Caught in Top Six at West Point

I went over to Whitetail Campground on Thursday afternoon, put the boat in the water and set up my van camper. The campground is straight across the lake from Pyne Park, the tournament launch site and it is very convenient to leave the boat in the water and go over each morning to the blast off, avoiding the confusion and mess of 100 boats trying to launch.

Friday morning I got up and started trying to figure out where the bass were and what they would hit. When I saw the water temperature was 61 degrees I tried a topwater plug and caught a keeper spotted bass so I fished it for an hour without another bite. After switching to a jig and a Carolina rigged lizard I started catching keeper spots on every gravel point I fished, but I knew they would not win the tournament.

I did catch a three pound largemouth on Saturday morning out of some brush on a point, the size fish that would make a difference in the tournament. But after trying that kind of cover for the rest of the day all I caught were more small spots, although I was throwing big jig and pig.

Sunday morning Jordan McDonald and Jennifer Spell went out with me to practice. Although they were both fishing with the Flint River team and I was on the Sportsman Club team we were working together. The first place I stopped, another rocky point with some brush, I hooked and landed a six pound largemouth and got real excited! Maybe that pattern would work.

About noon we went into a small creek up the river. Jordan had talked to a friend and was told running a square bill crankbait by wood cover worked, and the first stick he tried he landed a 3.5 pound largemouth. The next stick I landed a 2.5 pound largemouth so we were excited.

As luck would have it that afternoon at the drawing, Jordan and I were paired for Monday. The computer won’t pair two fishermen from the same club, but since we were on different clubs we got to fish together. We had a plan!

Monday morning we took off to the point where I had caught the three pounder since it was close. Although there were no largemouth there, spots were feeding and we stayed for almost two hours until we both had four keepers. The rain made us stay longer than planned on those small fish but we didn’t want to run in the pouring rain.

On the point where I had caught the six pounder we caught several spots, but no largemouth. So we headed to the creek up the river, hoping to cull all those little spots. But again nothing but small spots hit there. A little after noon we started fishing pockets in Yellowjacket Creek, the pattern Jordan’s friend told him about, and Jordan landed a 4.5 pounder, but I caught nothing but small fish.

At weigh-in Jordan had a little over 10 pounds and my five weighed an even seven pounds. Jordan was in a good position but I knew I was in trouble. The fisherman weighing in behind me had five weighing 22 pounds! And some others had 14 to 16 pounds.

The second day even the spots quit hitting on the first two places my partner from Savannah and I fished so we went to the creek up the river. We started catching some decent largemouth as well as spots there and I even landed a 5.65 pound largemouth on a Carolina rig. We stayed there until we had to go in.

I had five at just over 10 pounds and my partner had just under 10 pounds to go with the 10 pounds he had caught the day before. My big fish ended up being the seventh biggest in the tournament.

Jordan finished in 16th place out of almost 200 fishermen and I came in 32nd. Mickey McHenry on the Flint River team placed 15th. The Sportsman Club team was 15th out of 33 teams and the Flint River Team was 16th.

Although I was dead tired after all that fishing I am already looking forward to the other Federation Top Six at Hartwell in October and this Federation tournament at Eufaula next April!

At Oconee on Sunday 15 members and guests of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our March tournament. After casting in the rain for eight hours we brought 65 bass over the 14 inch minimum for keepers and they weighed about 140 pounds. Fishing was good, with 8 five fish limits weighed in. Only one person didn’t have a keeper.

Kwong Yu showed up for his first tournament with the club this year and won it all with five weighing 14.38 pounds and big fish of 6.15 pounds. Craig Zoellner, also fishing his first tournament this year with the club, was second with five at 12.12 pounds. Raymond English placed third with five at 12.06 and fourth was Zane Fleck with five weighing 11.61 pounds.

I thought I had a pretty good catch until everybody started weighing in the big stringers. Niles Murray had five at 10.53 pounds to come in fifth and my five at 9.96 pounds was sixth. My partner Jordan McDonald had four weighing 9.84 for a close seventh. We had a lot of fish weighing two pounds or more so the bigger fish bit pretty good.

I caught six keepers during the day, all on a Texas rigged Baby Brush Hog. Jordan caught his on a variety of baits. The fish were on secondary points and banks back in coves and in three to five feet of water. Niles said he and Raymond caught their fish in similar places but all on Carolina rigs.

Today is the last day of practice at West Point for the state Top Six. The tournament is Monday and Tuesday. I am hoping the fishing will be good but the cold nights this weekend have me worried. Bass moving toward the shallow bedding areas and fairly easy to catch often back off and feed less if the water temperature drops.

At Jackson Sunday we had five youth fishing the youth tournament and four teams of youth and adults in the buddy part of the tournament. After six hours of casting on a beautiful day we brought in 20 keepers weighing about 26 pounds. Almost all were spots but they bit pretty good.

In the Youth tournament Dawson McMonigle won, Tyler Gruber was second and had big fish and Hunter Jenkins placed third. Treston Cheeves and Kemson Cheeves also fished but did not place in the top three.

In the Buddy tournament Sam Smith and Dawson had five weighing 7.14 to win, Hunter and I had five weighing 6.76 for second, third was Raymond English fishing with his two grandsons Treston and Kemson with two bass at 3.88 and big fish weighing 3.09 pounds and fourth was Larry Cook and Tyler with one at 1.35 pounds.

Hunter and I caught more than a dozen keeper spots and some smaller fish, mostly on jig head worms. The fish we caught were all on rocks, something spots love, and most were right off the main lake in five or six feet of water. Many of them picked up the bait and started swimming with it without me feeling the hit.

I think everyone had a good time!

I kept some of the spots and fried filets on Monday night. They were delicious. Jackson is overrun with spots under 14 inches long, there is no size limit on them since they are invasive and hurt a lake when they get in it, and taste good. Right now is a good time for a trip to Jackson to catch some to fry.

At Sinclair 12 members of the Sportsman Club fished our February tournament on a rainy but fairly warm day. We had 35 keepers weighing about 62 pounds. There were five five-fish limits and only two fishermen didn’t have a keeper in the 8.5 hours we fished.

I was lucky enough to get five weighing 10.98 pounds for first, Billy Roberts had five at 10.36 pounds for second and big fish with a 3.57 pound largemouth, third was Niles Murray with five at 8.83 pounds and fourth was Zane Fleck with five at 8.15 pounds. Those weights were fairly close but for big fish I had a 3.53 pounder and Raymond English had a 3.50 pounder. The three biggest fish were separated by seven hundredths of a pound!

I have had a good year fishing with a Rapala DT 6 in crawfish. Of the four tournaments I have fished this year I have two first, one second and one fifth place, all on that one plug. I have weighed in 14 keepers and all but two of them hit it. I think I will keep fishing it!

Sunday morning I started on a steep rocky bank with docks and brush on it but didn’t get a bite. My second stop was on a point with a good drop on one side, then a very shallow clay flat for about 30 yards before a series of docks start I fished the point without a bite then started toward the first dock.

I usually don’t fish the shallow flat in February but I cast the DT 6 up into about two feet of water as I headed toward the dock, and caught a 3.5 pound largemouth. That got my attention so I started hitting the flat hard. It took 30 minutes, but then I got the 3.53 pound keeper, my big fish. A couple of casts later I got a third fish about 1.5 pounds.

After switching to a jig head worm I got my fourth keeper, one about 1.5 pounds. I felt pretty good, especially after working down the docks and catching a short fish by a dock post, then a keeper about 1.3 pounds on the next cast. I had a limit.

With an hour left to fish I was back on the flat and got a 2 pounder on the crankbait, culling my smallest keeper. I missed a bite on a jig head worm and on a Alabama rig, and had one come off the crankbait before I saw the fish, but I didn’t need them to win. But would one of them have been big fish? I will never know.

Last Sunday ten members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our February tournament at Bartletts Ferry. We had a beautiful day to fish but the fish didn’t seem to know it. There was one five-fish limit and four fishermen didn’t have a 12 inch keeper after fishing eight house. We weighed in 16 keepers weighing about 25 pounds.

Jordan McDonald won it all with a limit weighing 8.90 pounds and his 3.68 pound largemouth was big fish. Chuck Croft was second with four keepers at 5.87 pounds, Brian Bennett placed third with four at 5.03 pounds and Don Gober had one at 1.96 pounds for fourth. My 1.37 pound spot was fifth and Niles Murray was sixth with one at 1.30 pounds.

I am getting paranoid about February tournaments at Bartletts Ferry. Two years ago Jordan fished with me and beat me like a drum then, too, winning the tournament with five keepers weighing about 13 pounds and had big fish. I had one keeper. Last year Javin English fished with me and had two fish for second place and I zeroed. And Jordan fished with me again this year. I hate getting beat from the back of my boat!

Jordan and I fished several places from 8:00 to 11:00 without a bite, then I caught my one keeper on a crankbait in very shallow water. Then at noon Jordan got his first keeper on a worm beside a dock. About two hours later he caught two keepers on a crankbait almost on back to back casts, then got his big fish on a jerk bait a little later. With five minutes left to fish he caught his fifth keeper on a jerk bait.

I had my chances, missing a fish beside the dock where Jordan caught his first fish. I felt a tap and saw my line moving out, but when I set the hook all I landed was half a worm on my jig head. Then I missed a hit on the jighead on some rocks and Jordan immediately caught two from the same place.

I also really messed up by not paying attention. I cast the jig head to a small brush top beside a dock and felt a fish take it. When I set the hook my line broke. I am sure it was frayed from all the rocks I had been dragging it through. To make it even worse, we fished on down the bank, came back to the dock and Jordan caught his big fish by the same brush pile.

Some days are just like that for me. I make dumb mistakes, like not checking my line for frays or not paying good attention and missing a strike. And I should have tried different baits like Jordan did to find out what they would hit. I never threw a jerkbait although I had one tied on. Carpal tunnel surgery six weeks ago keeps me from working one like it has to be fished.

I will come back from the Classic on Saturday so I can fish the Sportsman Club tournament Sunday. Jordan is fishing with me again. It may be his last trip with me if the same results happen, but he fished with me at Jackson in January and I had a limit and he had one. What goes around comes around!

The last Sunday in January last year 14 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club braved the cold and muddy water at Jackson for our first 2014 tournament. It was very tough except for one very lucky fisherman with only one limit and five zeros. We had 15 keepers weighing about 28 pounds total. Surprisingly, seven of the 15 keepers were largemouth.

I managed to catch a limit weighing 11 pounds for first. Second was Mickey McHenry with two at 5.48 pounds and big fish weighing 4.15 pounds. Third place was Mark Knight with one keeper weighing 2.14 pounds and fourth was Keith Chambers with one at 1.91 pounds. Second through fourth place are new members to the club this year.

I knew fishing would be tough and planned on stopping on a rocky point in a creek near the mouth of Tussahaw Creek then going on up Tussahaw to try to find clearer water. The water was very stained and 43 degrees when we took off at the dam at 8:00 AM. Where I stopped I could see my chartreuse crankbait down only about five inches.

I fished around that point four times, trying two different crankbaits, a jig and pig and a jig head worm. I also jigged a spoon where I saw bait and fish down about 20 feet deep in three or four places. After 55 minutes of casting I felt weight on my line and set the hook. The three pound spot did not fight much in the cold water and I landed it.

After another 30 minutes of casting I was going to run up the Tussahaw but decided to go across the small creek to the other side. On my first cast with the same crankbait the first bass hit I got a good keeper largemouth. After putting it in the live well I threw back to the same spot on the seawall and got another keeper largemouth.

That made me fish on around the creek, and at 10:40 I hooked a 3.85 pound largemouth. It fought a little bit but not much. After working around the creek I was back on the point where I started and landed my fifth fish, a keeper spot.

Although I fished hard the last four hours in Tussahaw Creek, where the water was a little clearer, I never got another bite. I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time with the right bait to land a limit. I had to crank the plug down then just crawl it along almost like fishing a worm to get a bite in the cold water.

The last Sunday of February last year 18 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our February tournament at Bartlett’s Ferry. After eight hours of casting we brought in 53 keepers weighing about 78 pounds, much better than the Flint River club did two weeks ago there. The warming weather really made it better.

There were two five-fish limits brought in and only two people didn’t land a keeper. Most were spots, with only eight largemouth caught. We must be doing something wrong, though. A club weighed in just before we did and that tournament was won with an incredible five fish limit weighing over 19 pounds. That sounds like a Bassmasters Classic catch!

Sam Smith won with a limit weighing 7.1 pounds, Mark Knight was second with four at 6.85 pounds, Micky McHenry was third with four weighing 6.5 pounds and Gary Hattaway’s limit at 5.3 pounds was fourth. Niles Murray won the big fish pot with a 3.4 pound bass.

My day started wrong, as usual, with problems latching the trailer hitch on my trailer. I have got to figure out what is causing that problem. At least I didn’t follow the detour this time and made to the ramp on time.

Then, on the first place I fished, a bass hit my jig and pig by a dock but when I set the hook the line was around the concrete piling and broke. I caught my first keeper off that dock a few minutes later.

It took an hour to get another bite but I landed my second fish on a Texas rigged tube in about a foot of water on a seawall. Almost an hour later I saw a bass swirl at my crankbait right at the boat and saw others suspended off the bottom on that point. I threw a jerk bait to the area and caught my third keeper but no more hit.

Another hour passed then another bite. This one hit a Shadrap near a log. That made four. A few casts later I hooked a big, strong fish on the Shadrap and it fought hard, but I was worried. It stayed deep and did not fight like a bass. Sure enough, when I got it to the boat a five pound channel cat had my plug in its mouth. Good eating but I couldn’t weigh it in.

I landed no more fish. I did hook a good two pound keeper on a crankbait but it came off the second time it rolled on top. I was trying to keep it down but it would not stay underwater. I guess it knew it could get off by coming to the top.

Although we had a cold week this past week, everything is setting up for the bass to start feeding a lot in shallow water. The water early in the morning on the main lake at Bartlett’s Ferry was 49 degrees but that afternoon, back in a pocket, it was 57 degrees. Even though the sun was not bright it warmed the water a lot.

Get ready to catch some bass, they will be ready to hit soon. And the crappie are already eating jigs and minnows, and a catfish should eat some liver if that one hit my crankbait.

Bass fishing was tough last month with the water temperatures in the 40s but it will start getting better this month when we have a few warm days in a row. But since bass clubs here fish 12 months of the year, we put up with the good and bad.

Three weeks ago the Flint River tournament at Sinclair was won with just over nine pounds but it took only 4.89 pounds for fourth place. The water got even colder by the next Saturday when the Potato Creek Bassmasters went to Sinclair.

In that tournament a week ago last Saturday 15 fishermen landed 35 keepers weighing 55 pounds. There were two limits. Raymond English had five weighing 7.57 pounds for first. William Scott placed second with four at 7.35 pounds, JJ Compton had five at 6.19 for third and Mike Cox, with just one fish, but the right one, was fourth and had big fish with a 5.18 pounder.

Last Sunday the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished Jackson for our February tournament. After fishing eight hours 13 members brought in 19 keepers weighing about 25 pounds. There was one limit and three fishermen didn’t have a keeper.

I won with five at 7.34 pounds, Chris Davies had two at 4.03 for second and his 2.54 pound spot was big fish, third was Sam Smith with three keepers weighing 3.03 pounds and Jordan McDonald had one weighing 1.74 for fourth.

This year has been Déjà vu all over again for me. Last year and this year in the first Flint River tournament at Sinclair I got second place and second biggest bass. Lee Hancock beat me for both first and big fish both years. Last year at Jackson I had the only limit and won, and had second biggest fish, just like this year. I hope I break that pattern since the Flint River club is fishing Bartletts Ferry next Sunday and last year I zeroed that tournament!

Jackson was tough. Linda and I had gone to Jackson on Wednesday and rode around, mostly looking for baitfish, a good sign bass are in an area. I fished a little and landed one keeper on a crawfish crankbait.

On Sunday Jordan and I started on one of my favorite rocky points but got no bites. After about an hour we headed to the creek where I won last year and there were six boats fishing the area. I will not pull in right ahead of another fisherman so I went to another place.

After working a few points and banks I cast a crawfish crankbait to a boathouse and ramp in front of it and thought I hooked a stick.

My line went a little sideways but I felt nothing. Then it pulled a little and I landed a keeper largemouth at 10:10 AM.

We started fishing places I fished years ago but had not tried for a long time. The reason I fished them was the shad I saw on my depthfinder in the areas on Wednesday. At 11:10 I hooked a spot off a seawall and rocky point and landed it, and on the other side of the point Jordan got hung on the rocks. As he pulled his crankbait loose his keeper hit it and he landed it.

At 12:10 I cast to another rocky point and landed my biggest fish, a two pound spot. Then I cast to a seawall and started reeling and again my line went sideways like I had hooked a stick. But I saw a flash in the water and landed my fourth keeper at 12:45.

After trying a few more places I went to where I had landed the keeper Wednesday and again my line went sideways coming off a seawall. It was another keeper largemouth and filled my limit at 2:15. After that I started fishing a big jig and pig hoping for a big fish and giving Jordan a chance to cast his plug to places first. I was trying to help him catch more keepers as well as trying to land a big fish myself, but it didn’t work for either of us.

The bass were very sluggish in the 45 degree water and I was surprised to land three largemouth. Spots usually bite better in cold water and there were only five largemouth brought to the scales out of 19 keepers in the tournament.

When the water is that cold I fish a crankbait very slowly. When it hits the water I turn my reel handle a couple of times to get it down to the bottom then move it as slowly as I can to keep it there. I told Jordan I thought he was fishing too fast. He was making two casts to my every one cast.

Until the water starts warming and gets above 50 degrees, fishing slowly and fishing for spots are your best bets. Some really big bass are caught this time of year. You may not get many bites, but they may be bragging size. Most of my biggest bass, including my first two eight pounders, my biggest ever, a nine pound five ounce largemouth and my last eight pounder, a eight pound thirteen ounce largemouth, were caught at Jackson in January and February. All but one hit crankbaits.

Don’t let the cold keep you home. You can catch bass this time of year.