High Hopes for a Bassing Career

By Frank Sargeant, Editor
The Fishing Wire

Cole Drummond has high hopes for a bassing career.

He looks at Van Dam, at Wheeler, at Martin, at the Brothers Lee. And he sees himself a few years down the road.

It’s not an easy or a straight road.

Drummond, a South Carolina kid who started fishing with his dad Steve when he was just big enough to click the button on a Zebco spincaster, is 19 now–still a kid to some, but he’s starting to chink away at building a reputation in pro bass fishing.

He’s not only done very well in the booming high-school bass tournament scene, making the championship fishoff at Kentucky Lake as a junior, he’s also had some success in fishing open tournaments against guys two or three times his age–he’s banked $14 grand in a couple years.

But he’s come up against a hard truth that soon faces most with pro fishing dreams.

It costs a WHOLE lot of money to fish any of the circuits. Tens of thousands in travel costs, to say nothing of the entry fees and supporting a tournament grade bass boat and a truck to tow it.

“I’d like to see him get where he bankrolls himself,” says dad Steve, who’s a successful taxidermist. “Quick.”

They’re here at the FLW ICAST Cup, the kickoff for ICAST 2019, at Big Toho Marina on Lake Tohopekaliga, and I am their designated media type. Some 60 boats run by an assortment of seasoned and well-known pro anglers from FLW as well as some who hope soon to be known, like Cole, have volunteered to get us out on the lake for a taste of fishing before the doors of the big show open.

Cole is a clean-cut, tattoo-free, polite kid who just loves to fish. He’ll never be Mike Iaconelli–but you could see him being Jordan Lee someday.

One possible speed bump in the road ahead: collegiate fishing. Much as college football is a sort of farm system for the NFL, college fishing circuits, growing even faster than the high-school competitions, have become sort of the de facto road to the pro’s for many younger anglers who might otherwise have to wait years for sponsor support, all the while pouring money into the game.

Cole is not going to college. He’s not much for studying in the classroom. It interferes with his fishing time.

The question is, will a degree become an expected prerequisite for sponsors–who pay many of the bills for the more successful pro’s? Cole and his dad are hoping not.

“I know it’s about helping them sell product and getting their name out there,” says Cole. He’s no stranger to it. He helps his dad film a local outdoors television show, and sometime appears on camera.

He’s a good angler, no doubt about it. He puts four bass in the boat while his dad and I manage only a couple between us. He’s working up his social media profile, reaching out to pro’s already on the circuits for advice. But . . . .

Pro fishing has been the wreck of a whole lot of dreams, for sure. But Cole Drummond is hopeful–he’s been able to set up a couple meetings with some of the major companies in the industry during the visit to Orlando . . . maybe, just maybe . . . .

Growing up, I never played sports and did not like many games. I was not competitive in anything, being too much of a loner. I wanted to be out on the water or in he woods all the time and was perfectly happy being alone.

In April, 1974 Jim Berry took me to my first bass club tournament and I fell in love with the competition. For some reason, it was different. Although still somewhat on my own, with just two of us in the boat, it was very much to my liking.

Fishing big lakes in tournaments is different. If I wanted to go fishing just to catch fish, there are many bodies of water where I could catch more and bigger bass. And if numbers were my goal, I could choose to fish for something other than bass.

But the challenge of figuring out how to catch bass on big lakes with lots of fishing pressure is a thrill for me. If you watch the pros on TV, they often make it look easy. Of course, the cameras focus on the guys catching fish. If you look at the total results, in every tournament many of the top pros struggle.

My goal in club tournaments at the start each morning is to catch one bass. That first one is important. I try to not think of catch a limit until I have five in the boat, and catching a limit is often hard to do.

Two trips last week emphasized the difference in tournament bass fishing on a big lake and fishing on other waters. Tuesday, I fished Lake Weiss with Hayden Marbut and his father Brian, getting information for my Georgia and Alabama Outdoor News August Map of the Month articles.

Hayden is a 16-year-old high school tournament fisherman and his father grew up fishing Weiss. He won a high school tournament at Weiss recently. But we knew it would be tough fishing, with bright sun and no wind.

We started fishing before sunrise and three hours later had not caught a single bass. But a big part of tournament fishing is sticking with it and trying hard. The fifth place we tried, Hayden caught a two-pound keeper pitching a jig and pig to a dock. Then he caught a second keeper there, but this one weighed 5.92 pounds, a great kicker in a tournament.

We fished until 4:00 PM and Hayden landed four more keepers. His best five weighed about 13 pounds, a good catch in most tournaments. His dad got frustrated, fishing hard but never catching a single bass. I sat in the boat, taking notes and pictures and never made a cast.

In tournaments you often work hard for five or six bites like that.

Last Sunday was similar.

In the June Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament, nine members fished from 5:45 AM until 2:00 PM at Bartlett’s Ferry to land 25 12-inch keeper bass weighing about 29 pounds. There were three five-bass limits, and everyone had at last one keeper.

I won with five weighing a whopping 6.61 pounds, Wayne Teal placed second with five at 5.16 pounds and Raymond English came in third with four weighing 4.32 pounds. Kwong Yu was fourth with five at 4.16 pounds and his partner, Glenn Anderson had big fish and placed fifth with one bass weighing 3.26 pounds.

It was a very slow day fishing, but I was happy to see 14 of our keepers were largemouth. Like some of our other lakes, spotted bass have ruined the largemouth fishing on Bartletts Ferry. Where we used to catch several two to five pound largemouth, we now catch a bunch of 11-inch spotted bass. Hydrilla in the lake has helped the largemouth population recover somewhat.

I started on a seawall where I can usually catch a keeper before sunrise if the lake if full, but never got a bite. I then fished a point with topwater and caught a short bass, an 11-inch spot. In a nearby brush pile 20 feet deep I caught a keeper largemouth on a Texas rigged worm at 6:30. At least I had that first one.

For the next hour I fished topwater on a rocky bank where Mayflies were hatching and bream were feeding on them. That is usually a good pattern, and I caught several more short spots, and lost what looked like a keeper when it jumped and threw my popper.

At 7:30 I switched to a shaky head worm and caught my second keeper, a 13-inch spot, and several more short fish. For the next hour I kept trying to catch a keeper off that bank and saw a new brush pile in 10 feet of water on my depthfinder. I marked it with a GPS waypoint and I am glad I did.

At 8:30 I went back to the deep brush pile and caught my third keeper, another spot, on a shaky head worm. That made me try deep brush for a couple of hours without a bite. Then at 11:00, I went to docks since the sun was bright.

After skipping a worm under a dock I felt a bite but when I set the hook somehow I got my line wrapped around the end of the rod. I could not keep my line tight and two-pound largemouth jumped and threw my bait.

That made me go to shallow water and at 11:30 I caught my fourth fish, a keeper largemouth, from some brush under a tree. I knew I did not have much weight but a fifth keeper would help.

With an hour left to fish I went back to the deep brush, but a boat was fishing it. I remembered the new brush pile I had marked and went to it. My first cast to it with a shaky head worm gave me my limit and biggest bass, a 2.57 pound largemouth.

With a limit, I decided to go in early and get out of the sun. I fished hard for five keepers and it paid off.

Last Saturday 21 members of the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished our June tournament at Oconee. Fishing from 5:45 AM to 2:00 PM, we landed 21 bass weighing about 43 pounds. There were two five-fish limits and nine people didn’t have a 14-inch bass to weigh.

Doug Acree won with five bass weighing 9.72 pounds. Niles Murray was second with the other limit and it weighed 9.12 pounds. Lee Hancock placed third with three weighing 6.82 pounds and fourth was Kwong Yu with three at 5.17 pounds.

I hoped for a good day after having 9.46 pounds in the Flint River tournament the Sunday before, but within five minutes that changed. I hooked a good bass on a spinnerbait cast to a seawall. The second time it jumped in the dark it came off. That told me it would be one of those kinds of days.

Over the next 5 hours I landed several short bass but had no keepers at 11:30. I finally landed a 2.27 pound largemouth from a brush pile in front of a dock. I was fishing a point and remembered the dock with brush on the other side of the cove.

Before I could idle over to it, another boat stopped just past it and started fishing. It did not look like they fished the dock, so when they left I went to it and caught my only keeper that day. It hit a shaky head. I was very thankful the other fishermen didn’t fish the dock and catch it.

Although I fished hard the next three hours, including some more deep brush, I never caught another bass. It was a very frustrating day.

One of the most frustrating things was how rough the lake was. Oconee is crowded with big boats and wake boats are the worst. They are made to go slow and produce a big wake, and they can knock me out of my boat if I am unbalanced.

For some reason wake boarders seem to like to circle right where I am fishing. I swear I heard a guy in one yell “there is one” as they passed me on the other side of the creek. Of course, they stopped, a boarder jumped in and they started circling.

That is just one of the hazards of summer bass fishing.

Last Sunday eight members and guests of the Flint River Bass Club fished our June tournament at Oconee. In nine hours, from 6:00 AM to 3:00 PM, we landed 17 keeper bass 14 inches long or longer. There were two five-fish limits and three zeros.

Chuck Croft won with five at 9.76 pounds and my five weighing 9.46 pounds was second. Alex Gober had three weighing 5.45 pounds for third and had big fish with a 3.29 pound largemouth. Brent Drake placed fourth with two at 3.70 pounds and fifth was Don Gober with two weighing 3.10 pounds.

I started on a main lake riprap point and quickly caught two good fish. A two-pound blue cat hit a buzzbait then an eight pounder ate my shaky head worm. I have caught cats on topwater baits but never on a fast moving one like a buzzbait. I found a good catfish hole; I could see a lot of fish on it on my depthfinder. I guess they were all cats.

I finally caught a keeper bass on a buzzbait at 7:00 on the second place I stopped, then a keeper bass on a shaky head worm there. The rest of the day was a struggle. I landed three more keepers, spaced out about two hours apart, on the shaky head.

It rained a bit on us. I think my bilge pump ran more than it was off.

Niles Murray skipped the club tournament to fish the ABA Classic he qualified for on that trail.
they fished Sinclair Saturday and he had about 12.5 pounds, putting him in eighth place out of about 37 fishermen.

On Sunday they fished Oconee, like we did, and Niles followed up with another 12.5 pounds, moving him up to seventh overall for the two days. That is a great finish fishing against some of the best bass fishermen in the area on those lakes.

Bass fishing was very good for most of the 11 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club in our May tournament. In 18 hours of casting, we landed 75 bass weighing about 170 pounds. There were 12 five fish limits and the only person that didn’t catch a keeper went home early Saturday.

Zane Fleck won with ten bass weighing 29.63 pounds, including a 5.30 pounder, one of the best two day catches I can remember in the club. But Niles Murray was very close in second with ten bass weighing 29.43 pounds and had a 6.32 pound largemouth for big fish.

JR Proctor was third with ten weighing 25.56 pounds and landed his personal best largemouth with a five pound plus fish. Raymond English placed fourth with ten at 25.48 pounds and had a 5.67 pounder. My ten weighing 22.54 pounds was fifth and Kwong Yu placed sixth with nine at 20.60 pounds.

Those weights show the quality of fish you can catch at Eufaula right now. And we don’t really know the lake well since we fish it only once or twice a year. Add to that, in a children’s charity tournament on Saturday, it took five weighing more than 22 pounds to win by guys that fish it often.

The fishing was fun, too, since most fish were caught shallow. I caught two of my biggest fish each morning on frogs around grass beds. A bass hitting a topwater frog is exciting, and the four I caught swallowed it. I had a hard time getting the bait out of their throats.

The first day I got two before 6:30, within 30 minutes of blast off, but then it got tough.
I did not catch another fish until 2:00. Then they started biting again and I landed five more keepers and several short fish in the next two hours, all on shaky head worms.

Sunday morning, I had three at 6:30, two on a frog and one on a spinnerbait. Then between 8:00 and 8:30
I caught two more on a jig and pig. That was it, I did not catch another keeper, but I felt too bad to fish hard and went in early.

The most frustrating thing about not feeling good and not being able to fish like you want to is looking back and wondering. Last year at the same time of year I caught some good fish casting a lightly weighed worm in lily pads, swimming it through them.

Although I had two rods rigged and ready for fishing that way, it is hard work and I never tried it. But after the tournament Niles told me he and Raymond, fishing together, caught their fish doing that. I wish I could have fished that way.

Go to Eufaula now for great camping and fishing, enjoyable wildlife viewing and a relaxing way to spend a few days.

Lake Hartwell is also a pretty lake but very different. Its deep, clear, open water is filled with islands and humps and there are rocks on most shorelines. Docks line it and many sit over 20 feet or more of water. There are a few cypress trees planted on humps to mark them.

The Potato Creek Bassmasters fished our May tournament there last Friday and Saturday. In 18 hours of casting, 21 member brought 142 bass weighing about 221 pounds to the scales. There were 18 five fish limits and one fisherman didn’t land a keeper.

Edward Folker had nine keepers weighing 18.84 pounds for first, second place was Stan Wick with ten bass weighing 17.74 pounds, third was Drew Naramore with eight keepers at 17.01 pounds and Kwong Yu placed fourth with 10 bass weighing 16.42 pounds. Tom Tanner had big fish with a 4.17 pounder and placed fifth with 15.44 pounds.

Fishing was unusually tough for this time of year at Hartwell. It is a herring lake, and I think, like at Clarks Hill, the bass head to open water to feed on herring as soon as they spawn. They do not hang around shallow cover to feed like they did before herring got in the lake. If you don’t find the right place, you don’t catch much.

There was a Skeeter Challenge Tournament there on Saturday and Sunday. The winning team had 16 pounds on Saturday and 22 pounds on Sunday. There were 164 teams fishing this tournament and it took 18.97 pounds to place 66th!

In the Potato Creek tournament, I had eight keepers weighing 11.79 pounds for tenth place. If I had been fishing the Skeeter tournament, that weight would have put me in 131st place! That is why I do not fish big tournaments; I don’t think I can compete in them. I love club fishing and that is about my skill level.

On Sunday, May 5, nine members and guests of the Flint River Bass Club fished our May tournament at Jackson Lake. After eight hours of casting, we brought 25 bass to the scales. As usual, there were only nine largemouth weighed in. There were three limits and two fishermen didn’t catch a keeper.

Niles Murray won with five weighing 9.03 pounds and Chuck Croft placed second with five at 8.29 pounds. Tom Murray, Niles’ 13-year-old nephew fishing with him, placed third with four weighing 5.61 pounds and had big fish with a pretty 2.89-pound spot. I placed fourth with five at 4.97 pounds.

I thought it would be a perfect day, with rain and thunderstorms guessed at. But, as usual, if you planned your trip on what the weather guessers said, you missed a beautiful partly cloudy day on the lake. I hoped it would rain to keep pleasure boaters off the water.

The first few places I fished were rocky banks and points where I hoped shad would be spawning, but I guess it is over, I saw no activity. And I got no bites on a crankbait or spinnerbait.

I finally caught a small keeper spot on a shaky head worm on some rocks at 8:30. That turned out to be the pattern of the day for me, small fish on a shaky head worm.

I got my second keeper on the shaky head on a rock pile out on a flat point. I kept catching short spots, ten and 11 inches long, and invited them all home for dinner. Spots have taken over Jackson and hurt the largemouth population. There is no size limit on spots, so I try to keep ten small ones for dinner each trip.

My third keeper, another small spot, came off a seawall. Don Gober and his grandson Alex were fishing the same bank and we were talking when it hit. My fourth keeper was a small largemouth that hit on some rocks, the only largemouth I caught, at about 10:00.

It got slow for the next few hours. Even the small spots quit biting. At 2:00, with an hour left to fish, I caught my fifth fish to fill my limit. It hit as the other spots, on some rocks on a point.

With 30 minutes left to fish I decided to change and ran to a brush pile near the weigh-in site. I caught may “kicker” fish, a spot weighing just over a pound, there on the shaky head worm. Maybe I should have fished more brush but that was the only bite I got around any brush I fished.