resistant to nicks from the vegetation, and with its no-stretch feature, an angler can get quicker control of a bass in heavy cover. 50 and 65 pound test braids are what many bass-chasers use when fishing in shallow vegetation.
Braid is also favored by walleye anglers who are trolling crankbaits in deeper water. Braid is smaller in diameter than mono or fluoro in similar weights. Smaller diameter has less water resistance, so a crankbait trolled on braid will run deeper than a crankbait trolled with the mono or fluoro of equal pound test.
Fluorocarbon is tough stuff, very sensitive, and nearly invisible under water. It also sinks faster than mono, so it can be an advantage when fishing deep water. If you go with fluoro, practice your knot tying. The knot that you use with mono might fail with fluorocarbon.
More and more anglers are using a combination set-up when it comes to line. They’re using braid as the primary line with a fluorocarbon leader between the braid and the bait. The braid is super-sensitive and doesn’t stretch, but some anglers are concerned that the fish can see the braid easier and it might spook them into not eating the bait. Whether or not braid spooks the fish is another story, but to eliminate the possibility of the braid alerting the fish, these anglers tie a two to three foot length of fluorocarbon to the braid, then tie their bait to the fluorocarbon. Because of fluorocarbon’s hard-to-see quality, the odds of scaring the fish are significantly reduced. With the braid/fluoro arrangement we get superior sensitivity and hooksets as well as minimal visibility to the fish. The braid/fluoro set-up is best when a slow moving technique like jigging or drop-shotting is being employed.
I often have the same thoughts about modern fishing lines that I have for modern boats, motors, electronics, rods and reels: How can they get any better? But they always do. I wonder what the next improvement in fishing lines will be?
The 2024 Bass Masters Classic will be held on Grand Lake O the Cherokees, Tulsa, OK onMarch 22–24. This is the biggest tournament of the year on the pro circuit.
I was quoted in Sports Illustrated a few years ago saying, “The Super Bowl is the Bassmasters Classic of football,” a twist on the usual comment. I had no idea a writer for that magazine was sitting near me on the bus going to practice day on the lake for the pros.
One thing some don’t understand about the fan support of pro fishermen. We are different from other pro sports. We may watch our favorite pro catch bass on TV today then go out and try to catch them ourselves tomorrow, using the same baits and equipment the pro used.
Other pro sports fans are viewers only. They may have played the sport years ago in high school or even college, but almost none will be competing on the field tomorrow. Bass fishermen keep competing all their lives.
I have been lucky enough to spend time in the boat with many of the pros, including five of the 53 competing in this year’s Classic. After hours of watching how they fish and questioning them on what they are doing and why they chose to do that, it always amazes me that they fish just like the rest of us. They just catch more and bigger fish.
The Bassmasters Classic is a big event. I will not be able to attend this year but a trip to Birmingham next weekend to attend the huge outdoor show, meet the pros and watch weigh-ins would be a great way to spend some winter days. Then you can come home and go fishing with the baits and equipment you bought at a discount at the show, fishing just like them.
St. Croix Bassmaster Opens Presented by SEVIIN Reels Kicks off Division 2 Competition on Lake Ouachita
Hot Springs, AR — At over 40,000 acres, Ouachita is Arkansas’ biggest lake and one of the most popular fisheries in the state. It has been more than 20 years since B.A.S.S. visited the lake for a major tournament, but today through Saturday, high-stakes bass fishing is back, with Visit Hot Springs hosting the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Ouachita presented by SEVIIN. It’s the second Opens event of the 2024 season, and the first of three in Division 2 competition.
Tournament days are scheduled for Feb. 15-17, with daily takeoffs set for 6:45 a.m. CT from the Brady Mountain Rec A ramp. Anglers will return for weigh-in each day at 2:45 p.m. The full field of pros and co-anglers will fish the first two days before the field is cut to the Top 10 pros on the final day. The winner will punch a ticket to the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors, provided they have fished every event in Division II. EQ Anglers (those signed up for all nine Opens) will earn points towards the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers race.
With surface water temperatures barely rising above 50 degrees in most parts of the sprawling lake, Ouachita remains very much in a late-winter pattern. Rain leading up to and throughout practice has impacted water clarity, impacting how and where anglers will chase bites from the lake’s abundant smallmouth, spotted, and largemouth bass. Ouachita has both Northern- and Florida-strain largemouth, the latter of which can reach double-digit weights feeding on the lake’s shad, crayfish, and other ample forage. Expect anglers to use live sonar to focus on suspended bass keying on shad in open water areas, jigs and crankbaits on main lake points, and vertical presentations in Ouachita’s copious amounts of standing timber. Grass flats will also come into play, as long as competitors can find the ones that have pockets of clear water.
Maple Grove, Minnesota angler and St. Croix and SEVIIN Reels pro, Chad Grigsby, is a familiar face and talent in bass circles. He’s been fishing full-time on the national level for over 20 years – 18 on the FLW/MLF tour and two seasons in the Bassmaster Elites.
Grigsby says he has two goals fishing the Opens this season. “I’m fishing all nine events in hopes I can finish in the top nine in points and re-qualify for the Elites,” he says. “The other goal would be to win one of the nine events to get into the Bassmaster Classic.”
Going into this week’s competition, Grigsby says his goal is much simpler. “It’s the same mindset I have going into any tournament,” he says. “Ultimately, I just want to catch five bass to weigh every day. But I want to do it by putting myself in a place where I can get as many bites as possible.”
The pre-spawn period on Lake Ouachita is a pretty good place to do that. “It’s consistent fishing here,” says Grigsby, who has fished multiple tournaments on the lake in the past. “There’s really no fish headed to the banks yet, so it’s not like Florida where a cold front rolls through and messes things up. I think the rain is over, so it looks like we’ll have stable weather throughout the competition. Everyone is out live-scoping deep, but there’s bait and fish everywhere. I caught a couple 4.5’s in practice shallow, but they didn’t look as healthy as those deeper fish.”
While multiple options abound, expect the jig to play throughout competition for Grigsby. “I’ve got a lot of confidence fishing a jig and it’s been as good for me as anything else throughout practice,” he says. “I’ve been throwing jigs on a bit shorter St. Croix Legend X 7’ medium-heavy rod (XLC70MHF) with 14-pound line and a SEVIIN GS 7.3:1 reel,” he adds. “What I’m seeing them eat is really small.”
The final day of competition on Ouachita will be broadcast live on FS1 Saturday morning beginning at 7:30 a.m. ET, with streaming available on Bassmaster.com, as well as FS2 and the FOX Sports digital platforms.
2024 St. Croix Bassmaster Opens Presented by SEVIIN Reels Schedule
Division 1 February 1-3, Lake Okeechobee, Clewiston, Florida March 7-9, Santee Cooper Lakes, Clarendon County, South Carolina October 10-12, Lake Hartwell, Anderson, South Carolina
Division 2 February 15-17, Lake Ouachita, Hot Springs, Arkansas May 2-4, Logan Martin Lake, Lincoln, Alabama June 20-22, Lake Eufaula, Eufaula, Oklahoma
Division 3 July 11-13, Lake St. Clair, Macomb County, Michigan August 22-24, Leech Lake, Walker, Minnesota September 12-14, Mississippi River, La Crosse, Wisconsin
St. Croix & SEVIIN Rewards Programs
The St. Croix Rewards Program remains unchanged this year, but an identical SEVIIN Rewards Program has been added.
Each program pays $1,000 to any registered pro angler (boater) who wins an Open tournament fishing St. Croix rods or SEVIIN reels, or $500 to the highest-finishing registered top-10 pro angler (boater) fishing St. Croix rods or SEVIIN Reels.
Similarly, each program awards $500 to any registered co-angler who wins an Open tournament fishing St. Croix rods or SEVIIN reels, or $250 to the highest-finishing registered top-10 co-angler fishing St. Croix rods or SEVIIN reels.
Since these are two separate contingency programs, a registered angler fishing both St. Croix and SEVIIN who wins or finishes highest in the top 10 would receive both rewards – up to $2,000 for a boater and up to $1,000 for a co-angler.
Anglers must pre-register to be eligible to win these contingency programs. Registration takes place at the St. Croix / SEVIIN tent prior to the start of competition at each tournament.
Headquartered in Park Falls, Wisconsin, St. Croix has been proudly producing the “Best Rods on Earth” for over 75 years. Combining state-of-the-art manufacturing processes with skilled craftsmanship, St. Croix is the only major producer to still build rods entirely from design through manufacturing. The company remains family-owned and operates duplicate manufacturing facilities in Park Falls and Fresnillo, Mexico. With popular trademarked series such as Legend®, Legend Xtreme®, Avid®, Premier®, Imperial®, Triumph®, Mojo, and BASSX, St. Croix is revered by all types of anglers from around the world.
Wherever and however you fish, the reel in your hand should help create better experiences. Born from St. Croix’s seven decades of design and manufacturing expertise, industry-leading customer service, and unbroken private ownership by the Schluter family dating back to 1977, SEVIIN reels are meticulously engineered and purpose-built to help anglers conquer every species on every piece of water on the planet. SEVIIN focuses on reels and reels only, designing and crafting products that improve the angling experience, regardless of the rods anglers choose. Seven seas, seven continents, seven days a week, SEVIIN reels are fueled by a collective love of fishing surpassed only by a passion to deliver the most reliable reels on the water.
KEEP YOUR FINGER ON THE FISHING INDUSTRY PULSE
THE DEFINITITIVE NEWS SOURCE OF THE FISHING & MARINE INDUSTRY
A trip to Neely Henry four years ago got me thinking about muddy water.
I met Peyton Nance, an Auburn University bass team member and reserve defensive tackle on the football team. We managed to get the boat in and to the dock in the ripping current. The water level had dropped four feet overnight. Peyton explained they were trying to get it down to hold all the flooding water coming downstream.
We looked at and tried to fish ten spots that are good in March, but the current made river places impossible to fish and back-outs very muddy. I did manage to land a three-pound largemouth on a Chatterbait, my only bite. Peyton lost a five-pound spot right beside the boat when it pulled off his crankbait.
Muddy water makes bass fishing tough. Bass tend to get very tight to cover and not move much. It is like us in a heavy fog, we like to stay in familiar places and not run around and get lost!
My Garmin Panoptix has confirmed this. In clear water I see bass holding near but not down in brush and just over rocks and stumps. In muddy water they are down in the brush and right against rocks and stumps.
Bass still have to eat, though. They can be caught, especially if the water has been muddy for a couple of days and they have gotten used to it and have gotten hungry.
A bright lure that sends out sounds in the water is usually best. I will be fishing a bright chartreuse spinnerbait with chartreuse blades and skirt. A rattling chartreuse crankbait will also be used as will a black and blue Chatterbait, the bait I caught the three-pounder on at Neely Henry in the mud.
Even my jig and pig, a black and blue one with bright blue trailer, will have rattles in it. And I will fish all of then slowly and tight to cover.
The stark bare gray limbs of hardwoods right now offer the best of times and the worst of times for squirrel hunting. Tree rats are easy to spot a long way off, but they can see you the same distance, too. It is easier to find them but harder to get close enough for a shot.
The population is lower than at the start of season back in August. Human hunters and natural predators have taken some of the squirrels that survived last winter. But both have killed many more of the dumb young ones born during the spring and summer. They are much easier targets.
Still hunting is tougher this time of year. Squirrels aren’t coming to an oak or hickory that is full of nuts to feed. They are scrounging around, looking for nuts they buried earlier when they were falling, and looking for anything else edible in the winter woods. You can’t sit under a good tree waiting on them to come to you.
After a rain you can find them eating mushrooms in pine thickets, but that food is scattered, like everything else. And the green needles on pines make it hard to spot a squirrel when they scurry up a tree and hide from you.
Creeping up on a feeding squirrel is possible, but deer hunters would be impressed with the abilities of a squirrel to spot you and flee. Any movement in their world draws instant attention and they will either flatten against a limb or tree trunk, making them very hard to see, or head for a hollow tree where they are totally protected.
One of the best tactics for me was to take off running through the woods when I spotted a squirrel in a bare tree. That usually made them freeze in place, trying to hide rather than running to a hollow. With no leaves on the tree I could usually find the hiding critter.
A little breeze helped in several ways. It would move bushes and limbs enough to confuse squirrels’ senses, making it easier to creep up on them. But when searching for them up in a tree a little breeze would often fluff their tail a little and the hair moving or sticking out from the tree trunk would make them easier to find.
Another trick was to scan for their ears sticking up. Not much natural up in a tree looks like squirrel ears. It helped that I had a good scope on my .22 to scan limbs and trunks, looking for any telltale sign. I always carried it rather than my .410 in the winter, expecting to get shots at squirrels sitting still rather than running through the limbs when the .410 helped.
I also learned to throw a stick to the far side of a tree where a squirrel hid. The noise and movement of it hitting a bush would make the bushy tail move to my side of the tree. I could see him from the movement, and could usually get a good shot.
Every squirrel killed when I was growing up was eaten. I was pretty good as skinning and gutting them and mama could cook up fried squirrel with gravy, squirrel and dumplings, BBQed squirrel and squirrel stew that was delicious. The younger squirrels were best for frying, but even tough old boar squirrels were good and tender when cooked right.
This is a great time to take a kid out and teach them gun safety and hunting skills. Deer season is over and the woods are quiet and bare, offering fun and good food!
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Last Sunday 12 members and one guest of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our January tournament at Jackson. After eight hours of trying, we brought 31 bass longer than 12 inches to the scales. Only four of them were largemouth. There was one five fish limit and no one zeroed.
Wayne Teal won with the only limit and it weighed 7.72 pounds. Second was Zane Fleck with four weighing 5.72 pounds, Billy Roberts placed third with four weighing 4.98 and Niles Murray had four weighing 4.83 pounds for fourth. Randall Sharpton’s 3.21 pound largemouth was big fish.
I should have gone squirrel hunting! I guess I used up all my luck at Sinclair, it was one of those days when everything was just wrong for me. I fished hard but ended up with one keeper largemouth weighing a whopping 1.27 pounds for tenth place.
Glenn Anderson fished with me and caught a keeper spot on a crankbait the first place we stopped. After fishing two or three more spots, I got a bite on a shaky head worm. The fish swam toward the boat and when I set the hook I pulled a keeper largemouth to the top and watched it come off the hook.
The next place we stopped I got five bites, four on a shaky head worm and one on a jig, in five casts and missed all five! Then Glenn threw a drop shot worm to the rocks where I got the bites and landed his second keeper.
Soon after Glenn landed his third keeper, I felt a fish pick up my shaky head in a brush pile but felt the thump of it spitting out the worm just as I set the hook. I missed several more bites during the day, finally catching my keeper with an hour left to fish. I was in such a hurry to get it in the boat I hit Glenn in the face with it as he grabbed the net!
To add insult to injury, there was a Robby’s tournament out of Berry’s Boat House the same day. It took five bass weighing 17 or 18 pounds to win it!
When I hear results like that the same day I struggle to catch a keeper, I wonder why I even bother fishing.
“If anyone has earned a grand prize for this program, it is certainly Jason McRae,” said Scott Robinson, Chief of the WRD Fisheries Management Section. “Not only is he the only angler to have gotten a Bass Slam all 7 years that it has been offered, but he also caught all 10 bass species every year. That is an amazing accomplishment, and we are proud to offer these prizes to him.”
The Bass Slam Grand Prize Winner receives a cooler, camp chair, tackle box and a beautifully framed bass print. Are you working on your 2024 Slam?
Georgia Bass Slam: Catch (at least) five of the different black bass species found in Georgia within a calendar year and you have a Georgia Bass Slam! This program recognizes anglers with the knowledge and skill to catch different species of bass in a variety of habitats across the state, while also stimulating interest in the conservation and management of black bass and their habitats. For complete rules and more info, visit BassSlam.com.
Other Fishing Recognition Programs:
Angler Award Program: This program recognizes those who catch fish that meet or exceed a specific weight or length for that species. There is an adult, youth, public fishing area and trophy bass angler award program category. For complete rules and more info, visit GeorgiaWildlife.com/fishing/anglerawards.
State Records: In addition to the angler award program, the division also maintains a freshwater fish state-record program for anglers who land a catch that exceeds the existing record catch weight by one ounce or more. More information at GeorgiaWildlife.com/fishing/recordprogram/rules.
Trout Slam: Catch all 3 species of trout available in Georgia waters and earn a Trout Slam! More info at GeorgiaWildlife.com/trout-slam.
Kids First Fish Certificate: The division wants to recognize children across the state for catching their first fish with an online kid’s “first fish award” certificate available at GeorgiaWildlife.com/my-first.
Georgia Wildlife Resources thanks anglers that took part in these programs and appreciates all anglers that head out to state waters throughout the year to wet a line. For more information about fishing in Georgia, visit GeorgiaWildlife.com/fishing/angler-resources.
I have learned a lot from my Garmin Panoptix I installed in November 2019. This system is a sonar that shows a live picture of what is underwater on the screen, much like shining a spotlight at night shows what is in its beam. And it shows movement as it happens, not as a line on the screen like older units.
One of my first surprises was how many fish are down there. I see schools of crappie and hybrids and clouds of baitfish suspended over deeper water this time of year. And I can see fish moving along the bottom, probably catfish and carp.
Fish hovering around stumps, rocks and brush, or holding right on a drop off, are probably bass. And there are lots of them. But seeing them does not mean they will hit my bait.
Time after time I see my bait move through them and they ignore it. Even worse is when I watch my jig fall on the cast or hop it and see a fish come up to it and follow it back down but never hit it.
I have always heard bass move tight to cover in muddy water. In November and December, Jackson was very clear and I could see bass holding just over rocks and other cover, and they would slowly move around it. But after the rain Jackson muddied up and now I see bright dots indication bass right against the rocks or down in the brush. And they don’t move, they just sit there.
I know a bait cast out and sinking will swing back toward the boat, and to get it to go straight to the bottom I “feed” line to it as it falls. That is important when trying to get you bait to the bottom under docks and down to brush.
Watching my bait swing back toward the boat as it falls amazes me. A half ounce jig with a twin curly tail trailer cast on 14-pound fluorocarbon line makes an arch back toward me no matter how much line I feed to it. It moves back toward me about a foot for every five it falls, so if I cast to a brush pile 20 feet deep I have to cast at least four feet past it to get my bait to hit it.
I am just exploring lakes with my Panoptix and hope to learn a lot more in the coming months.
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Final 2019 standings for the three Griffin bass clubs are out. During the year points are awarded at each tournament based on where you place.
In Flint River and Potato Creek first place gets 100 points, second 90 on down to 10 for tenth. Anyone catching a keeper but finishing below 10th gets five points. In Spalding County, first gets 25 points, second 24 on down to 1 for 25th. We also keep up with numbers of fish weighed in and total weight for the year.
Last year in Flint River, I won with 1340 points and 47 bass weighing 78.21 pounds. Niles Murry placed second with 900 points, 40 bass and 67.42 pounds and Chuck Croft came in third with 880 points, 36 bass and 65.2 pounds.
Fourth place was won by Don Gober with 790 points, 34 bass weighing 45.79 pounds and his grandson Alex Gober placed fifth with 660 points and 22 keepers weighing 28.41 pounds. Doug Acree rounded out the top six with 410 points, 12 Bass and 16.12 pounds.
In the Potato Creek club, I won with 890 points catching 73 bass weighing 130.39 pounds. Trent Grainger placed second with 840 points, 61 bass weighing 106.03 pounds and Doug Acree came in third with 825 points and 70 bass weighing 111.79 pounds.
Mitchell Cardell placed fourth with 790 points, 56 bass weighing 95.03 pounds and fifth went to Kwong Yu with 700 points, 57 bass and 97.77 pounds. Raymond English came in sixth with 670 points, 60 bass weighing 100.19 pounds.
For the Sportsman Club, I won with 316 points and 65 bass weighing 129.94 pounds. Kwong Yu placed second with 270 points, 51 bass and 82.11 pounds, Raymond English came in third with 266 points and 65 bass weighing 124.44 pounds.
In this club fourth went to Jay Gerson with 250 points, 55 bass and 84 pounds, Wayne Teal was fifth with 247 points, 44 bass and 68.24 pounds. Billy Roberts rounded out the top six with 241 points, 37 keepers and 57.22 pounds.
Since joining the Potato Creek club four years ago, my goal has been to win all three clubs one year. I was very happy to do it this past year while fighting health problems. I guess I can retire from fishing now – not.
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Last Saturday, 19 members of the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished our January tournament at Sinclair. After eight hours, we brought 71 keeper largemouth weighing about 126 pounds to the scales. There were 10 five-fish limits and two members didn’t weigh a bass.
I won with five weighing 13.0 pounds and had a 6.71 pound largemouth for big fish. Kwong Yu placed second with five at 12.85 pounds anchored by a 3.91 pounder. Third was Tom Tanner with five weighing 12.58 pounds and had a 4.09 pounder. Dan Dupree came in fourth with five weighing 12.44 pounds and second biggest fish of the day with a 5.61 pounder.
Add in the 4.43 pounder Raymond English had and the three pounder my partner Mike Scoggins weighed in and you can see it was close and there were a lot of quality fish caught on the cold, rainy day.
Fish were caught on a wide variety of baits. My big one hit a crankbait, I also had a three pounder on a spinnerbait, another keeper on the crankbait, three on a shaky head and one on jig and pig. The only consistent thing for me and others seemed to be fishing shallow in the 53-degree muddy water
