Lake Weiss proved to be an interesting lake for a club tournament in early June a few years ago for the Flint River Bass Club. Although the weather did not treat us very good, with rain all day Saturday and strong winds on Sunday, most of the members managed to catch some bass.

Bobby Ferris had an outstanding catch on Saturday bringing in a limit of 5 bass weighing 17.64 pounds. That is the kind of catch you see in pro tournaments. He had five more on Sunday and his ten keepers weighed 26.14 pounds and gave him first place. He also had big fish in the tournament with a 4.74 pound largemouth.

I thought I had a real good catch until I saw what Bobby had. My ten bass in the two days weighed 22.13 pounds and gave me second place. Gary Blackmon had limits both days and came in third with 15.95 pounds. Roger Morrow had 9 bass in the two days and placed fourth with 15.52 pounds.

The 17 fishermen brought in 76 bass weighing 135.98 pounds. Half of them were largemouth and half were spotted bass. There were nine 5 fish limits weighed in during the two days.

I went over on Thursday and met state fisheries biologist Kevin Dalmier at the lake. He has a cabin on the lake and not only studies fish, he loves to bass fish. We fished together in practice but a family illness kept him from fishing with me in the tournament.

On Thursday afternoon we fished the lower lake, about 20 miles by water from where the tournament launched. Kevin showed me some great places we planned on fishing in the tournament, including a hump near the dam. He told me as we approached it he had never seen another fisherman on it but had always caught bass there and we should catch some big spotted bass.

Sure enough, I hooked a 2.5 pound spotted bass almost as soon as we started fishing there. Mine got off but then Kevin hooked and landed a 3 pound spot, then a 2.5 pounder. I landed one about 2 pounds before we left the spot, and I was sure we would catch fish there in the tournament. Unfortunately, the wind and rain kept me from returning during the tournament.

While fishing Thursday Kevin at one point made the statement that “I am no expert but…” I stopped him, saying if he was not an expert on fish, who was? He explained just knowing fish biology was not a guarantee of catching them. That made me feel real inadequate – if he is not an expert after going to college and studying fish all his life, how could I ever hope to be one?

I did see how great fishermen are during my trip. On Saturday morning Bobby told me some lowlife had stolen the tail lights off his boat trailer while it was parked in the marina lot on Friday. I had not locked my trailer to my van that morning and was worried about it.

By 8:00 AM I had a limit of fish in the boat and decided to go to the ramp and lock my trailer. As I got out of my boat at the ramp a father and son idled up to leave. We talked as I walked toward my van, and when I reached under my rainsuit pants for my keys they were not in my pocket. I was afraid I had missed my pocket in the dark that morning and dropped them down the pants leg of my rainsuit.

The man I had just met helped me look for them, then took his boat out of the water and went to a nearby store to get the number of a locksmith for me. While he was gone I found my keys in the boat, I had dropped them when taking my cell phone out of my pocket.

He returned with the phone numbers and I thanked him. He went out of his way, in the rain, to help a stranger out.

On the way home I had a blowout on my van and pulled over to fix it. Club member Dan Riddle stopped behind me and helped me change it in the miserably hot sun. Without one of his tools I would not have been able to get my hubcap off. That is another good example of how great fellow fishermen are. Thanks, Dan!

During the tournament I made a dumb mistake and broke a club rule. I was fishing a buzzbait and a fish hit at it and missed it. I quickly threw a worm to where the fish hit and sure enough, as soon as it hit the water the fish grabbed it. I fought the three pound bass to the boat then got a sick feeling. I had not stopped and reeled in my buzzbait before casting the second bait.

A club rule says you can use only one rod at a time, so I broke the rule. It made me feel awful to let the bass go, but rules are rules even if I don’t like them. As it turned out that fish would not have helped my weight enough to catch Bobby, but I did not know that at the time.

Tom Perdue and I fished Lanier on a Wednesday in early May a few years ago, trying to find some bass and a pattern for me to fish in the Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament that weekend. We had only three keepers so I am not sure we were successful.

Tom was determined to catch a fish on a jerkbait and he threw one a lot. He accomplished his goal when a pretty 2.5 pound spotted bass hit his jerkbait and he landed it. Several hours later we were near a dock and I cast a Trick worm under it when I saw a bass hanging there. It hit and I landed a 3.5 pound spot, one of my top four I have ever caught.

Although we caught a lot of bass shorter than the 14 inch limit, I landed only one more keeper just before we quit. It hit a tube bait near the bank and probably weighed about 2.5 pounds. I hope I catch two as big as the two I got Wednesday in the tournament today!

Lake Lanier was good to Donnie Willis the past few weeks that year. He won both the Potato Creek Bassmasters’ April tournament and the Flint River Bass Club’s May tournament there. Winning back to back tournaments in two clubs is hard to do, even on the same lake.

On April 16th 25 members of the Potato Creek club fished Lanier for nine hours. They brought in 48 bass weighing about 93 pounds. Lanier has a 14 inch minimum size limit on bass and a 14 inch keeper will usually weigh at least 1.5 pounds.

Donnie had a five fish limit weighing 13.34 pounds for first. Chris Corley had five weighing 12.21 for second and had big fish in the tournament with a 4.99 pound bass. Raymond English had five weighing 8.44 pounds for third and Brian Lee placed fourth with 4 bass weighing 7.94 pounds.

Two weeks later on May 1st the Flint River Bass Club fished Lanier and Donnie won with five bass weighing 9.35 pounds. Gary Morrow was second with 8.76 pounds, I placed third with five weighing 7.97 pounds and Tony Roberts was fourth with 7.95 pounds.

There were 16 fishermen in the Flint River tournament and we brought in 40 bass weighing 75.21 pounds. Donnie said he caught his fish on jerk baits and Carolina rigs. I did not have a bass at noon that day after fishing docks and shallow water all morning. At noon I decided to move to main lake points and caught my five in less than an hour on a spinnerbait.

It was windy the last weekend in April a few years ago. If you were on an area lake, like 19 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club, you know what an understatement that is! The wind had Clark’s Hill white capping as far as the eye could see, and waves breaking on the riprap at Price’s Bridge threw spray up on the road.

Wind can make lakes dangerous, and there was a wind advisory for lakes in Georgia last weekend. Four times in my life I thought the waves might sink a boat I was driving, and two of them were at Clark’s Hill. One of the other one was at Eufaula in a Top Six tournament and the other was at Lake Lanier in a club tournament.

When I was a teenager my family had a 18 foot outdrive with a 120 hp motor. I ran all over Clark’s Hill in that boat, skiing, fishing and just having fun. We often ran from Raysville Boat Club down to the dam to meet friends and enjoy the lake.

When you come out of Germany Creek where Raysville Boat Club is located, you can look east and see Price’s Bridge about 13 miles away. That is a lot of water for the wind to blow across, and wind out of the west doesn’t have much to slow it down other than a few islands.

That weekend four of us had gone to the dam to a picnic and the wind got up. We headed back up the lake and the waves were awful. We would go down into the trough of one and not be able to see the banks the waves were so high. I was younger and dumber and didn’t really get scared, but looking back, if the motor had died I am sure the waves would have turned the boat over.

Years later Linda and I had run down to a cove we liked to fish in April, and stayed there most of the day. We knew the wind had gotten up, but did not realize how much until we came out across from Mistletoe and hit the waves coming down the lake. They were so big all I could do was keep the boat at a high idle and break through them.

We were in our brand new 17.5 foot Procraft bass boat with a 150 hp motor. I got really scared when I looked back and the waves we crashed through would come back together and almost cover the engine. I was afraid it would drown out and we would capsize. We finally got near a bank where it was more protected and made it back safely.

The waves were different this past weekend. They were shorter and more choppy, but even so while trying to fish in the wind and hold the boat, every few minutes a series of big waves would come along and make the front of my 20 foot Skeeter bass boat dip water. It was not real dangerous but it was hard to fish.

Gary Hattaway battled the wind and had a great catch Saturday. He brought in a 7.13 pound bass and had five weighing 17.69 pounds. He added two more keepers Sunday and got first place with 7 bass weighing 23.27 pounds, and his seven pounder was big fish for the tournament.

I got a limit each day and had 10 bass weighing 22.36 pounds for second. I did not catch a bass weighing over 3 pounds, I just could not find a kicker bass. I had a feeling I could catch a big fish off the riprap if I could fish it with the wind blowing into it, and I did. I landed an 11 pound channel cat on a crankbait. It gave me a great fight but I could not weigh it in.

Billy Roberts battled his brother George both days and managed to beat him, barely. Billy had 8 keepers weighing 14.52 pounds for third and George had 9 weighing 14.36 for fourth. Wayne Gibbs had 8 weighing 13.69 for fifth place.

The wind was so bad, and it was so cold Sunday morning that eight of the 19 fishermen didn’t show up for the second day’s fishing. There were 7 five fish limits on Saturday but only two on Sunday. We weighed in 89 bass during the two days.

I caught bass on Carolina rigged Baby Brush Hogs, crankbaits, spinnerbaits and Trick worms. Most of my fish hit on wind blown points and humps and my best bait there was the Carolina rig. With the full moon I thought bass would be bedding, but the cold and wind turned them off, I guess.

Water temperatures on Saturday ranged from 60 to 68 degrees but areas that were 68 degrees Saturday afternoon had dropped to 62 by Sunday morning. I could not believe I needed to wear a snowmobile suit on April 25 here in Georgia, but I kept it on all day and it felt good!

March was certainly going out like a lion last week.

From very cold at night to wind that blew my boat and van all over the road, then rain Saturday and Sunday, the weather made fishing tough. But for the state Top Six at Lanier Monday and Tuesday the weather guessers said it would be nice. I will believe that when I see it.

Bass seem confused, moving shallow to get ready to bed then backing off when the temperature drops. But the crappie are biting good. Every report I got from West Point, Oconee, Clarks Hill, Jackson and Lanier was about big catches of good sized fish.

The wind makes crappie fishing tough, too, but you can troll or drift with the wind and catch them if the wind is not too strong. Thursday afternoon it was too strong, but by now it should be calm enough to catch your limit of those good tasting fish.

I always looked forward to this time of year when my parents were alive. We would go in our big ski boat daddy had set up for fishing, with a trolling motor on front, and tow our jon boat behind it. We would pick our favorite cove – Carp Cove, Beaver Cove, Turtle Cove or some other place we knew the crappie would be bedding, and fish all day.

Mom and dad would stay in the big boat, tied up in the bushes where the crappie were feeding, and I would get in the jon boat and fish all around the cove. They usually used shiner minnows but I tied a Hal Fly jig under a cork on my fly rod and dabbled it around button bushes. The cork seldom settled on the water surface long.

After getting three limits – 90 crappie – we would go in and set up a cleaning line. Mom and dad would scale the fish and I would gut them. I made a diagonal cut behind the head to the vent and pulled everything out with one motion. I could keep up with them.

I miss those days. It is just not the same without them.

Fishing was good for some at Oconee last Sunday. In our March tournament 21 members and guests of the Spalding County Sportsman Club brought in 72 bass weighing about 142 pounds. There were eight five-fish limits and only one member did not catch a keeper in the eight hours we fished.

Russell Prevatt had a good day, winning with five at 14.74 pounds and his 6.10 pound bass took daily and cumulative big fish honors. Raymond English also had a good day and placed second with five at 13.65 pounds, Sam Smith had a limit weighing 12.15 for third and fourth went to guest David Weitgrefe with five at 10.72 pounds.

Russell said he caught his bass on a jig and pig on rocks. Bass were also caught on spinner baits and crankbaits, mostly around rocks. The water was stained to muddy and from 57 to 64 degrees. It rained on us for about half the tournament.

I wish I had known the pattern before the tournament. I ran to Double Branches first thing, to an area where I have won a couple of tournaments in March the past few years. And within five minutes I caught a keeper on a chatter bait on a rocky point. I thought I was going to have a good day.

After an hour without a bite I was beginning to wonder.

Then a fish hit my jig and pig on a point, almost under the boat. I set the hook too hard with such a short line and broke it. That really made me feel bad.

I was fishing back in a cove and it was very quiet and peaceful. Then someone shot a turkey about 100 yards up in the woods from me. I almost jumped out of the boat! I was not in any danger but that shot was loud!

A few minutes later I had tied on another jig and pig and pitched it to some brush on a steep bank. The creek I was in was very narrow and I was only about ten feet from the bank. When my line jumped, indicating a strike, I set the hook as fast as I could, but it was not fast enough.

I got the terrible reaction of pulling loose line. The fish had run back under the boat and you can not set the hook on slack line,. I reeled as fast as I could and got the bass, a three pounder, to the top of the water right beside the boat, but it came off.

I fished a wide variety of baits in a lot of places in Double Branches until the end of the tournament but caught nothing but short bass after that. I wish I had tried different areas of the lake, but the water color and temperature were good in that creek and I have done well there in March. Also, I didn’t want to make a run in the rain.

As soon as I send this in I am headed to Lanier for the Top Six. I surely do hope I do better.

Maybe I should be going crappie fishing.+

Don’t forget to renew your Georgia fishing license. Most of us have licenses that expire in early April each year since, for many years, annual licenses expired on April 1st. So when the law was changed to make them run for one year from the date of purchase, we bought them around April 1st since the old one expired then. Now we need to renew before they run out. Don’t get caught without one.
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The Georgia Bass Chapter Federation Top Six was last Monday and Tuesday at Lake Lanier. Both the Spalding County Sportsman Club and the Flint River Bass Club sent teams but we did not do well. We just do not fish Lanier very often and it is a tough lake to catch bass if you don’t fish it often.

The Marietta Bass Club sent two teams and they finished first and third. The top Marietta team won by almost 30 pounds above the second place team, and five of their six man team placed in the top 12. That is an incredible result but that club fishes Lanier a lot and most of them live near the lake.

The Sportsman Club finished 26th out of 36 teams and the Flint River Club was 33rd. The winning team had 54 keeper bass in two days weighing 140.57 pounds. The Sportsman Club team had 33 bass weighing 66.27 pounds and Flint River had 27 bass weighing 51.06 pounds.
The winner was a no boater, meaning he had to fish in someone else’s boat on another team, but he got to run the trolling motor and choose the fishing spots for half each day. He had 10 keepers, a limit each day, weighing 31.4 pounds. It took 10 weighing 24.53 pounds to make the state team in 12th place.

Chuck Croft fishing with Flint River had the best catch in either of those two clubs, with eight bass weighing 18.39 pounds for 53rd place. Mark Knight on the Sportsman Club team came in 82nd and I came in 98th with seven keepers weighing 12.90 pounds out of 216 fishermen in the tournament.

I went up to Lanier last Thursday and fished up the Chattahoochee River all day Friday in the rain. I caught some fish but not the size needed to do well in the tournament. The best place I fished was a small creek off the river where my partner and I caught 14 keepers weighing 33 pounds in the 1991 Top Six, so I knew it held the possibility of good fish but they would be largemouth, and we needed some warm, sunny days to make them bite.

On Saturday I again fished all day in the rain but stayed on the main lake, trying to figure out how to catch the big spotted bass there. I never had a bite! That was frustrating. I planned on trying something different on Sunday but when I woke up in the campground with my van shaking from the wind I went back to sleep. I never got on the water on that cold, windy day.

It was “fun” Saturday night trying to grill chicken and having stuff blow off the table if it was not nailed down. And it was getting colder fast. So when I went to bed Saturday night I knew Sunday would be a bad day. And that I was not going to get the kind of weather I wanted. Wind stirs up the deeper, colder water and I needed warming water to do well.

I drew a 16 year old partner for Monday and he had no idea what we should do, so we gambled and went to the small creek up the river. After catching just a couple of small bass in two hours I said we should go, then he caught a three pound largemouth, I caught a fish just under the 14 inch limit and he caught a 2.5 pound largemouth on three casts!

Those fish were on a rocky point leading to the back of the creek so I hoped the quality largemouth were moving in. The day was getting warm and the sun was warming the water. After another hour we were ready to leave again but we caught nine bass off one small spot on a channel bend near the back of the cove in a few minutes. Although only two were big enough to keep that was another sign they were moving in so we decided to stay the rest of the day.

I got one more keeper, then caught a three pound largemouth right in the back of the creek not long before we had to leave. The water there had warmed from 57 to 62 degrees during the day but it was too little too late.

My partner for the next day had no places he wanted to fish so we went back to the small creek on Tuesday. We had fun catching fish but they were mostly small. At the small creek bend we landed 11 bass in 30 minutes in the morning but only two kept. With an hour left to fish he had two and I had one. Then back at the creek bend I made three casts and caught three keepers, two of them 2.5 pound largemouth. Again, too little too late.

It was a fun but very tiring trip and the weather was beautiful Monday and Tuesday. I just wish it had warmed up on Sunday, not Monday.

Fish should be biting real good at West Point today for the Flint River March tournament, but only time will tell.

Don’t forget to renew your fishing license. Until last year new fishing licenses were always due on April 1st, but starting last year they are good for one year from the day you got them. So, if you renewed early last year, they will expire early this year. Don’t get caught fishing without a license.

Fishing is getting better with the nice spring weather like we had Friday. I fished at West Point and Oconee last week and the bass fishing was fair. Based on the number of boats on the lake fishing for crappie, that fishing must have been pretty good.

In a Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament last Sunday at West Point 18 members and guests fished for 9 hours to bring in 44 keepers weighing about 75 pounds. All but 7 of those keepers were spotted bass, the largemouth were much harder to find.

Butch Duerr won it all with a 5 bass limit weighing 14.62 pounds and had big fish with a 6.16 pound bass. He said he caught them on spinnerbaits in wind blown pockets. Although Butch had a great catch he was still disappointed since a much bigger bass had broken his line. Butch said the one that got away looked twice as big as the six pounder he landed. It jumped trying to throw his spinnerbait and he got a good look at it.

Gary Hattaway placed second with a limit weighing 9.54 pounds and he said he caught his fish on plastic baits. Gary also said he had lost a good bass, one around four pounds, when it pulled off from his hook. Billy Roberts placed 3rd with five bass weighing 7.59 pounds and I placed 4th with 3 bass weighing 6.59 pounds.

I started the morning by hooking and losing a bass that looked like it weighed about 4 pounds. It fought to the surface and then just pulled off. About an hour later I cast a different crankbait to a shallow point and something thumped it. When I set the hook it fought hard, running like a bass. Then my line went slack. I almost threw my rod and reel in the water.

When I reeled in my plug, it had a big scale stuck on one of the hooks. The scale had a definite red edge – I had hooked a carp. Fortunately for my mental attitude, I hooked and landed a largemouth weighing a little over 3 pounds a few minutes later. I have to admit, when the fish jumped, my heart stopped. I was afraid I would lose it.

On Wednesday Jim Berry and I went back to West Point. He started out by catching the first four or five bass to come in the boat, all on crankbaits, then I finally caught a spotted bass on a Carolina Rigged Baby Brush Hog. Jim caught a couple more bass then I had a streak of catching about five in a row. We ended the day with 14 keeper spotted bass and several largemouth.

On Friday I took Zane Lee and his son Andy to Oconee for a bass fishing trip. Zane had bought the fishing trip at the Friends of the NRA Banquet, and I hoped we would have a really good day. And it started out that way. Andy caught two small bass on a spinnerbait the first cove we fished.

At the second spot, I caught a small bass on a crankbait then Andy hooked the biggest bass of the day, a nice 3 pound fish. A few minutes later he hooked a bigger bass, one the looked to be about four pounds, but it came off the second time it jumped.

A little further down the bank Andy caught another keeper fish on his spinnerbait, then added a throwback. At the next place we stopped I caught a small keeper on a Carolina Rigged Baby Brush Hog but then we went for about an hour without a bite before I caught two more keepers on the Carolina rig. By now it was after lunch and the morning cloud cover had blown away.

Although we fished until 5:00 PM we did not hook another fish. I had lots of excuses, the clear skies made them stop biting, the crowds of jet skies and pleasure boaters made them quit biting, or I was wearing the wrong shirt. It must have been one of those things.

We had a beautiful, if somewhat frustrating day. On the way home Andy was making his plans for killing a turkey Saturday morning. If he hunted as well as he fished Friday morning, he should have gotten at least two gobblers!

Getting up three days out of five at 4:45 AM to go fishing is almost too much of a good thing. A week ago Friday I drove over to Wedowee to fish with Rusty Mayfield for an Alabama Outdoor News article, then fished a Flint River tournament on Sunday at Lanier. Then I drove to Carters on Tuesday to meet Brian Drain for a Georgia Outdoor News article. All of those lakes are about two hours away.

Wedowee is beautiful and full of bass, and we caught about a dozen between daylight and 2:00 PM when I had to leave. Rusty went back out after taking me to the ramp and caught about 15 more. The bass hit crankbaits and a jig and pig on points and cover from the main lake about half way back into the coves. The spots and largemouth are staging to spawn and the fishing there will get better and better for the next month.

Wedowee has very clear water, as does Carters and Lanier, something I am not used to fishing much. I would go to Wedowee more but there are few good ramps on the lake and almost nowhere to camp, something I like to do when making a trip that far. I want to fish more than one day after dragging my boat 100 miles.

Rusty is a coach near Wedowdee and fishes it a lot, and knows the lake well. The fish are fairly easy to catch on Wedowee and you can catch a lot of keeper size spots to eat. Largemouth are not as common and you have to let all largemouth shorter than 12 inches long, and also release all between 13 and 16 inches long. It is fun catching a 15 inch largemouth but frustrating to have to let it go in a tournament!

Carters is also a beautiful lake with clear water and steep rocky banks rising up to the foothills of the mountains. There is no development on the shores so that makes it even prettier. And it has some huge spots in it. Brian landed pairs of five pounders in two tournaments there this time last year, and in another he had a huge 6.8 pound spot.

In four weekends in a row last February and March he had five fish limits between 19.75 pounds and 23 pounds. Those are quality catches. We didn’t catch any big fish and had motor trouble cutting our trip short, but we landed six keepers on the first and only place we fished.

Fish on Carters are moving in to spawn, too. The ones we caught were holding about twenty feet deep and Brian spotted them on his depth finder. We caught the six to pound fish in about 15 minutes by dropping a spoon down to them.

At Lanier 23 members and guests of the Flint River Bass Club fished from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM and it was tough. There was only one five-fish limit and 12 people didn’t land a keeper. We weighed in 26 bass over 14 inches long, the size limit at Lanier, and they weighed about 57 pounds. Only four of the bass were largemouth.

William Scott fished as a guest and he won it all, with three bass weighing 10.23 pounds and had a huge 6.64 pound largemouth for big fish. JJ Polak, president of the club and owner of Jjs Magic, had the limit and 8.67 pounds for second. My four weighed 7.81 pounds for third and Travis Weatherly had three at 6.78 for fourth.

I always seem to have a tough time catching bass at Lanier but the pretty weather had me fired up to go. Jordan McDonald fished with me and we ran to a small creek first thing that morning. I just knew we could find the fish somewhere in that creek, but after fishing everything in it for 2.5 hours we never had a bite. We did see two keepers holding under a dock but they took off as soon as I skipped a Senko to them.
10.23 pounds and had a huge 6.64 pound largemouth for big fish. JJ Polak, president of the club and owner of Jjs Magic, had the limit and 8.67 pounds for second. My four weighed 7.81 pounds for third and Travis Weatherly had three at 6.78 for fourth.

I always seem to have a tough time catching bass at Lanier but the pretty weather had me fired up to go. Jordan McDonald fished with me and we ran to a small creek first thing that morning. I just knew we could find the fish somewhere in that creek, but after fishing everything in it for 2.5 hours we never had a bite. We did see two keepers holding under a dock but they took off as soon as I skipped a Senko to them.

Jordan wanted to fish the very back end of the Chestatee River so we headed that way, stopping on the way to fish a rocky point. A dock nearby looked good and I caught my biggest fish, a three pound spot, off it on a spinner bait. We wore docks out in that area with no more bites.

In the back of the river we started fishing docks and shoreline cover. On about the fifth dock we fished Jordan got hung at the back of the dock and I cast a crankbait out and ran it under the dock as we moved down beside it. A keeper largemouth hit and I landed it. After getting him loose we eased around to the other side of the dock and I caught a keeper spot on a jig and pig.

We fished that area until 3:00 without catching anything but two short bass. At 3:00 we headed back down the river toward the weigh-in and I stopped on the dock where I got the first fish, and caught another keeper spot on an Alabama Rig. That made four fish on four different baits, but all off just two docks.

We fished everything we could until we had to head in but had no more bites.

Fishing will be great on all three lakes for the next six weeks. This is a fantastic time to go fishing, if you don’t want to spend all your time turkey hunting.

Last Sunday 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.

Bassmaster Elite Series Preview – Lake Seminole

By David A. Brown
from The Fishing Wire

When the Bassmaster Elite Series opens its 2014 season March 13, it will do so on a lake blessed with abundant opportunity. Record-breaking potential lives here, but the treasure is guarded by some pretty formidable habitat.

Located in Georgia’s southwest corner, right at the Florida border, this U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir was formed by the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam, which impounds the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers. BOOYAH pro Terry Scroggins said the tournament could find a couple of different scenarios playing out within the 37,500 surface acres and 376 miles of shoreline. If the weather is good, he suspects the sight-fishing game will be the prominent focus.

“The first day of the tournament is on a full moon, so they’re going to want to pull up as long as the weather’s straight,” Scroggins said. “If that’s the case, everything’s going to be sight fishing and throwing swim jigs and chatterbaits. If the weather’s bad, it’s going to be a flipping tournament.

With the latter, Scroggins said that targeting dead hyacinth mats, along with the creek channels and sloughs running into spawning grounds, will be the plan. He also believes that jerkbaits could play a key role in the Lake Seminole event, particularly if the weather does not deliver ideal sight-fishing conditions.

“The fish in Seminole love a jerkbait and you can bet I’ll have three or four of them tied on,” Scroggins said. “That’s going to be a really good technique for catching them there.”

Scroggins said his jerkbait of choice will be the Smithwick Perfect 10 Rogue. A modern version of the heralded jerkbait design, the Perfect 10 reaches an impressive depth and tempts bass holding lower in the water column.

“Seminole has some deep channels and deep grass, so that bait is really going to excel there,” Scroggins said. “Then, I’ll throw some other jerkbaits with a lot of erratic action that go 4- or 5-feet deep, depending on what water depth I’m targeting.”

Gerald Swindle says cleaner water on Seminole may mean a good jerkbait bite there-he likes the Smithwick Perfect 10 among others.

Alabama pro Gerald Swindle has a similar vision. He’s also planning on putting the Perfect 10 to work in that opening event. For him, the expected water clarity bodes well for such tactics.

“Seminole is a little bit cleaner than (Bassmaster Classic site) Lake Guntersville is right now, so anytime you get clear water, the Perfect 10 jerkbait will be a good idea.”

For any of his jerkbaits, Scroggins likes flashy, chrome finishes, but he notes that those with orange bellies are always a good bet for southern lakes like Seminole. Reason being, that belly mimics a common bluegill coloration.

Scroggins said he’ll specifically look for sand bars and other shallow hard bottom where big female bass will pull up for spawning. Lily pad fields, bulrush and reeds will also hold potential, he said.

For Swindle, Lake Seminole’s abundant hydrilla will get a lot of his attention. Offering ideal habitat for prespawners to hold in cover just outside their spawning grounds. This tangled mass of aquatic vegetation presents a potential-packed transitional zone along its edges. Here, Swindle hopes to trigger several big bites with a lipless crankbait.

“I think the Xcalibur XR50 and the XR75 will play a key role here,” he said. “We may not be on the red colors like we were at Guntersville, we may be more on the translucents like the Ghost Minnow or Pearl Melon color. But I think the rattling baits will be a factor.

“They’re either going to be in the grass, or they’ve going to be bedding. If they’re in the grass, you can’t beat that lipless bait. You want to throw it out there, let it sink down into the grass and then rip it out. It’s all a reaction bite.”

THE SKINNY

Stacking up the pros and cons for Lake Seminole, Scroggins and Swindle summarized Seminole as rewarding, but no cake walk.

“The biggest thing is that it fishes small,” Scroggins said. “Seminole only fishes about 10 miles long – through the Spring Creek area, up the Chattahoochee River a little bit and up the Flint. So everything is really confined and in three days of practice, you can pretty much look at everything you want to look at.”

Swindle adds this: “I think Seminole offers some of the best sight fishing opportunities. Guys can break records by sight fishing.”

Balancing the opportunities, Seminole also presents significant navigational concerns demanding awareness and abundant caution.

“Seminole has a lot of standing timber and it takes a little time to get around in it,” Scroggins said. “You really have to know how to run that lake because you can get in trouble in a hurry.”

Swindle concurs: “This is one of the most dangerous lakes we fish. A lot of equipment can get torn up there. Seminole is definitely a dangerous body of water to navigate. There’s stumps, stumps and more stumps.”

Nevertheless, Lake Seminole has a reputation for producing big sacks and a recent local event in which the winner sacked up a 39-pound limit, has Scroggins eager to see what the lake will offer the Elite field.

“The hadn’t even started spawning yet (during that event), so looking at that, I’ll say that it’s going to take big weights – probably 30 pounds a day to remain competitive.”