Category Archives: Tournament Fishing

What Is the Georgia Bass Club Creel Census Report?

Georgia Bass Club Creel Census Report

I have always been fascinated with fishing records and statistics to the point of keeping a record of every bass I have caught since I was 12 years old. The Georgia Bass Chapter Federation Creel Census Report compiled by Dr. Carl Quertermus at the University of West Georgia provides me with a lot of great bass fishing information.

Starting in 1978 Dr. Quertermus compiled records of club tournaments and now contracts with the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division on it. The Georgia Bass Chapter Federations require each of their clubs to send in a detailed report after each tournament. Each report includes number of fishermen, number of hours fished, lake, winning weight, total weight, total number of bass, big bass weight, number of limits, number of zeroes, number of spots, largemouth and other bass, and more.

One of the most surprising facts to me is the amount of time it takes a typical club fisherman to land a keeper bass and the average size of that bass. It has been very consistent over the 30 years of this study that the catch rate is .20 to .25. That means it takes four to five hours on average for a club fisherman to land one keeper. And that keeper will average less than 1.5 pounds.

The increasing population of spotted bass is well documented by this report. Lakes where spots are not native have seen huge increases in them. Jackson Lake had 99.52 percent largemouth reported in 1994. By 2007 that had changed to 52.4 percent. Russell had 96.66 percent largemouth in 1994 and 49.4 percent in 2007. For good or bad those changes were brought about by illegal stocking of spots by fishermen.

Dr. Quertermus is a founder of the Carroll Bassmasters and, after some time not fishing with them, is back in the club. He enjoys catching bass as well as studying them. In the In Fisherman 2001 Bass Guide he wrote an article “Timing the Bass Bite” using his reports on over 8000 club tournaments. It confirmed some of the things most bass fishermen believe, but also showed some of those beliefs to be wrong.
The best months for catching bass are April, March and May followed by October and November. No surprise there. But it was a surprise when he looked at night tournaments and found it really does not make any difference if you fish during the day or night even during the hottest months as far as catch rates go. It may be a lot more comfortable fishing at night but the bass don’t seem to care.
There was a difference in spots and largemouth at night. In looking at 677 day tournaments and 758 night tournaments on lakes with both spots and largemouth, there were more largemouth caught in day tournaments and more spots caught in night tournaments. It is a good idea to plan your night trips to lakes with good populations of spots.

When can you catch your biggest bass? Dr. Quertermus found the winning stringer weight for bass was higher in January, February, March and December. Also, the average biggest bass caught in tournaments was higher in March and February. So go fishing right now for bigger bass.

One of the biggest surprises is the fact Allatoona is NOT the Dead Sea. In 2007 it had the fourth highest catch rate per hour, following Clark’s Hill, Hartwell and Russell. In 2005 and 2006 it had the highest catch rate of any Georgia lake. It is hard to believe you can catch more bass at Allatoona than Sinclair but club reports show you can.

Looking at numbers is fun and they can help you decide which lake and time is your best bet, but doing your own research is much more fun!

Catching Hybrids While Trying To Catch Bass At West Point

If someone told me the fishing would be worse at West Point for the Flint River tournament last Sunday than it had been two weeks before in the Sportsman Club tournament I would not have believed them. I could not believe it would get harder to catch a bass, but it was.

In eight hot hours of casting 13 members and guests of the club brought in nine keeper bass weighing about 15 pounds. There were no limits and eight people didn’t catch a keeper. Only four of the bass were largemouth.

Niles Murray had two nice largemouth weighing 7.32 pounds for first and the one that weighed 5.82 pounds was big fish. My four, three spots and one largemouth, weighing 4.47 pounds was second, Jack Ridgeway, Niles partner, had one largemouth weighing 3.46 pounds for third and Chuck Croft had a spot weighing 1.43 pounds for fourth. My partner Jordan McDonald had a spot weighing .95 pounds for fifth and that was it!

Jordan and I started on a bank where I have caught fish before, hoping a bass would be feeding at daylight. We tried a variety of baits and Jordan got one hit on a topwater plug but missed it. After about 45 minutes as we worked out to a hump off that bank Jordan spotted schooling fish hitting on top across the creek.

I told him they looked like hybrids and, based on where they were feeding over deep water, I was sure they were. But we went over there and sure enough Jordan caught several hybrids on a jerkbait and I missed a few on a topwater plug that was too big for them to eat. Then Jordan hooked a strong fish that fought for a long time before pulling off.

We tried some more humps near deep water without a bite. Then we went to the point where I had caught two good largemouth two weeks before. The baitfish were still there and fish were under them, just like before, and we got some bites, but all we caught was a six inch spot and a warmouth.

About 9:30 we went to a roadbed and fished it hard and caught a couple of short spots on jig head worms.
Right at 11:00 I caught a 13 inch spot and then landed a second one the same size in the very next cast. Although we stayed there for over an hour we didn’t get another bite.

Just after noon we went to another point where I had caught a spot two weeks before and I saw baitfish with fish holding under them in 18 feet of water. I got a hit on my drop shot worm under them and landed a keeper largemouth. As soon as I put it in the livewell I dropped my bait to the bottom, felt a fish start swimming with it, set the hook and broke my line.

I have no idea why it broke. Although I was using only eight pound test line the first fish had pulled drag without breaking it. On the second fish my line popped with almost no pressure. I may have nicked it while unhooking the first fish.

At 1:00, with an hour left to fish, we ran to a brush pile in deep water where we had seen fish two weeks before but had not been able to catch anything. We rode over it and saw a lot of fish holding on it on the depthfinder.

I put out a marker and as soon as Jordan’s dropshot hit bottom he caught his keeper. While he was putting it in the livewell I dropped my bait down and caught my fourth keeper. Although we stayed there until we had to go in at 2:00 we did not get another bite. That was frustrating because we could see the fish holding around the brush but they would not bite.

I can’t recommend a bass fishing trip to West Point right now, but if you want to catch some hybrids it would be a good choice. The big school we saw was in the mouth of Turner Creek, just behind the island in the mouth of it.

Be there at first light and they will hit small topwater plugs, jerk baits, spoons and crankbaits. After the sun gets up and they quit schooling on top they will suspend over the channel and you can jig for them with spoons or bucktails, or catch them on live bait. You should be able to spot them on a depthfinder holding about 20 feet deep.

Hybrids fight hard and most of them will be fairly small, around two pounds. But the one Jordan lost was much bigger and you will have some of them, too. I don’t eat many hybrids since they taste so strong, but some folks like them fried.

When I do cook them I put filets from a three or four pounder in a pan, cover them with bacon strips and onion rings and bake them for about 45 minutes. I do like them cooked that way. The bacon and onions give them a good flavor and takes the strong fishy taste out of them.

Tough June Tournament At West Point Lake

At West Point on Sunday 16 members of the Sportsman Club fished our June tournament from 6:00 AM until 2:00 PM. We landed 29 keeper bass weighing about 47 pounds. There was only one five-fish limit and three fishermen didn’t catch a keeper.

Kwong Yu won with three largemouth weighing 7.80 pounds. My four bass weighing 7.56 pounds was second, third was Raymond English with five at 6.83 pounds, Javin English was fourth with four at 5.89 pounds and Chris Davies won big fish with a 3.93 pound largemouth.

I was surprised at the number of largemouth weighed in. West Point is full of spotted bass and they are usually fairly easy to catch, but not Sunday! There were 12 largemouth brought in and four of them weighed over three pounds each.

Jordan McDonald fished with me and I had a very frustrating start. Nothing hit any of our baits at daylight the first place we stopped, a hump where I can usually catch a lot of spots as it gets light. The second place we tried Jordan got a nice largemouth but that was the only fish we caught on that rocky bank and point, another place where we usually catch a bunch of spots.

At 9:00 we were headed to the fifth place we wanted to fish when I noticed current moving at the bridge we went under. Current usually makes the fish bite, like it did at Bartletts Ferry last month, so I pulled in to a nearby point. Although we could see a big school of baitfish with bigger fish under them down 16 to 18 feet deep on the point they would not hit anything we tried.

After 30 minutes of trying to make them hit crankbaits, worms and topwater I got out my dropshot rig. That rig is a four inch worm on a small hook about 12 inches above a one-eighth ounce sinker tied on eight pound test line. You drop the rig to the bottom straight under the boat, keep the lead on the bottom, raise your rod tip to make the worm suspend and jiggle it slightly. Bass will often hit it when they won’t hit anything else.

I felt a slight weight as I jiggled the worm and set the hook, and yelled for the net. I could tell it was a good fish. I usually catch smaller fish on that rig but this turned out to be a 3.56 pound largemouth. We stayed there and thirty minutes later I got another hit and landed a two pound largemouth.

After another hour on that point without any more bites we tried another point. I missed a bite on a jig head worm then caught a keeper spot. Some fish were hitting on top out over deep water and I thought they were hybrids, but Jordan cast a jerk bait to one of them and landed a keeper spot.

After fishing that place and getting no more keepers we went to another point. As we fished it I saw more baitfish with fish under them, again down about 15 feet, and let my dropshot worm down to them and caught my fourth keeper, another largemouth.

That was it for the day. We tried several more places, including going back to the place I caught the first two, and the fish were still there but still would not hit.

Fishing can be tough right now and it is hot, but I would rather be fishing than anything else I could do!

Why Join A Bass Club?

I never met a fish I didn’t want to catch, but bass hold a special place in my heart. I vividly remember the day over 50 years ago when I caught my first one. Dad dropped grandmother and me off at the creek running out of Usury’s pond in McDuffie County. We walked up to the pool of water below the dam and started fishing.

We had caught several small bream on our cane poles when my cork disappeared. I raised the pole but the fish didn’t dig down and make tight little circles like a bream, it jumped! That little 11-inch bass came out of the water three times and was the most exciting fish I had ever caught. My fate was sealed. Catching bass would become a life-long passion.

Bass club fishing is a lot of fun. I have been in the Spalding County Sportsman club since 1974 and the Flint River Bass Club since 1978. Club fishermen compete at a little more relaxed level than in the money tournaments. The goal of each club fisherman in Georgia is to make the Top Six tournament each year.

Georgia clubs have the option of affiliating with either The Bass Chapter Federation, an FLW organization, or the Bass Federation Nation, a BASS organization. Each group has a Top Six tournament each year where the clubs send a six man team to fish against other clubs for a little money, bragging rights and a chance to go on to the next level.

For Federation Nation anglers the ultimate goal is to fish the Bassmasters Classic. Five federation anglers make it each year, one from each area of the country. At the Georgia Federation Nation Top Six at Seminole in early February the top 12 fishermen earned the right to go on to the Southern Regional at Santee Cooper, competing against 12 man teams from six other southern states.

At the Regional the top man on each state team then advances to the Federation Nationals. There, the top man on each regional team will get a chance to fish the Bassmasters Classic.

The FLW Bass Chapter Federation has a similar structure, with the top 12 from the state tournament advancing to a regional tournament. At the regional tournament the top angler from each state will get to fish the Walmart BFL All-American as a boater and the second place angler will get to fish as a non-boater.

The top angler from each state will also advance to the FLW National Championship. The top two anglers there will get an entry into the Forrest Wood Cup as a boater and no boater. The winner at the national championship will also get a “Living the Dream” package including paid entry to FLW Tour for a year and a wrapped boat and truck to use during the tournament season.

Georgia bass fishermen have amazing possibilities if they like tournament fishing. Consider joining a local club and start on your road to fame and success if you want to try tournament fishing.

Fishing A Club Tournament At Lake Guntersville

Say “Lake Guntersvile” to any bass fisherman and they instantly think of catching lots of big bass. Guntersville is one of the best, if not the very best, bass lake in the US. Big tournaments there produce big catches. Five fish limits weighing over 25 pounds are common.

But there is another side to Guntersville. The minimum size limit on largemouth and smallmouth bass is 15 inches, a size not common in our club tournaments. So that makes it harder to catch a keeper. And the lake is very crowded. It is not unusual to find six to ten boats within casting distance of each other on a ledge when a school of bass is located. And if you happen to catch a fish while alone in a spot you won’t be alone long!

Fishermen hear about the great catches but they seldom hear about what the average club fisherman does. In the club creel census reports for Guntersville, it is the hardest lake in Alabama to catch a keeper in a club tournament and the lake with the fewest keepers per hour of fishing in the whole state.

But there is a chance of catching a personal record stringer there. That is why it is so crowded, and why the Flint River Bass Club set our June tournament there. Like other tournaments, we had a few good catches and some not so good ones.

Guntersville is about four hours from Griffin and we had only seven club members make the trip for our two day tournament last weekend. After fishing ten hours on Saturday and eight more on Sunday, we brought in 42 keepers weighing about 93 pounds. There were six five-fish limits and no zeros. We did have six spotted bass brought to the scales and they only have to be 12 inches long.

I managed to win with eight keepers weighing 23.13 pounds, Gary Hattaway had ten weighing 21.14 for second and big fish with a 5.12 pound largemouth, my partner Jordan McDonald had ten weighing 20.71 for third and Niles Murray had eight at 19.46 for fourth.

Before going to a lake I don’t know I often get information from fishermen I have done articles with. I was excited when Brad Vice, a college fisherman that I had worked with in February on Guntersville, told me had had weighed in five bass weighing 28 pounds in a tournament the week before. And he sent me two GPS coordinates for the places he caught them.

Jordan and I went over Wednesday afternoon, set up camp then got up early Thursday and Friday to practice. On one of the places Brad sent me I caught a four pounder and my depthfinder showed many more fish in the area.

Fortunately, Jordan had gotten some information too. We went to some of his places those two days and caught some fish on them, and on some other places we found on our own.

Saturday morning we went to a big grass bed Jordan had been told about, and in the first two hours of fishing he caught five keepers and I got two. For some reason I kept missing fish. Then, about 10:00, we went to some docks he had been told about and where I had caught three keepers off the first five docks the day before.

In the next two hours I caught five fish off those docks, including three off one of them. Those five dock fish weighed 17.05 pounds and gave me the lead and big fish of 4.55 for the first day, one of my best catches ever. On Sunday we went back to the grass and Jordan got four to my one. We then fished docks and I got two more and so did Jordan.

Although we fished hard we could not catch any more fish, and the spot Brad sent me we never got a fish. There were at least five boats fishing it every time we tried it during the tournament.

Niles had the same kind of luck I had. His limit on Saturday weighed 13.45 pounds for second place but he caught only three the second day. Gary had limits both days to come from behind for second place.

Guntersville is a beautiful lake and it does have good fish in it. If you work at it you can catch some nice stringers. But in our tournament, two of the fishermen weighed in only three keepers in two days between them.

Lots of Spots At A Kids and A Club Tournament At Bartletts Ferry In May

Last Saturday we had only three boats participating in the Spalding County Sportsman Club/Flint River Bass Club youth tournament at Bartletts Ferry. Even though the numbers were low and the fishing was tough we had fun.

On the youth side Alex Watkins fishing with Sam Smith won the older age group with four bass weighing 2.89 pounds. My partner Hunter Jenkins came in second with two at 2.55 pounds and his 1.29 pound largemouth was big fish. Blaze Brooks, fishing with Zane Fleck, won the younger division with two bass weighing 1.18 pounds.

In the buddy tournament Sam and Alex had five fish weighing 5.82 pounds for first and a 1.45 pound largemouth for big fish, Hunter and I had five at 5.07 for second and Zane’s team had two at 2.28 pounds for third.

Youth could weigh in any legal fish, so they could bring in spotted bass less than 12 inches long. On the buddy side all fish had to be 12 inches long. Bartletts Ferry is full of little spotted bass and we all caught a bunch of them. There were only three largemouth brought to the scales.

Hunter and I started fishing a point with topwater, crankbaits and worms. He had two bites on worms but when he set the hook he brought in a half worm. I missed two on topwater and I think they were all little spotted bass, too small to get the hook.

As the sun got higher we went out on a point and I could see fish on it on my depthfinder, and I caught two small keeper spots and several too short to keep on jig head worms and drop shot. Then we fished several more places without catching anything.

At about 11:00 we started fishing docks and Hunter got two keeper largemouth and I got a keeper spot. We both caught some throwbacks, too. That was it for us. It was a very frustrating day, made even more so at the ramp when we watched a pot tournament weigh-in and it took five weighing 14.5 pounds to win and 14 pounds to get a check!

The next day in the Spalding County Sportsman Club May tournament at Bartletts Ferry 16 members and guests fished from 6:00 AM till 2:30 PM to land 55 keepers weighing about 64 pounds. There were only 11 largemouth, all the rest were small spotted bass. Six of us had five-fish limits and only one fisherman didn’t have a keeper.

Billy Roberts won it all with five weighing 8.02 pounds and had a 3.72 pound largemouth for big fish. My five at 6.18 pounds was second, Niles Murray had five at 6.14 pounds for third and Sam Smith’s five at 6.05 pounds was fourth.

After seeing the tournament with the good catches weighed in Saturday I thought all night, trying to figure out what they could have done. Often you can go up the river and catch largemouth, but the water looked muddy at the ramp so we had all fished clear water on the main lake Saturday. I told my partner Jordan McDonald we were going for broke, running up the river to try to catch some bigger fish even if it was muddy.

The first place we stopped I got a keeper spot on a spinnerbait, not what I was hoping for, and Jordan caught a short spot. We fished great looking cover for over four hours and all we caught were two more short spots and a short largemouth even though there was good current, usually a good sign, the water was what I consider a perfect color. I could see a spinnerbait down over a foot deep.

At 10:30 we decided we had better go to the clear water and try to catch a keeper spot. On the way down the river, near the mouth and still in very stained water, I remembered a good point and we stopped on it. Current was moving across it and it is often a very good place when the current is flowing.

We immediately started catching fish. It was strange. The boat was sitting in about 14 feet of water and we were casting up on the point, covering it from five feet deep out to 14 feet deep. In the next two hours I caught about 15 small keeper spots and several that were too small to keep. Although I gave Jordan one of the lizards I was using, and he rigged it Texas style just like mine, I caught all the keepers.

By 12:30 the fish quit biting and the boat traffic go so bad it was uncomfortable and dangerous to stay there, so we went to some other places. For some reason pleasure boaters like to break the law and ride close to fishermen, violating the 100 foot rule. Most of them seemed to slow down to make as big a wake as possible. I yelled at one guy when he almost ran over us and he yelled back we were in his way although there was a lot of open water all around us!

Jordan had a bad day. I got three more keepers fishing docks and points but he never got one. It is weird the way it goes some days and you just can not figure out why. I have had it happen to me many times. In fact, in a February tournament at Bartletts Ferry Jordan won with a limit weighing about 12 pounds and had big fish and I caught one keeper all day!

What goes around comes around, sometimes!

Bass Club Tournaments On Lake Oconee and Lake Lanier

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.

Fishing A Bass Club Tournament At Clarks Hill in May

Last weekend 13 members and guests of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our April tournament at Clarks Hill. Fishing was very good for a few and tough for others. There were nine five-bass limits and one fisherman didn’t weigh in a keeper after fishing ten hours on Saturday and eight hours on Sunday. We had 82 keepers weighing about 163 pounds.

Sam Smith won with ten at 24.56 pounds, his partner Chris Davies had ten at 23.68 pounds for second and Raymond English was third with nine at 23.45. Raymond had big fish with a 6.61 pound largemouth he caught Saturday. My nine weighing 20.86 pounds was good for fourth. My partner Jordan McDonald was fifth with nine at 17.96 and Zane Fleck had ten at 17.19 for sixth.

I went over on Wednesday and fished a few hours that afternoon. The lake is full and the bushes are in the water, usually a great pattern this time of year. I caught several small bass then in the last hour before I went in I landed a three pounder and two more over 2.5 pounds.

Jordan joined me the next morning and we put in before daylight and went looking for shad and herring spawning. We didn’t see any so we started fishing bushes, and were real disappointed. After fishing about ten hours we landed only about ten keeper bass, and all were less than two pounds.

Friday morning we started a little later and again looked for shad and herring spawning. We caught a couple of big hybrids on a blow-through, a place where shallow water between two islands or an island and the bank has a gravel bottom. Wind and waves wash the dirt away, leaving the gravel, and herring spawn on them.

The next one we fished we saw some schooling activity and I landed a two pounder on a Carolina rigged Baby Brush Hog. Then I got a keeper on a crankbait off the Raysville bridge riprap. That should have told me something, but I missed it. After fishing the rest of the day we again had landed fewer than ten keepers and the first one was the biggest.

After three sunny days Saturday morning was rainy so Jordan and I drove the 25 miles from my place at Rayville Boat Club to Mistletoe State Park rather than riding 7 miles between the two by water in the boat. We took off and went to a rocky point I like, and both caught some big hybrids but no bass. As it got a little lighter we went to a nearby blow through but nothing was happening there.

Since it was raining hard by now I just started fishing around the island with the blow though. Jordan saw some schooling fish on a point on the main bank across from it and we went over there, and I got a three pounder on a crankbait. After going back to the blow through I caught another three pounder. Working around the island, I got a 4 pounder and lost two more nice bass when they jumped and threw the crankbait.

I also got a five pound channel cat on the crankbait. Jordan got an eight pounder the next day. Some folks had a lot of noodles out for cats in that area and we saw several with fish on them, and Jordan pulled one up that had an eight pound blue cat on it. Catfish were biting good!

By the time we had to go in I had caught ten keepers and culled three three-pound bass – very unusual for me. Raymond English and I were tied with 16.19 pounds each – one of my best five fish limits ever in a tournament.

Sunday was clear and very windy. Although I fished hard I landed only four small keepers and Jordan had the same. What a difference a day made!

Sam and Chris came in first and second by fishing Raysville Bridge. I knew the fish I caught there should have told me something!

How Did the Bass Pros Do On Lake Guntersville?

Legendary Bass Pros in North Alabama on Lake Guntersville

By Frank Sargeant
from The Fishing Wire

The  pros get ready

The pros get ready

Most of the best-known names in professional bass fishing probed the favorite local spots at Lake Guntersville, in the northeast corner of Alabama, as the Diet Mountain Dew Bassmaster Elite tour got underway on Thursday, April 9, and continued through Sunday, April 12. Daily takeoffs and weigh-ins were at Guntersville City Harbor, adjacent the 431 bridge on the north edge of town.

With water temperatures still in the low 60s, the lake’s giant female bass haven’t completed their spring spawning, and this should mean fishing fans will see some gigantic fish brought to the scales during the four-day event.

“There was a 12-7 caught in a tournament here just recently,” says Elite Pro Chris Lane. “I would be surprised if there aren’t several fish over 10 pounds caught next week. It’s going to be that kind of tournament.”

Lane might well be one of the anglers finishing near the top–he has lived on Guntersville for the past several years, thrives on shallow water fishing due to his Florida roots, and just won an Elite Tour event at the Sabine River.

Guntersville’s vast beds of milfoil, hydrilla and coontail grass will likely play a role as the Elite pros try to figure out what the successful pattern to win here will be. Lily pads, primrose and other shoreline cover, as well as docks, also attract spawning fish here.

Lane agrees with the popular assessment that it could take a four-day weight of more than 100 pounds to win. So does Casey Ashley, winner of the GEICO Bassmaster Classic held on South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell in February.

Like all B.A.S.S. events held in Alabama, the field will include a host of in-state anglers with extensive knowledge of the venue.

Lane, who lives close enough to the lake that he can have his boat in the water in just minutes, finished 36th in the 2014 Bassmaster Classic and 40th in the 2010 Elite Series event on Guntersville – his two most recent events on the fishery.

Justin Lucas, who relocated to Guntersville from his native northern California, will be fishing a professional event for the first time on his new home lake. He’s a top-rated young angler who can never be counted out. Ditto for Kevin Hawk, who now guides on the lake.

Aaron Martens, another California native who now makes his home in Leeds, Ala., has a rich history on Lake Guntersville that includes a win in the 2009 Elite Series event on the lake. He also finished 13th in the 2014 Bassmaster Classic, 17th in a 2006 Elite Series event and 14th in Bassmaster Tour events in 2004 and 2005 here.

Flamboyant pro Gerald Swindle of Warrior will be in the mix, and has proven himself a consistent producer when bed fishing, and Randy Howell of Springville won the 2014 Classic on this lake, though that was a late winter event where crankbaits were king. Randall Tharp, an Alabama native now living in Florida, can’t be counted out here either–Guntersville is practically his home lake.

Launches are scheduled for 6:15 a.m. CT each day from Guntersville City Harbor with weigh-ins also set for the ramp at 3:15 p.m. daily. Launches and weigh-ins are free and open to the public. The B.A.S.S. Outdoor Expo gets underway at noon Saturday and Sunday, and free demo rides from Mercury, Yamaha, Nitro, Skeeter and, Triton will be available.

Skeet Reese won after Mike Iaconelli led for three days. Iaconelli caught only one bass the final day and dropped to 12th place.

For details and results, visit www.bassmaster.com.

Lake Lanier Fishing Did Not Live Up To Hopes, At Least for My Club

Last Sunday 21 members and guests of the Flint River Bass Club fished our April tournament at Lanier. We were all excited – fishing reports said they were biting good and everything seemed right. And when Chuck Croft told us at the meeting Tuesday night he and his partner won a tournament there the weekend before with 22 pounds, we just knew we would catch fish.

Nope. In nine hours of casting, we landed 41 bass weighing about 79 pounds. There were only four five-bass limits and six members didn’t land a keeper. As expected though, there were only eight largemouth landed. The rest were spotted bass. There is a 14 inch length limit on all bass at Lanier, though. Many of us caught a lot of 13 inch bass that would be keepers on most lakes.

We are going to have to stop allowing guests to fish this tournament. Last year William Scott fished as a guest and won the tournament and had a six pounder, the biggest bass caught in any of our tournaments. This year Sam Smith fished as Niles Murray’s guest and won it with five weighing 10.79 pounds. And he had a 3.12 pound spot for big fish.

Brandon Stooksbury should have won but he came in 7 minutes late after being told the wrong weigh-in time on the phone after arriving late for blast off. He did place second with five weighing 8.86 after a 21 percent penalty. And he had a 3.39 pound spot that would have been big fish without the penalty.

William Scott came back as a guest and came in third with five at 8.40 pounds and my five weighing 7.60 was good for fourth place. Jordan McDonald fished with me and had three weighing 5.61 pounds so we had a decent day, but not nearly as good as expected.

I couldn’t wait to get to my first place at the 6:30 blast off. A few years ago I did an article on Lanier in early April with Laura Gober and she took me to a place at daylight where we caught several three pound plus spots on jerkbaits, and she said that was not unusual. Jordan and I hit it and fished it for an hour, and caught several short fish. I did hook a 2.5 pound plus spot we could see down about six feet under the boat in the clear water, but it pulled off the jerkbait.

By 10:00 we were frustrated. Although we had caught several small bass we didn’t have a keeper in the live wells. So we took off up the Chestatee River, headed to the back end of it where the lake looks more like what I am used to fishing. Jordan had taken me up there last March in a Flint River tournament and I came in second in it.

On the way we stopped on a hump and Jordan caught a keeper at about 10:30 so our attitude improved. And soon after getting to the very back end of the river, 22 miles from the blast off ramp, I landed a keeper largemouth on a jig and pig from about two feet of water.

We fished shallow bushes, grass and rocks the rest of the day and I landed four more keepers and Jordan got two more. I had only three with about an hour left to fish when I hooked a three pound plus largemouth on a worm in two feet of water and told Jordan to get the net just as it jumped and threw the hook.

With less than 30 minutes to fish we went to a small island and I caught a keeper largemouth and a keeper spot to fill my limit almost on back to back casts. It took us 22 minutes at 60 miles per hour to get back to the ramp, but it was worth the ride!