Last Sunday 15 members and guests of the Flint River Bass Club fished our April tournament at Lake Oconee. We choose Lake Oconee April Tournament because fishing is usually good there. In 8.5 hours of casting we brought in 38 bass over the 14 inch size limit. There were five five-bass limits and two people didn’t bring in a keeper.

Travis Weatherly won it all with five weighing 13.01 pounds and his 3.44 pound largemouth was big bass. Chuck Croft was second with five at 10.12 pounds, I came in third with five weighing 9.32 pounds and Niles Murray placed fourth with five at 8.88 pounds.

When we took off I noticed everyone but me went up the Oconee River from Long Shoals ramp. The water was more stained that way than it was in Double Branches where I headed. And it seems the bite was different. I tried spinnerbaits and crankbaits but never got a bite on them. But at weigh-in the other three finishing in the top four all said they caught their fish on spinnerbaits and crankbaits.

After about 30 minutes I stopped fishing those faster moving baits and switched to a Texas rigged lizard, and almost immediately caught a good keeper. So I kept fishing it and had three at 9:00 in the first cove we fished.

The next cove we went to I quickly filled my limit by 10:00 on the lizard but then it got tough. I fished hard but at 2:30 had not caught another keeper. My partner Wesley DeLay and I both caught a lot of 13 inch bass, too short to weigh in.

Finally at 2:30 I landed a bass big enough to cull my smallest fish. But that was it, I landed six keepers all day.

Most tournament fishermen want to be in control of the boat and fish from the front. At times it makes big difference, and it seemed to Sunday. Travis fished by himself so it did not make a difference, but JJ Polak fished from the back of Chuck’s boat. Chuck had five, JJ had one keeper. I had five and Wesley, fishing behind me, had one. And Niles had five while Jack Ridgeway, fishing from the back of his boat, had one.

I’m not sure why it made a difference. Wesley and I both were fishing the same bait. I steadily moved down the bank and the fish I caught were not on any kind of visible cover. So each of us were blind casting to the same water. I probably made a cast every 20 feet or so, leaving lots of un-fished water between casts.

A bass will move a couple of feet to hit a bait like a lizard but I don’t think they will move ten feet one way or the other to hit one. Bass are ambush fish, relying on a short burst of speed to catch and eat their quarry. For them to move ten feet to hit something moving along the bottom would be unusual, I think.

But who knows why bass act like they do. I have certainly had plenty of days when my partner beat me from the back of the boat and I’m sure it will happen a lot more times.

Sometimes sticking with a plan works in the long run, even when its a fishing plan. While getting tackle ready for the Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament last Sunday I had a feeling that if I fished some specific places in specific ways I would catch fish.

Pro fishermen sometimes tell me that they often get this feeling. Peter Thliverlos, a pro fisherman usually called Peter T, is known for his saying “if you think it, do it.” I usually get it a couple of times a year. I think that “sixth sense” is what separates the weekend warriors like me and the upper levels of fishermen.

Some of that “sixth sense” comes from spending a lot of time on the water. The more experience you have in anything the better you will do. I compare it to playing baseball or the piano. Anybody can learn to play baseball but no matter how much you practice and play very few will ever make it to the major leagues. Anybody can learn to play the piano, but no matter how much most folks practice only a tiny percentage will ever play at Carnegie Hall. They need that sixth sense.

I fish a lot, to the extent of fishing 443 days in a row a few years ago. I am in a bass boat at least five days a month, usually much more, fishing for bass. And I have been fishing for bass for over 55 years and competing in club tournaments for 42 years next month. But I will never be able to compete consistently in bigger tournament trails.

I love it when I get that feeling, it gives me confidence. But last Sunday I almost gave up on my plan after almost two hours without catching a keeper bass.

In the Sportsman Club tournament 16 members and guests fished for 8.5 hours at Bartletts Ferry. The windy, cool day made it tough to fish some places but 10 of the fishermen had limits. Only one fisherman didn’t catch a keeper.

I won with five weighing 13.04 pounds and Russell Prevatt placed second with five at 12.87. His 5.11 pound largemouth beat my 5.05 pounder for big fish. Larry Cook was third with 10.58 pounds and Jay Gerson had five at 9.05 for fourth.

There is a place near the ramp at Bartletts Ferry where I like to start first thing in the morning, especially if we start when it is fairly dark. At 7:30 it was pretty dark Sunday so I stopped there. I have often caught a keeper in the first few minutes of a tournament to start my day.

Plus, I wanted to go to the other side of the river. There is a mud ridge running right down the middle of the river so it is safer to go around it when it is good light. Logs often float down the river and stick on the edge of it, making it dangerous to run until you can see them.

On one of my first few casts with a spinnerbait I felt a thump but did not hook anything. I figured it was a bream or a small spotted bass so it didn’t worry me too much. But then I felt a hit and when I set the hook a two pound bass came to the surface and came off, not the way I wanted to start.

By now it was light enough to see so I ran to a small creek on the other side of the river. I just knew I could catch something there but after fishing it for thirty minutes I had not had a bite. Then a fish made a fool of me while I was fishing a jig and pig.

I felt a light tap and tried to get my line tight to set the hook. When I thought it was tight I reared back and my line zinged under the boat, the fish had come off the bank and run under the boat 25 feet away in the couple of seconds while it tried to tighten up my line. It came off.

A few minutes later I came to a small brush top at the mouth a little ditch in that creek. I cast my spinnerbait to both sides of it but no bite. I felt like there was a fish there, it was the perfect set-up, and I remembered a trip with pro fisherman Boyd Duckett. The first place we stopped that morning was a ditch with a small brush top in it and he cast to it repeatedly, saying he just knew a bass was there. After about a dozen casts to the same place he caught one.

I kept casting to the little brush top and on about my seventh cast, when I stopped the spinnerbait and let it fall, I saw my second biggest bass of the day come up and hit it. I managed to land it and felt a little better.

About an hour later I was in another small creek and cast a Carolina rigged lizard near a boat dock walkway. When I started to move it, it felt mushy. I thought I had picked up a leaf on my lead but then I realized my line had move out under the dock and something started pulling. I didn’t have time to set the hook, I just started reeling.

I managed to net the 5.05 pound largemouth as the hook fell out of its mouth. That was a fish that was just meant to get caught, one I should have lost. That made me feel much better about missing the earlier fish.

The rest of the day I fished a jig and pig and caught four more keepers and culled a small spot. Then with less than 30 minutes to fish I did something dumb and lost a three pounder. The wind was blowing me down the bank and I felt a thump on the jig. My line started moving out toward the back of the boat and, rather than turn and get good hook set I tried to set it over my left shoulder kinda backwards. The three pounder came to the top and came off.

I hated losing that fish but all in all following my plan worked pretty well!

Every year I look forward to the Georgia Bass Chapter Federation Top Six tournament. I have missed only one of these tournaments since 1979 and have done well in some and not caught a fish others but I usually can’t wait to go.

In this tournament each affiliated club in Georgia sends a six man team to compete against other teams. The team members also compete individually. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s we always had between 90 and 100 teams competing. Recently the numbers have dropped to only 42 teams at West Point last year and 30 at Lake Eufaula this year.

I went to Lake Point state park a week ago last Tuesday to practice for two Lake Eufaula tournaments, the Top Six and for the Potato Creek Bassmasters tournament on the Saturday and Sunday on Eufaula before the Top Six on Monday and Tuesday. The folks at Lake Point were excellent and treated all the fishermen great. They seemed to want tournaments there, unlike Wind Creek State Park on Lake Martin where they seem like they would rather we not be there. And I had a good campsite at the park.

My trip started off as a disaster. The first place I stopped Wednesday morning I idled in water too shallow and sucked muck into my motor. I could run about a half mile before the heat warning on my motor went off.

Luckily I had called Russell Prevatt about a place I was fishing and when he called me back I told him about my problem. He gave me Mike Bice’s phone number. Mike had come to Lake Point and put a new lower unit on his boat last year.

Mike lives in Dothan and will come to lakes like Eufaula and Seminole and can do most repairs in the parking lot. I spent most of the morning getting back to the ramp and met Mike. He took my engine apart enough to get the mud and grass out of it. If you need work on your motor on the lakes in south Alabama and Georgia call Mike at 334-491-7546. He charged me $150 after driving three hours round trip and working on my boat for over an hours.

Thursday and Friday I fought the wind but the wind won on the lower lake. I never caught a keeper either day. But in one small creek a guy from Alabama was fishing across from me late Friday afternoon and we started talking. Suddenly he said “There’s a good one.” I looked over in time to see a nice bass jump. When he landed it he asked if I had a scale and we met in the middle of the creek where he weighted it. It was just over five pounds.

Saturday morning I went back to that creek and caught three keepers, two on a spinnerbait and another on a jig head worm, before lunch. Then about lunch time I landed two more, these on a Carolina Rig, to fill my limit that weighed 9.6 pounds. I never left that creek.

Sunday morning I went back to that creek. On my second cast, with a spinnerbait by a clump of grass about 20 yards from where I saw the five pounder caught Friday, I hooked and landed a five pound bass. I’m almost sure it was the same fish.

After catching another one on a spinnerbait and one on a Carolina rig things got real slow. Kwong Yu was fishing with me and suggested we go to the next cove at about 11:00 AM. I landed two more to fill out my limit before we had to quit, both on a Carolina Rigged lizard.

In the tournament I had 22 pounds for first and big fish was the five pounder. Lee Handcock was second with 22 pounds, Niles Murray was third with 18 pounds and Raymond English was fourth with 17 pounds.

I decided it was not worth running the 25 miles from Lake Point where the Top Six started to the creek where I caught them because of the wind. So the next morning I ran into a small creek near the park and on my tenth cast landed a 5.72 pound bass on a spinnerbait, a great start. My partner also caught a nice keeper.

But at 10:30 we had not caught another fish so we went to a small creek my partner wanted to fish. I caught a nice keeper on a jig and pig off some grass then, in the last hour we had to fish, I landed three more to fill my limit.

Since I was the eighth boat out that morning we had to go in first, and I was the seventh person to weigh-in. My 13.07 pounds for the day and my five pounder actually lead the tournament and I had big fish – for a few minutes.

Tuesday morning I was the eighth from last boat to take off so I did not even try to go back where I got the big one Monday. Instead, I ran to a creek a few miles away and quickly caught a keeper on a spinnerbait, then added two more. In another small creek around noon I caught a keeper out of a tree top on a spinnerbait then another on a jig and pig to get my limit.

The rest of the day I fished a jig and pig and caught two more keepers, one that culled an earlier catch. I ended up with five weighing over ten pounds.

I came in 15th out of 180 fishermen in that tournament with 25.63 pounds. Niles Murray came in 16th with ten weighing 25.05 pounds. The Sportsman Club finished 14th out of 30 teams. Both Niles and I qualified to go to the next level, the federation regional, by finishing in the top ten percent.

I am pleased at the outcome and am already looking forward to the Top Six at Hartwell next spring!

To mangle an old saying “Spring has sprung, the grass has riz, I wonder where the basses is.” My trip to West Point last week with Mike Morris helped me answer that question in the Flint River Bass Club tournament last Sunday.

In that tournament fishing West Point Lake 11 members and guests brought 22 keepers to the scales that weighed about 51 pounds. There were four five-fish limits and three fishermen didn’t have a keeper. We had 11 largemouth over 14 inches long and 11 spots longer than 12 inches.

I got real lucky and landed five bass weighing 16.53 pounds and my 6.69 pound largemouth was big fish. Travis Weatherly was second with five at 9.63 pounds, Niles Murray placed third with five at 9.23 pounds and chuck Croft rounded out the top four with five weighing 6.70 pounds.

Tyler Gruber fished with me in the youth tournament and got first place and big fish in that tournament. All our club tournaments are also youth tournaments and they compete against each other, not the adult club members. There is no entry fee for them.

We didn’t know that the West Georgia Bass Club, a team tournament trail, had a tournament that day with 149 boats in it. We started at 7:00 and they started at what the tournament director thought was safe light, about 6:45. While we were waiting to take off we heard boats start running down the lake and they continued to come by until about 7:15.

I got real disappointed when a boat in that tournament pulled up on the point I had planned on starting on a few minutes before 7:00. I got even more frustrated when I saw them catch two keepers before we even started! But I went to Plan B and it worked out.

I started on a danger marker near where we launched and landed five keepers by 8:00, including a spot weighing almost three pounds and a five pound largemouth. That made me feel pretty good but I kept fishing hard. But by 1:30 I had caught only three small spotted bass, not big enough to cull anything I had.

At 1:30 I pitched a jig to a log in about three feet of water, felt a thump and fought the big one to the boat. Tyler did a good job netting it and I really felt good. They I lost a three pounder a few minutes later to bring me back down a little.

In the past month I have fished three tournaments at West Point. In the first I didn’t catch a keeper, in the second I landed three for eighth place then had the good day Sunday. I will never figure out why I can’t be more consistent. But I would rather have highs and lows rather than be consistent with all lows!

The bass were on the same pattern that Mike Morris showed me, the same one I have been fishing for a month. I did not catch any keepers on the places he showed me for the article but I went to similar places where I have caught bass in past years, and it worked.

A lot of folks were fishing for crappie and they should continue to bite good for the next month or so. And bass will bite better and better as the water warms. It is a great time to go fishing.

I hate it when a bad fishing day gets worse, like it did for me last Sunday when a bad tournament day gets worse near the end.. In the Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament at West Point 14 members and guests fished for eight hours to land 41 keepers weighing about 75 pounds. There were three five-fish limits and one person didn’t have a keeper. There were 14 largemouth and the rest were spotted bass.

Jay Gerson won with five weighing 8.78 pounds, Sam Smith was second with two at 8.52 pounds and his 5.64 pound largemouth was big fish, third was Raymond English with five weighing 7.54 pounds and Kwong Yu placed fourth with three at 7.32 pounds.

Jordan McDonald fished with me and I caught a keeper spot on one of my first few casts with a DT 6 crankbait, then Jordan caught three keepers on a Shadrap in the first hour. We thought it was going to be a good day but we fished a lot of places and patterns for the next six hours and I got one keeper spot on a Carolina rigged Baby Brush Hog.

With an hour left to fish I pitched a jig and pig to a shallow brush top and felt a thump. When I set the hook there was a big flash in the water as the bass headed to deeper water. I yelled for the net and Jordan grabbed it. Then the bass jumped and threw my jig ten feet into the air.

That broke me down. I hate losing fish, much less a big one like that. Jordan said he thought it was bigger than Sam’s fish and I think it was close. So a tough day got much tougher and disappointing at that point.

We fished for the rest of the time left and I got a keeper largemouth, again on the DT 6, and Jordan caught three more keeper spots on his Shadrap. He culled down to five and had 6.74 pounds for fifth place. My three at 5.57 pounds put me in eighth place.

The water was about 50 degrees and heavily stained. Many people caught fish in shallow water. The cold weather last week will probably slow things down, and the lake rose three feet and got even more stained from the rain last week.

Everywhere we went there were a lot of people trolling for crappie. We counted 12 boats near the second shoal marker in Whitewater Creek. On the depthfinder there were schools of crappie everywhere out over the deeper water in the cannels, and a lot of baitfish there, too.

If you want to fill up your freezer, head to West Point with some Hal Flies and troll them along the channel edges. Most of the crappie were down about ten feet deep. If you have a good depthfinder you can see the fish and know how deep to run your baits. If not troll different depths until the fish show you how deep they are feeding.

Last Friday I went to Oconee to get information for my March Georgia Outdoor News article. Ethan Thomas, a student and fishing team member at Georgia College in Milledgeville, took me to show me his patterns and baits and ten spots to catch March bass on Oconee.

The Georgia College fishing team is ranked first in the nation right now by the Cabela’s School of the Year Rankings. Ethan lives on Oconee and fishes it a lot. He showed me some good places to fish on a cold day but we had a tough time catching much until late afternoon when the sun started warming the water.

At about 3:00 PM Ethan caught a keeper on one side of a dock and I got a four pounder on the other side. In the next hour or so Ethan caught five or six keepers while I tried to get another bite. The sun warming the water back in the coves definitely helped make the fish bite better late in the day.

There were a lot of fishermen out trying to catch crappie. They were trolling and drift fishing out on the creek channels and around standing timber. This is a great time to fill up your freezer with good eating crappie on most of our area lakes like Oconee, Sinclair, Jackson and West Point.

– Saturday morning I was excited to head to West Point Tournament for the Potato Creek Bassmasters tournament. I had a good feeling about catching fish based on my luck this year. Unfortunately, I proved it has been luck, that I am not a good fisherman. A good fisherman is consistent, a luck fisherman goes from catching to not catching like I did.

In the tournament JJ Crompton had 8.16 for first, Jack “Zero” Ridgeway had 7.33 for second and Raymond English placed third with 7.20 and had a nice 6.15 pound largemouth for big fish. I think I was the only one of the 14 fisherman without a keeper!

The day was the kind of day I most hate this time of year. A strong cold front came through, giving us bluebird skies and strong winds. I may have let the weather mess up my mind but I tried to concentrate on catching fish, not how tough it was.

After fishing shallow for an hour I went to a rocky bluff bank where I can usually catch at least a keeper spot this time of year, but never got a bite. For the next three hours I fished shallow and deep without a bite.

In a creek mouth with standing timber in 35 feet of water I could see scattered fish in it on my depthfinder. A few years ago I landed a five pound largemouth there in January and caught a keeper spot the next day in a tournament.

I jigged a spoon in the timber and got one bite. The fish fought good but I was disappointed when it came to the top and I saw a five pound striper. I invited I home for dinner and spent the next two hours jigging there, thinking that stripers and black bass like I was after ate the same thing so there should be something I could weigh in. But I never got another bite.

I finished out the day hitting several places that should be good this time of year but never got a bite. I heard the fish were caught shallow and there were several nice three pound plus largemouth and spots brought in, including Raymond’s big one. Most of the fisherman said they got only one to three bites all day. I fished several good shallow areas but no luck.

Some days are just like that.

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Last Sunday 12 members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our February tournament at Lake Lanier. After eight cold hours of casting we brought in 20 keeper bass longer than 14 inches that weighed 46 pounds. There was one five-fish limit and four members didn’t have a keeper.

Chuck Croft won with a nice limit of spots weighing 14.09 pounds and had a spot that weighed 4.46 pounds, a big one! My four weighing 10.95 was second and my 5.34 pound largemouth was big fish. Third was Don Gober with three weighing 6.39 pounds and Travis Weatherly, Chuck’s partner, came in fourth with two weighing 4.46 pounds.

I had heard a lot of big spots were being caught on a Fishhead Spin in the ditches at Lanier. But I have never been able to catch a fish on one even though I have been in the boat with guys catching them on it. So I have no confidence in it.

I started at daylight fishing that bait and others in ditches and on points. After almost three hours with no bites I went into Mud Creek to a deep brush pile I had been shown for a magazine article. It looked like fish were on it 35 feet deep on my depthfinder so I started jigging a spoon, and caught a 2.5 pound spot. That encouraged me!

Three hours and several brush piles later I had not had another bite. I decided to do something different the last two hours by going back in a creek and fishing the way I like to fish.

I was riding one last point looking for brush pile when Chuck pulled up to talk to me. He seemed surprised I had only one fish – he said they were hitting in the backs of the pockets on the Fishhead Spin. Of course I thought he meant in shallow water in the backs of the ditches but found out later he was catching them 30 feet deep!

I started to try that but went back in Flat Creek instead, going to my first idea. I smiled when I stopped on a rocky point and saw the water was a little stained and 52 degrees, several degrees warmer than the lake.

I quickly caught a keeper spot on a DT 6 crankbait, then missed a bite on a jig and pig in a shallow tree top. The next small pocket had a log in the back of it about two feet deep. I could see the whole thing, the water was not that stained. As soon as my jig and pig fell by the end of it the five pounder hit. It was great to catch a largemouth at Lake Lanier

The next small tree top about two feet deep produced another keeper spot, giving me my four. I am very glad I guessed right and went to shallow water and used baits I have confidence in!

What a difference a week makes! After my best catch ever at Sinclair two weeks ago I could not wait to go to the Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament there last Sunday. And in it, after eight hours of casting, I had exactly one bite and caught one Lake Sinclair bass!

In our tournament ten members and two youth fished from 8:00 AM till 4:00 PM on a day that started very cold but warmed up a lot. We landed 11 keepers weighing about 25 pounds. There were no limits and six fishermen didn’t land a keeper.

Sam Smith won with four bass weighing 9.87 pounds and Niles Murray came in second with two at 5.54 pounds and his 4.34 pound largemouth won big fish, beating Sam’s 4.33 pounder by one one-hundredth of a pound! Robert Proctor had one keeper weighing 3.21 pounds for third, Raymond English finished fourth with two t 2.71 pounds, my 2.15 pounder was fifth and Russell Prevatt round out the folks catching fish with one at 1.68 pounds for sixth.

Sam said he caught his fish on a spinnerbait fished beside dock post first thing that morning. Robert said he caught his on a jig head worm. Raymond and Niles fished together and said they caught their fish on Carolina rigs.

I had my good catch the weekend before on a Rapala DT 6 crawfish colored crankbait and I made hundreds of casts with it, but got only one bite. Garrett Macyszyn fished with me on the youth side and cast a variety of baits but I just could not get us where the fish were feeding.

At Dennis Station at daylight the water was in the low 40s, about ten degrees cooler than the week before. But down the lake I saw water as warm as 52 degrees, only a few degrees cooler. But the sun was bright after the cold front that came through here after the snow, and I think bluebird skies and high pressure always hurts the fishing. Bass just don’t like those conditions and don’t feed much.

The water was still very muddy but that had not stopped the bass from feeding. The day before we fished, on Saturday, I heard there was a 12 team tournament in the high winds. Only five of the teams caught fish but two of them had limits, and there were three bass weighing over six pounds each weighed in.

As the water starts warming the end of February Sinclair should produce some outstanding catches since there seems to be a lot of four to six pound bass there this year.