If you have ever thought about joining a bass club, right now is the perfect time. All three Griffin clubs are starting their new years this month. If you want to join a club, the three clubs give you a variety of options.

The Flint River Club meets the first Tuesday each month so our first meeting is this week. We fish a tournament every month, usually the weekend after the meeting. Most are one day tournaments fished on Sunday but we do have two or three two-day tournaments on Saturday and Sunday.

Since the Flint River club is affiliated with both BASS and FLW Federations you can join either one or both, but you have to be in at least one. Members qualify to fish the state Top Six tournaments in these federations, giving you the opportunity to advance all the way to the BassMasters Classic or the FLW Championship.

Dues in the Flint River Club are $70 in the FLW Federation, but that pays local, state and National dues and gives you FLW membership. For the BASS Federation dues are $60 per year but you must also join BASS separately. Or you can be in both for $110 per year if you also join BASS.

Tournament entry fee is $20 each month, and we pay back the top four places in each tournament. There is also a voluntary $5 big fish pot in each tournament ant the winner of the big fish wins all of it. In addition a cumulative cig cish pot gets you into competition where the first person to catch a six pound bass wins everything in the pot.

The Spalding County Sportsman Club meets the third Tuesday of each month and fishes the following Sunday, with two or three two day tournaments.

This club is in the FLW Federation only. Dues, including local club dues of $25, are a total of $75 per year. Members can qualify for the FLW state top six, held in late March or April each spring. The BASS Top Six is held in November each year.

In this club the tournament entry fee is $25 and we pay back the top four places. There is also a big fish pot and a cumulative big fish pot just like in the Flint River Club. In both clubs, if no one catches a six pounder during the year the member in the cumulative pot catching the biggest bass during the year wins it. And in both clubs, the pot starts over if someone catches a six pounder so it is a new competition.

The Potato Creek Bassmasters meets the Monday after the first Tuesday each month. The clubs stagger dates like this so we don’t have conflicts. They fish the Saturday after the meeting and have a couple of two day tournaments, too.

The Potato Creek club is not affiliated with a federation. Instead, they have their own Classic where members can qualify to fish a tournament for the money in a pot raised during the year. It can be a fairly big amount. They also have the two big fish pots like the other two clubs.

All three clubs allow members to fish by themselves or with another member. We do not have draw tournaments. Also, in both the Flint River and Sportsman clubs members can bring a guest, limited to one time per year per guest. Guests can enter the tournament and daily big fish pot but not the cumulative pots. Members must be at least 16 years old, but youth can fish with adult members in a concurrent youth tournament each month in the Flint River and Spalding County clubs.

All three clubs also award points in each tournament to those catching bass. At the end of the year the point standings earn plaques for the top fishermen and “bragging rights” for a year. Some work hard to do well in all tournaments to place high, and the teams going to the Top Six tournaments are based on point standings, but some don’t seem to care about them.

In the Flint River Club this past year I won the points standings, Chuck Croft was second, Niles Murray was third, fourth was JJ Polak, fifth was Travis Weatherly and sixth place was John Smith.

I also won the Spalding County points standings last year, Raymond English placed second, third was Kwong Yu, fourth was Zane Fleck, Russell Prevatt was fifth and sixth was Niles Murray.

The Potato Creek top six were Raymond English first, James Beasley second, Bobby Ferris third, Lee Hancock fourth, Niles Murray fifth and Mike Cox sixth. As you can see, some of us fish with two clubs and a few are even in all three!

In all three clubs we have more members with boats than members without boats, so we can usually find someone for you to fish with if you don’t have a boat but want to give club fishing a try. It is a lot of fun and a great way to learn how to catch bass better.

I loved bass fishing from the time I caught my first one at about age 12. While catching bream with a cane pole, cork and earthworms below Usury’s Pond dam something pulled my cork under. Rather than the usual circling pull as I raised my pole, a small bass about 11 inches long jumped out of the water several times while I tried to land it.

That bass hooked me worse than I hooked it. After more than 50 years of trying to catch them, I still love to cast for them and sometimes hook one. When they jump and fight it is still a thrill. I get excited every time I set the hook.

One day not long ago while fishing with a partner in a tournament I hooked a bass. After I landed it my much younger partner said he could not believe I got so excited. After all, he knew I had caught thousands of bass in my life.

I told him the day I didn’t get excited about catching a bass was the day I would quit fishing. I don’t think the thrill will ever go away. It doesn’t matter if it is a tap on a plastic worm or jig, the surge of one hitting a crankbait, the jerk of one eating a spinner bait or the explosive splash of a topwater strike, I love it all.

Back when I started fishing in the 1950s no one thought about fishing in the fall and winter. It was a spring and summer sport. I didn’t find out how good fishing can be from October through February until I got my first bass boat in 1974. Some days you catch a lot of fish in the early fall but December, January and February are great months to land a big bass.

My first two eight pound bass were caught in January tournaments and my biggest every, a nine pound, seven ounce largemouth, hit the first weekend in February. And I have caught a lot of six to nine pound bass during this time of year. That is why I had high hopes of catching a six pound plus bass at Jackson last Sunday.

Last Sunday 27 members and guests of the Flint River Bass Club and the Spalding County Sportsman Club fish a combined tournament to end our year. We landed 59 keepers weighing about 73 pounds. There were five five-fish limits and 11 people didn’t bring a keeper to the scales after casting for eight hours.

Chuck Croft won it all with five weighing 9.50 pounds and his 3.52 pounder was big fish. Guest Tim Ledbetter had five at 8.47 for second, Sam Smith had five at 8.05 for third and Travis Weatherly had five at 6.21 for fourth.

I set my goals too low. Although I wanted to catch a six pounder since it would win both club’s cumulative big fish pots and be worth over $1400, I knew if I caught one 12 inch keeper I would win first place in the point standings in the Sportsman Club. I had already wrapped up first in the Flint River Club and I wanted to win both.

I started casting a DT 6 crankbait running rocky points and banks. It took almost two hours, but at 9:20 a 12.5 inch spot hit my crankbait and I landed it. That made me relax and fish much slower, not really working at it the rest of the day.

After landing the keeper I picked up a big jig and pig and started fishing it on deep rocks, thinking that was the best bet for a big fish. Within 20 minutes I landed a 14 inch spot on the jig so I knew the fish would hit it. But it didn’t work out.

For the next four hours I fished places where I had caught big bass this time of year in the past. I had one thump on the jig at about 11:00 but nothing was there when I set the hook. And at noon I had a fish pick up my jig on some rocks beside a dock and swim under it. When I set the hook it pulled drag for a second then just came off. Maybe that was the big one.

At 2:00 I picked up the DT 6 crankbait and caught a two pound bass on a rocky point. Maybe I should have been fishing crankbaits all day, but I didn’t get another bite on it for the next hour. At 3:00, with just 30 minutes left to fish I went to the rocky point where I had caught my second bass. I got two hits on a jig head worm but missed both of them.

I should have had a limit but ended up with three weighing a little over four pounds, not even as much as I had hoped my big one I dreamed of catching would weigh. But it was a pretty day even if a little cool and there is no where I would have rather been.

We landed 20 largemouth and 39 spots. The cold front Sunday after the rain on Saturday may have made it tougher to catch largemouth. Spots tend to hit better under tough conditions.

I kept the two spots I landed and fried them dusted with panko bread crumbs. They were delicious. Jackson is full of keeper spots, it would be a good place to go to catch some to eat. And Jackson is where I caught my first two eight pounders and the 9-7. I think I will go back tomorrow!

I found out last week how much fishing with a good bass fisherman can help. Bobby Ferris had taken me to Oconee Sunday before last to show me some patterns for a March Georgia Outdoor News article. I met him through my bass club partner, Carson Browning. Bobby and Carson’s mother work together and Carson had been telling me what a good fisherman Bobby was.

Bobby took Carson to Jackson Saturday morning to practice for our tournament the following day. Either they hit it just right on the warm, cloudy morning, or Bobby’s knowledge put them on fish. When I picked Carson up Sunday morning he was so excited he could not wait to get to the lake.

Fishing for just a few hours Saturday morning they had caught a lot of big bass, including a 7 pounder and several more over 4 pounds. Carson said their best five, a tournament limit, would have weighed 25 pounds. That is the kind of bass you see caught on the TV shows!

Carson and I headed to the first spot Bobby had shown him, and we were a little disappointed to see the water temperature had dropped 10 degrees overnight. The cold night and wind had cooled the surface temperature from 60 on Saturday morning to 50 Sunday morning. That is not good for bass fishing this time of year!

I did manage to catch two keepers in that cove but they were small one-pound fish. We headed to the next spot, and I soon caught a 1 3/4 pound fish, my best of the day. Since it was still early morning, I was sure I would get a five fish limit before weigh-in at 4:00! I felt a little sorry for Carson since he had not caught a fish, but not too much!

Soon after I caught my third bass Carson set the hook and started saying he had a huge fish on. He fought it to the boat and I put the net in the water, but could not see the fish because the water was so muddy. When it came close enough, I was able to net it and it was big – 9 or 10 pounds!

I was picking at Carson, holding his huge fish over the water in the net, when it gave a mighty flip and jumped back out of the net! Carson’s plug had tangled the net and the hooks were keeping it closed, so the fish was not down in it like it was supposed to be. When the fish flipped out of the net back into the water, the plug stayed tangled in the net. Carson lost his huge fish.

We both would have been real sick, and I would have never been playing with the net like that, but Carson’s big fish was a bowfin. It was the first mudfish I have ever seen at Jackson, and it was a big one! I really did not want it in the boat, anyway!

I guess that changed Carson’s luck. He caught five bass before I landed another keeper! He ended up winning the tournament with five weighing 5-1, smaller fish than the day before but enough to win. My four weighed 4-9 for second. Kwong Yu had two at 3-8 for third and Billy Roberts’ two at 2-11 placed 4th.

Sixteen members of the club fished for 8 hours for a total of 23 keeper bass, so Carson’s guide really helped us, even thought the big bass never showed up on Sunday. I hope he can show Carson where to fish in all our tournaments this year!

Yesterday (Saturday, December 6, 2014) the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished their last tournament of the year at Jackson. Today the Spalding County Sportsman Club and the Flint River Bass Club are fishing a two club tournament at Jackson to end the year in both those clubs. The point standing winners for the year in all three clubs will be decided at this tournament.

I love bass club fishing. In 1974 I joined the Sportsman Club and four years later joined the Flint River club. I have missed very few club tournaments in the 40 years since I first joined a club. It is strange, I never was competitive in anything. I never played sports, don’t like games much and just don’t compete.

But after fishing my first bass tournament in April 1974 I was hooked. There is something that attracts me to competing in a sport that is supposed to be reflective and calming. I like that I am not really competing with others, I am competing with the fish. It really does not matter how others do, it depends on how I do.

All three clubs will start new years with January, 2015 tournaments That would be a good time to join a club and see how you like it. Dues range from $60 a year which affiliates you with BASS to $75 to be in the FLW federation. If you join the BASS federation you also have to pay dues to BASS. The FLW dues include annual membership in it.

Consider joining a bass club next year.

Early spring fishing can be crazy

If it wasn’t for bad luck with the weather, I wouldn’t have any luck at all. Two weeks ago it was uncomfortably cold the whole day during the Flint River Bass club tournament. By the middle of the next week it had warmed up and fishing would have been great – if I had not been stuck at work.

By the time I got a chance to go fishing last Sunday, it was cold, cloudy and foggy. After a nice day Saturday I was really looking forward to a trip to Oconee for a Georgia Outdoor News article, but the weather did not cooperate. Going fishing was more fun than sitting at home, but much less comfortable!

On Saturday, I fished with Bobby Ferris from Jackson and he really made me feel bad talking about the 17 bass he caught the day before at Jackson Lake. The fish were on the shallow water pattern we would fish at Oconee, moving up into the warming water in the backs of coves.

Without the sun on Sunday there was no warming water and the bass stayed hidden. Bobby caught one nice keeper the first place we stopped that morning, but that was it. We fished until 3:30 without hooking another bass.

The places we fished will be good in March, especially after a few warm days like we had last week. I wish I could have gone back to them on Wednesday or Thursday, but I was back at work. I bet the bass would have almost jumped in the boat those two days!

Spalding County Sportsman Club members are fishing today at Jackson for our February tournament. If my luck holds, it will be cold and windy, and probably raining. Maybe the fish will bite, though. Catching fish always makes the bad weather much more tolerable!

And the tournament on Sunday:

I found out last week how much fishing with a good bass fisherman can help. Bobby Ferris had taken me to Oconee Sunday before last to show me some patterns for a March Georgia Outdoor News article. I met him through my bass club partner, Carson Browning. Bobby and Carson’s mother work together and Carson had been telling me what a good fisherman Bobby was.

Bobby took Carson to Jackson Saturday morning to practice for our tournament the following day. Either they hit it just right on the warm, cloudy morning, or Bobby’s knowledge put them on fish. When I picked Carson up Sunday morning he was so excited he could not wait to get to the lake.

Fishing for just a few hours Saturday morning they had caught a lot of big bass, including a 7 pounder and several more over 4 pounds. Carson said their best five, a tournament limit, would have weighed 25 pounds. That is the kind of bass you see caught on the TV shows!

Carson and I headed to the first spot Bobby had shown him, and we were a little disappointed to see the water temperature had dropped 10 degrees overnight. The cold night and wind had cooled the surface temperature from 60 on Saturday morning to 50 Sunday morning. That is not good for bass fishing this time of year!

I did manage to catch two keepers in that cove but they were small one-pound fish. We headed to the next spot, and I soon caught a 1 3/4 pound fish, my best of the day. Since it was still early morning, I was sure I would get a five fish limit before weigh-in at 4:00! I felt a little sorry for Carson since he had not caught a fish, but not too much!

Soon after I caught my third bass Carson set the hook and started saying he had a huge fish on. He fought it to the boat and I put the net in the water, but could not see the fish because the water was so muddy. When it came close enough, I was able to net it and it was big – 9 or 10 pounds!

I was picking at Carson, holding his huge fish over the water in the net, when it gave a mighty flip and jumped back out of the net! Carson’s plug had tangled the net and the hooks were keeping it closed, so the fish was not down in it like it was supposed to be. When the fish flipped out of the net back into the water, the plug stayed tangled in the net. Carson lost his huge fish.

We both would have been real sick, and I would have never been playing with the net like that, but Carson’s big fish was a bowfin. It was the first mudfish I have ever seen at Jackson, and it was a big one! I really did not want it in the boat, anyway!

I guess that changed Carson’s luck. He caught five bass before I landed another keeper! He ended up winning the tournament with five weighing 5-1, smaller fish than the day before but enough to win. My four weighed 4-9 for second. Kwong Yu had two at 3-8 for third and Billy Roberts’ two at 2-11 placed 4th.

Sixteen members of the club fished for 8 hours for a total of 23 keeper bass, so Carson’s guide really helped us, even thought the big bass never showed up on Sunday. I hope he can show Carson where to fish in all our tournaments this year!

All three bass clubs in Griffin are wrapping up their tournament years in the next couple of weeks. Both the Flint River Bass Club and the Spalding County Sportsman Club have one tournament in December, a two club tournament at Jackson Decemher 7th, and the Potato Creek Bass Masters have their last one at Jackson on December 14th.

Potato Creek fished at West Point two weeks ago. They had nine fishermen competing and they caught 29 keepers weighing 48 pounds. Pete Peterson won with five bass weighing 13.47 pounds and had big bass with a 5.65 pounder. James Beasley was second with five at 9.67, Bobby Ferris placed third with five at 7.49 and Raymond English was fourth with four bass weighing 4.54 pounds.

Last Sunday ten members and guests of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished at Lanier. We landed 24 bass weighing about 51 pounds. There were two five-fish limits and two people didn’t land a 14 inch keeper. All of the fish caught were spotted bass.

I won with five weighing 10.72 pounds, Kwong Yu was second with five at 9.57, Niles Murray came in third with three weighing 7.42 and had big fish with a 3.83 pounder and Russell Prevatt was fourth with three at 6.51. We had five spots weighing over three pounds each.

For some reason Lanier usually kicks me down. I have a hard time catching keepers. Lanier is so different from the other lakes we fish, with clear water and deep water patterns, they I just can’t figure it out. But I did ok at two November tournaments by fishing fairly shallow. Niles Murray fished with me two weeks ago in the Flint River tournament and caught the first two bass in about eight feet of water, showing me they could be caught shallow.

Sunday was rainy, cloudy, rainy, windy, rainy, cold, rainy and we had thunder and lightning. Did I mention it rained? I found out at noon my water proof boots weren’t, and by 1:00 I was squishing in them. That made the last two hours of the tournament uncomfortable. I actually came in thirty minutes before the tournament ended, a first for me. I usually cast up to the last second!

I started on a rocky point where Niles and I had started and where I had caught two throwbackw two weeks ago. On the corner of a dock that came within 20 feet of the point I hooked and landed a solid 15 inch keeper on a spinner bait at 7:20. At least I wouldn’t zero this Lanier tournament.

After that I went to a nearby hump where Niles and I had caught four keepers but never got a bite, even though I tried four different baits on four passes around it. On the next point I caught a barely 14 inch long keeper on a jig head worm at 9:40 and felt even better.

Then I went back to the first point I fished and landed my biggest bass, a 3.08 pound spot, on the jig head worm at 11:30. I had got hung up on the rocks right on the bank and got my bait free by going to the bank in the boat. Then I caught the big one by pitching the worm to the end of the dock right where the first bass had hit. The bait never hit the bottom but started swimming out. I thought I was too close to it in the clear water, but I guess not.

Jigging a spoon is usually good this time of year so I went to another hump with brush on it that Ryan Coleman had shown to me a few years ago. There were fish on it, I could see them on my depth finder and caught two ten inch spots, not good since fish in a school are usually about the same size. I tried the bridge pilings on Browns Bridge, usually another good pattern, but never got a bite.

Thunder started rumbling and I could see flashes from lightning, something I really am scared of on the lake. I ran back to the point near the first hump I had fished and was able to stay near the bank and cast out on it, thinking the trees within a few feet of me would attract the lightening from my lightening rod graphite rod in my hands. The very first cast I caught a three pound spot so I fished the next two points the same way, very slowly, .

At 2:15 I went back to the first point, pitched to the end of the dock caught a solid keeper. That gave me my limit and I my cold feet really started bothering me. I worked around the point then back to the dock and caught another keeper in the exact same spot, culling the second fish I had caught.

I could not believe I caught four of my six keepers from a spot about a foot wide. On one cast I felt something like a small limb hung up on the bottom in that spot in about six feet of water. I guess that is what attracted the bass.

After culling my smallest bass it was 3:00 and although I had 30 minutes left to fish I decided to go in and get some dry shoes. Everyone else had already come in except Raymond and Niles so most of us were ready to get dry!

Last Sunday at Lake Sinclair, 13 members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our second tournament of the year. The cold front that came through, producing bright blue skies, high pressure and wind, did the usual to the bass – made them not bite at all!

There are a lot of theories about why bass do not feed after a cold front. Some say the high pressure affects them and makes them feel bad. High pressure can give people headaches, so it might affect bass, too. I often wonder about that, though, because a change of a few inches in depth of water will change the pressure on a bass much more than any cold front possibly could.

The bright sunlight is another factor that may make the bass less likely to feed. Bass are ambush predators and darkness and shadows help them get close enough to their food to catch it. When the sun is bright, they tend to feed less. They definitely stay closer to cover after a cold front produces bright sunlight.

Wind associated with a cold front often makes it very difficult to fish. That affects the fisherman much more than the fish, but it can contribute to the problem of catching bass. It is hard to cast on target, boat control is difficult at best, and the cold wind makes exposed skin miserably uncomfortable.

Some bass can be caught. The 13 of us managed to bring in a total of four bass after eight hours of trying. Greg Calhoun caught two of them and won it all with a total weight of 1-12! His partner Bruce Goddard had big fish and second place with one bass weighing 1-1. And my partner George Hamby had the other bass, a 15 ounce keeper, for third place. The other 10 of us watched the weigh-in with our hands in our pockets.

George and I tried all the usual patterns at Sinclair to catch a winter bass. We fished grass beds with spinnerbaits, riprap with crankbaits, brush piles, docks, deep points and other structure, all without a strike. During the day we talked about how much luck can be involved in finding bass to catch in a tournament.

A press release I received the week before highlighted this to me. I told George how a fisherman finishing in the top five at a big BASS tournament said he accidentally found the structure holding the bass. He was riding in his boat and saw something on his depthfinder. He checked it out and caught enough bass to win several thousand dollars.

At about 2:30 PM, 90 minutes before the end of the tournament, I pointed out a sudden drop that showed up on the depthfinder as George and I idled away from a place we had fished. The bottom dropped from 26 to 35 feet deep and there was brush on the edge of the drop. When I turned and went back across the drop, we saw what looked like fish as well as more brush.

I stopped the boat and started jigging a Little George, probing the bottom and the brush. George started fishing a worm on a Carolina rig and suddenly set the hook. He landed his keeper bass! A few minutes later, after switching to a Carolina rigged lizard, a fish almost jerked the rod out of my hand when I was not paying careful attention. It was the only bite I got all day, and I missed it!

We stayed on that drop off for over an hour, and George caught a small crappie that hit is worm. We found the drop had rocks as well as brush on it. It is a place I will fish in the future for bass as well as crappie. I am sure it will hold both kinds of fish year round, and I look forward to catching more there.

Although the spot did not pay off for me in the tournament, it did produce a keeper for George. If we had been lucky enough to find it earlier we might have caught more than the one bass. As is was, we were lucky to find the spot, George was lucky to catch a bass there, and I was unlucky, or unskillful, and did not catch anything when I got the chance.

Someday I wish I could get skillful and not have to depend on luck to catch bass!

I am very glad I got to fish Lake Burton and Lake Lanier before this cold weather hit. Both are beautiful lakes and the changing leaves made them even prettier. And both have quality spotted and largemouth bass. I managed to catch some of both in both lakes.

On Tuesday I met Joe Thompson at Burton to get information for a Georgia Outdoor News December Map of the Month article. Joe is a recent graduate of Young Harris College where he was on the bass fishing team and has lived in the Lake Burton area all his life.

I met him at noon since I didn’t want to face a cold morning on the water or the terrible morning traffic going up I-285 and I-85. He already had several nice spotted bass in the live well. We fished until the sun went behind the mountains shortly after 5:00 and I landed five bass, one largemouth and four spots, while he landed about seven spots.

While showing me around the lake Joe pointed out Alabama football coach Nick Saban’s huge lake house, and told me country singer Alan Jackson also had a house on the lake. The houses around the lake are big and pretty, with many looking like castles sitting on the steep hills rising from the water. And the docks are big enough to be lake houses on many other lakes.

We caught fish mostly on jig head worms but Joe says he usually catches bigger bass on a Super Spin, an underspin grub type bait, and a jig and pig. He had a couple of spots just over three pounds and I had a spot and a largemouth about three pounds each, so I thought the ones we caught on jig head worms were pretty big.

Last Sunday 13 members and guests fished the Flint River Bass Club November tournament at Lanier. After fishing nine hours we brought in 24 keepers over the 14 inch minimum length, and they weighed about 49 pounds. All but three were spotted bass and there was one limit. Four people didn’t have a keeper.

John Smith won it big with five weighing 13.13 pounds. My four weighing 8.71 pounds was second, Brian Bennett had three at 6.32 for third and his 3.54 pound spot was big fish, and Travis Weatherly came in fourth with three at 5.20 pounds.

Niles Murray fished with me and we had a slow day. We got a couple of short bass on the first point we fished then went about an hour without a fish. On a hump Niles quickly caught two keepers and I got one. Niles caught his on a Carolina rig and mine hit a jig head worm.

After working that spot hard and trying a couple more like it in the area, I told Niles I wanted to run up the river. There were three points I wanted to try about five miles from where we were fishing. Early that morning only three boats had come down the river so I figured there was a tournament taking off from up there, but it must be a small one.

Just my luck, we got to the first point and a boat was sitting on it. My best point in that area also had someone fishing it, as did the third place I wanted to fish. We tried a couple of places but got no bites, so we headed back down the river.

Back on the hump where we had caught three that morning I quickly caught a nice spot. We fished all around it and another place nearby but got no more bites, so we ran back into the creek where we had to weigh in. With about 90 minutes left to fish we hit two points and got only a small throwback.

With about 30 minutes left I had pretty much given up, deciding the two I had were all I would get. Niles suggested we go up the creek and fish a series of small points so we took off. The second one we hit I landed a largemouth close to three pounds, then on the next one got a barely 14 inch long keeper.

I was surprised to come in second with only four fish, but three of them were pretty good fish. Several guys in the club fish Lanier a lot and know it well, so I expected them to have limits. Nobody had more than three keepers except John and I.

Lanier is a very pretty lake, too, with clear water and changing leaves, but the big yachts cruising on the lake make it rough fishing and riding after about 10:00 AM. It does have a lot of big spots, but fishing pressure makes them tough to catch.

Burton is another hour away from us, but it would be a much better trip if you want pretty scenery and big spots. And Burton is stocked with trout. We saw them in the water and dimpling the surface in a couple of places we fished. I was wishing for a light spinning rod, a #6 hook and a can of kernel corn.

Give Burton a try for bass or trout. And you will probably catch a chain pickerel. Joe landed three. There are even walleye in the lake so you have a chance at a lot of different kinds of fish.