Several years ago six members of the Flint River Bass Club fished the Georgia BASS Federation Nation Top Six tournament at Lake Oconee. There were 13 clubs competing for top club in the tournament and the individuals were trying to finish in one of the top 12 places and advance to the Southern Regional.

In a very unpleasant surprise a cold front came through on Friday and brought record setting cold weather. The bass seemed to go into shock and the fishing was extremely tough. After fishing two days it took only a little over nine pounds to make the state team.

Five members of our team camped and it was all the heater in my little motor home could do to keep it “almost” comfortable at night. Jordan McDonald was my partner and we slept under several blankets. During the days fishing we wore all the clothes we had trying to stay warm.

On Thursday Jordan and I fished hard all day but neither of us caught a keeper bass. We did watch another fisherman catch some fish near us. On Friday it was much colder and the wind was awful. I managed to catch one keeper jigging a spoon in 22 feet of water.

Friday night I drew as a partner for Saturday the guy we had seen catching fish on Thursday. We made our plans for Saturday based on his thoughts we could catch fish on his pattern after lunch.

Saturday dawned extremely cold. We fished hard all day, hitting docks I like to fish until about 11:00 then going to his pattern for the rest of the day. Neither of us caught a keeper.

During the night one of our team members got sick and could not fish. I agreed to leave my boat on the bank and fish with Mike Morris, our sick team members partner for the day. It was a good decision. Mike is an excellent fisherman and had weighed in eight pounds on Saturday. We fished the same areas the same ways I had fished on Saturday but Mike got a limit weighing 9.5 pounds and ended up second overall.

I managed to catch four keepers weighing a little over 7 pounds and came in 22nd overall. To my great disgust I lost a big bass that just pulled off for no apparent reason. That fish would have put me on the team if I had landed it.

To add insult to injury, my partner on Saturday fished with Flint River team member JJ Polak on Sunday. They fished the same places he and I had fished on Saturday but he landed four bass weighing 10.5 pounds and made the team.

It always amazes me how different fishing can be one day to the next and how it changes for me. I will never understand how I can work hard one day and not catch a fish and do the same thing the next day and have a good catch. I guess that is why we call it fishing, not catching!

A few years ago on a Monday I met Bobby Ferris at Jackson Lake to get information for a December Georgia Outdoor News article. For this “Map of the Month” article Bobby discusses patterns for catching bass at Jackson in December and the baits he would use. We then marked 10 spots on a map of the lake where you can use those patterns and baits to catch bass.

I met Bobby several years ago when he worked for Central Georgia EMC and lived near Jackson. Since then he has transferred to Southern Rivers EMC and moved to Lamar County. We have fished together a good bit over the past few years and Bobby joined the Flint River Bass Club. Last year in that club he won 7 of the 12 tournaments and this year he has won two of the seven he has fished.

Bobby and partner Donnie Schafer fish the Highland Marina Tournament Trail on West Point and they finished 8th overall this year, quite an accomplishment when fishing against teams that fish West Point almost every day.

Two weeks ago Bobby and Donnie fished the Potato Creek Bassmasters Buddy tournament at Lake Sinclair and won it with five bass weighing over 18 pounds. That is a fantastic catch in any tournament. They also had big bass in that tournament.

Monday Bobby caught two largemouth at Jackson, one weighing about 4 pounds and the other about 5 pounds. He also had several spotted bass weighing around 2.5 pounds each. His best five that day would have weighed about 16 to 17 pounds if he had been fishing a tournament. Those bass hit topwater plugs.

Unfortunately, that pattern is probably over for this year after the cold front came through this week. Bass will be on the rocky point pattern we discussed in the article and it should work for most of the month. Last year on New Year’s Eve Bobby caught a 9.5 pound bass at Jackson and had five weighing about 24 pounds that day, and the patterns he caught those fish on are in the article.

Bobby is on Team Triton, qualifying for this honor through his bass fishing. The Sports Center in Perry is his sponsor and he gets his boats through them. Bobby really likes Triton bass boats and says they perform good and are excellent fishing platforms.

Check out this article and give Jackson a try in December. It should be excellent for spotted and largemouth bass.

The next weekend the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished their November tournament at Lake Sinclair. Lee Hancock had the only limit and his five bass weighed 7.66 pounds, giving him first place. He also had big bass with a 2.08 pound fish. Wade Crawford had four weighing 4.67 for second, Don Schafer had four weighing 4.27 pounds for third and Todd Stoerkel had two weighing 1.70 for fourth.

There were 15 members of the club in this tournament and they caught 21 keepers weighing about 26 pounds. Five members did not catch a keeper bass in this eight hour tournament.

The Spalding County Sportsman Club also fished our November tournament that weekend and we were at West Point. Kwong Yu had a five fish limit weighing 8.64 pounds and won. Brent Terry also had a limit and his 8.02 pounds gave him second place. He had a 3.97 pound bass that was big fish. Jason Wheeler was third with two bass weighing 2.42 pounds and Butch Duerr had 2 weighing 2.30 for fourth.

Only seven members of the club fished this tournament and we weighed in 18 bass weighing about 26 pounds. There were no zeros but two of us had only one fish each. There were only 4 largemouth weighed in, all the rest were spots.

I came in dead last in this tournament with one small spotted bass. The fishing was very tough for me and I got only three bites from bass all day, catching the one keeper and two spots about 11 inches long. Several people caught bass on topwater baits that morning. I had one bite on top and it was a nice crappie.

Most of the keepers came on crankbaits, jigs and worms. There was no one strong pattern but shad were everywhere.

Fishing should have been much better this time of year at Sinclair and West Point. Maybe the unusually warm weather was the problem. If so, the cold this week should help!

Most people are thinking hunting, not fishing, this time of year but fishing can be excellent right now. For many years I spent Thanksgiving Holidays at Clark’s Hill fishing for bass, hybrids and crappie. I often had the lake to myself.

Now fishing is more popular in the colder parts of the year but the lakes are much less crowded. There are almost no skiers and skidooers and far fewer fishermen are on the water since many are in the woods. But the weather is often beautiful and fish sometimes cooperate.

Friday before last I went to Bartlett’s Ferry to get information for a Georgia Outdoor News article. I met Tommy Gunn there and he showed me some of his favorite ways to catch December bass on the lake. We fished some of the ten spots that will be on the map in the article. Bass were already starting to feed on them.

Tommy lives just over the Alabama line in Cusseta and makes Jawbreaker Jigs to use and sell. One of his patterns in the winter is to flip and pitch a jig and pig to shallow water cover like docks and he caught a four and a half pound largemouth bass on that pattern.

We also fished points and drops with jig head worms and caught several spotted bass. None of the spots weighed over about two pounds, typical of lakes where the spot population has exploded. You can catch a lot of spots but they just don’t get very big compared to largemouth.

That trip gave me confidence in a jig and pig. The Flint River Bass Club fished Jackson Lake last Sunday for a November tournament. Al Bassett called me Saturday afternoon and told me his club had a tournament at Jackson that day and it was won on spinner baits, so I made sure I had one tied on, but I also tied on a jig and pig.

Al said they caught fish on wind blown points and it was real windy Saturday. Sunday dawned cold and calm and we never did get much wind. I started with a top water bait then tried crank baits and spinner baits but did not get any hits. At 9:00 I got a bite on a jig and pig and landed a 14 inch spotted bass, my first of the day.

That got me throwing the jig and pig a lot and a few minutes later I made a long cast down the bank across where an old dock used to be. There were still two posts in the water and I threw between them and the bank and got a hit. When I set the hook a nice bass came to the top but went back down. I pulled it up and down several times, thinking I was hung in brush.

About that time I remembered there is an old concrete and rock pier under the water there. I had thrown across it and the fish hit on the other side. I was pulling the fish to the top then it would go back down.

I finally got the fish over the pier and it came to the boat fairly easily. I guess I had knocked it against the rocks too many times and took the fight out of it. The fish was a 3.71 pound spot, a big one and they usually fight hard. I was lucky I was using 20 pound P-Line Fluorocarbon line. It was frayed for about eight feet but it held up.

A few casts later I got another keeper spot then cast onto the apron of concrete coming out of a boat house. When my jig fell off the end into about a foot of water I saw a fish swim off and thought I had spooked it. Then I realized it had my jig. I was lucky to land a three pound largemouth. That was my fourth bass by 10:00, in one hour.

The rest of the day was slower and I caught three more keeper bass, two of them spots and one largemouth. The rest of the club had a pretty tough day, too. Many said they had been catching fish on spinner baits up until Sunday but they did not hit them during the tournament.

We had ten fishermen in the tournament. My five fish limit weighed between 11 and 12 pounds and I placed first. The 3.71 pound spot was big fish. Tommy Reeves also threw a jig and pig and had a limit weighing between eight and nine pounds for second. I can’t remember who came in third but Tony Evans placed fourth.

If you get a chance, go fishing this winter. You might be surprised at what you can catch.

Sometimes I wonder why I go bass fishing in the winter and if a bass can be caught out of ice water. A Sunday in late January, 2011 at West Point really brought those thoughts on strong. The Spalding County Sportsman Club held its January tournament there and nine brave members showed up to fish seven hours. There were a total of two bass weighed in!

Sam Smith won it all with one keeper largemouth weighing 2.26 pounds, getting first place and big fish. As close behind as you can be on our scales, Niles Murray came in second with a spotted bass weighing 2.25 pounds.

The rest of us had stories of casting practice and one member told of losing a big one a the boat. I never had a bite all day although I tried everything I could think of to find a fish. A huge part of catching bass is confidence and when my surface temperature gauge showed 38 degrees at launch I lost all hope.

To show how much I know and how good we are, there was another tournament going on that day. West Georgia Bass Club is an buddy tournament trail open to anyone wanting to join and they fished the same day we were there with 93 teams in the tournament. I saw other bass boats all day that were probably in the tournament.

Almost one third, 33 of the teams, had a bass to weigh in. I was shocked to see the winning team had five bass weighing 19.08 pounds. It took 14.19 pounds for second, 13.59 for third and 12.98 for fourth. Those weights amazed me and I wonder how they caught such good stringers of bass under such bad conditions.

I have fished with several of the guys that caught fish in that tournament. They took me out and showed me how they fish for articles for Georgia Outdoor News. They fish just like I do, with much the same tackle and equipment. Yet they made decisions that day that allowed them to catch bass while I never got a bite.

Sometimes I think the ability to catch bass is almost a sixth sense or special ability. It is like playing baseball – anyone can learn to play. But no matter how hard most practice and work at it, they will never reach the majors. The same goes for concert pianists. Anyone can learn to play the piano but no matter how hard they practice only a very select few will ever go on tour.

Anyone, even me, can learn to bass fish. But no matter how hard I try I keep having days like that Sunday. And so far at that point that year it wass the only kind of day I had. I had not caught a bass in 2011!

When bass tournaments first started back in the late 1960s fish were often put on stringers and most were dead at weigh-in. But that didn’t matter, bass were kept to eat. When local fishermen blamed the tournaments for wiping out their bass in their lake, Ray Scott came up with the idea of “catch and release” as a public relations ploy.

At some of my club tournaments in the 1970s we would keep fish and have a big fish fry, especially on two day tournaments. No one really worried about releasing fish although we got dirty looks from local anglers. But that gradually changed so now almost all the bass we weigh-in are released alive.

When Linda and I got our first bass boat in 1974 we had a rule that any bass we caught over three pounds was released. Smaller bass were kept to eat. We let the bigger bass go mostly because they just don’t taste as good, but also to try to protect bigger fish. A three pound bass has survived for several years and we hoped they would continue to grow and we could catch them again when they were even bigger!

Catch and release is now almost a religious experience for many bass fishermen. Killing a bass upsets them almost as much as it upsets a PETA protester. They will go to extreme lengths to try to revive a bass that is dying.

Does catch and release really matter from a biology standpoint? The answer is a definite “Maybe.” A bass kept and cooked definitely does not survive to fight another day. Some that are released do. But catch and release has problems, too.

Releasing large numbers of bass in a small area like is done at boat ramps and marinas hosting a lot of tournaments can overcrowd an area, putting strain on the food the bass eat. Crowding can lead to spread of diseases. So the long term effects of catch and release can be bad for an area.

Delayed mortality of bass often hides the real numbers of fish that die. Bass that are stressed by being hooked, fought, landed, placed in a live well, ridden around in a boat then taken out, put in a bag, dumped on scales then dumped back into the lake may be alive when they hit the water but die hours or even days later.

The science behind catch and release is somewhat questionable. About half the 12 inch long bass in a big lake will not survive the next year of their life, regardless of fishing pressure. Nature takes care of them Heavy fishing pressure on a small body of water can hurt populations but what percent of bass on a lake measured in thousands of acres are harmed by tournaments?

There does seem to be some effect, but it is mostly anecdotal. In 1983 it was easy to catch a lot of 11 inch largemouth at West Point but it seemed hard to land 12 inch keepers, the minimum size at that time. Then in April a 16 inch size limit was imposed on that lake.

Within a few years we were complaining about catching a bunch of 15.5 inch bass but 16 inchers were very hard to find. Then the size limit was reduced back to 14 inches and, guess what. It seemed we caught huge numbers of 13.5 inch largemouth but 14 inch long bass were hard to find.

Now spotted bass have changed that completely because they don’t grow very fast and there is not size limit on them. Even with a 12 inch limit on spots in tournaments, a most of the bass by far weighed in at West Point are spots.

Releasing all bass can harm rather than help a lake. Spotted bass in lakes like Blue Ridge and Jackson where they are not native often overpopulate, crowding out native populations of smallmouth and taking the place of bigger largemouth. Spots are so aggressive that five one pounders may take the place of one five pound largemouth in many cases.

The catch and release mentality keeps fishermen from helping out managing a lake like Oconee. Biologists say we need to remove bass shorter than 11 inches in Oconee to keep overcrowding of smaller bass down since Oconee is an infertile lake. But very few keep those small bass, making it impossible for the slot limit to do its job.

It is easy to blame a lot of things for not catching bass on a fishing trip. If blaming tournament fishing or fishermen killing bass works for you, use it. But in reality the bass are probably there for you to catch. After all, those tournament fishermen had to catch them somehow and tournament results show someone will catch a lot of bass somehow almost every time.

Keep a few bass to eat if you want to. Release most of the bass you catch to make you feel good and as a PR tool. But don’t condemn anyone for enjoying a few bass filets.

Bass fishing is good in November but it does vary a lot, as three tournaments show. Two years ago the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished their November tournament at Oconee. Then the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished its November tournament at Lanier. And the Flint River Bass Club sent a six man team to the Georgia Bass Chapter Federation Nation State Championship at Hartwell.

At Oconee, 20 members of the Potato Creek club weighed in 24 keeper bass weighing 40.68 pounds. There was one five-fish limit and six members didn’t have a keeper bass after eight hours of fishing.

Bobby Ferris won with the only limit and his five fish weighed 8.44 pounds. Wesley Gunnels was second with three bass weighing 5.17 pounds, Michael Cox was came in third with three at 4.63 pounds and Bob Nash placed fourth with two at 3.03 pounds. Pete Peterson had big fish with a 2.48 pound largemouth.

Fishing was tough for bigger bass at Oconee and the 14 inch size limit makes it harder to land a keeper bass.

At Lanier the next Sunday 11 members and guests of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished for eight hours to land 13 keeper bass weighing about 27 pounds. There were no limits and four fishermen zeroed in the tournament.

Javin English won it all with four bass weighing 9.84 pounds and his 3.66 pound bass was big fish. Jimmy Harmon came in second with two keepers at 4.93 pounds, Kwong Yu placed third with two at 3.66 pounds and Russell Prevette had two at 3.62 pounds.

There is a 14 inch limit at Lanier and the spotted bass just didn’t cooperate.

At Hartwell six Flint River club members fished for two days to try to qualify for the State Team. The top 14 fishermen in this tournament advance to the Southern Regional in Kentucky next April. The top man on that team will go on to the Nationals where one fisherman from each region will qualify for the Bassmasters Classic.

Although there are no team awards other than bragging rights, the six club members, myself, Bobby Ferris, Lee Hancock, JJ Polak, Charles Gaddy and Chris Lee worked together and tried to help each other out. All of us but Chris went up Wednesday or Thursday and practiced two days trying to find fish for the tournament.

It took ten bass weighing 24 pounds to win. I caught ten weighing 17.94 pounds and came in 8th. I was happy but disappointed at the same time since the top seven fishermen get to take their boats to the Regional and I missed that, so I will have to fish out of someone else’s boat.

JJ Polak finished in 10th and will also be on the team. He had ten bass weighing 17.53 pounds. JJ owns JJ’s Magic dip and dye and Ole Nelle bait company and is president of the Flint River Club.

In two days of practice I caught some fish but was worried. On Thursday I landed seven keepers but they were all small. Then on Friday it took me from daylight to 11:00 AM to catch a bass. That one was a good three pound fish and it hit back in a creek where I had caught fish before. I hooked several more in a few minutes before leaving the area.

In the tournament on Saturday we went there but in the first two hours I broke off a fish in a tree top and my partner landed one. We ran to another place I wanted to fish but another boat was already there. I stopped on a nearby dock and landed my best fish of the tournament, one close to four pounds.

After fishing several more docks in the area I told my partner I felt like we should go back where we started. Between noon and leaving at 3:10 to get to weigh-in on time we both landed our limit. I caught two keepers on my last two casts at 3:05, just a few minutes before we had to crank up for the ten mile run.

I was surprised to be in 14 place out of 90 fishermen after the first day. The second day my partner and I ran the small creek, shut down the gas motor at 7:10 AM and did not crank it until 2:45 for the run back to the ramp. I got another limit but it was slow. He caught three keepers.

I was happy to make the state team again. My partner from the first day got a limit the second day and also made the team, visiting in 12th place.

If club fishing and going to the Top Six sounds like fun, both the Flint River and Spalding County clubs are taking new members and everything starts over in January. The Potato Creek club does not send a team to the Top Six but have their own championship.