I usually enjoy the four seasons. Changing weather often makes fishing better and it is less boring. But going through all four seasons and worse last week at Lake Eufaula was a bit much.

    I went down to Lake Point State Park last Tuesday and set up my slide in pickup camper.  The weather was very warm when I went to bed and I knew storms were possible.

    At 5:00 AM someone pounded on my camper and woke me. I thought they said the power was out, but my fan was still running so I turned over to go back to sleep. Then a car horn started blowing, making me look at my phone – there was a Tornado Warning for the campground on it I had not heard!

    I joined all the other campers in the cement block bath house for the next hour!

The rest of Wednesday was decent, with some light showers but little wind. I was able to get out on the lake and look around some. I joined the 196 other bass boats on the water, a Fishers of Men National Championship tournament was scheduled for Thursday through Saturday.  It was a big deal, first and second places in the tournament would win fully rigged bass boats worth either $80,000 or $60,000, depending on place.

Thursday was a nice spring like day, warm weather and sun.  I again looked around, watching the many boats with teams fishing the first day of the tournament.  Most were easing around the shoreline, casting various baits to grassbeds. 

When I went to my favorite small creek I was happy to see just two boats in it fishing, but while I idled around about six other boats ran in, fished a few minutes, then left.  I knew by the start of our tournament Saturday the poor fish would be beat to death, seeing every lure carried by Berry’s Sporting Goods and then some.

Friday the wind was up a little and the misty rain made me sit at my camper and watch the tournament fishermen go round and round in the creek out from the campground.  Weather guessers were saying 20+ MPH winds for Saturday. Most lakes are dangerous with those kinds of winds, and Eufuala is one of the worse.

Fishers of Men announced they were canceling the third day of their tournament due to dangerous conditions. And the Bass Fisherman’s League canceled their big tournament on Oconee for the same reason.

Potato Creek did not cancel, but when Tom Tanner and I idled to the ramp for our set 7:00 blast off, we were told the executive committee delayed our start by 30 minutes. So for 30 minutes Tom and I sat in our boats as the cold wind got about five miles per hour stronger and the temperature dropped another two degrees while everybody else sat in their warm trucks in the parking lot.

how the tournament went for two days

Last Sunday, March 6, nine members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our March tournament at Lake Sinclair.  The weather was beautiful for our casting from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM but the bass didn’t seem to care.  We weighed in 29 keeper bass weighing about 47 pounds and had three five-bass limits. No one zeroed.

    My four at 10.63 won and I had as 4.19 pound largemouth for big fish. Chuck Croft placed second with five at 9.15 pounds, Don Gober had five at 9.02 pounds for third and Alex Gober, his grandson fishing with him, had five at 4.86 pounds for fourth.

    Will Mclean fished with me and we headed to some grass beds near the dam where Ricky Layton, showing me around the same time of year two years ago for a GON article, caught five weighing 28 pounds.  But after three hours and several different places, we both had two bites.

    A good keeper bass hit my crankbait on a seawall and jumped and threw it. Then Will hooked and lost what looked like a keeper on a Texas rigged Senko.  A little later Will caught a bass that just barely touched the 12-inch line, then I caught a similar one.

Club rules say a bass must be 12 inches long with its mouth closed on a keeper board to be weighed.  I could make mine touch the 12-inch line, barely, but worried about it. Sometimes in the excitement of catching one I do not measure it correctly.

Around 10:30 I cast my bladed jig to a grassbed on a point and hooked a keeper out in front of it. At 11:30 Will cast to the middle of a shallow cove, said “I got one” and a huge fish swirled on top. He got it to the boat and I netted it, but it was a big blue catfish. Will’s new scales said it weighed ten pounds but it looked much bigger.

At 2:00, with about 45 minutes left to fish I was pretty disgusted. We went into one of my favorite small creeks. As we fished down a bank with a big grassbed on it, I told Will I had never caught a fish past the last small dock on it, it was very shallow. But Niles Murray caught a keeper back in it when we fished together a few years ago.

I cast my bladed jig back in it and my line started going sideways. When I set the hook the 4.19 pounder jumped, it was only a foot deep and it had nowhere to go but up!  When I got it to the boat I let it go around the trolling motor but managed to pull the motor and bass up and Will got it in the net by lying down on the deck and reaching forward. That fish was just meant to get caught.

I caught another keeper on a shaky head on the next dock, then started around the other arm of the cove. Again I told Will I had never caught a bass way back in it, and he reminded me of what had just happened.

As luck would have it, way back in it I pitched my shaky head to a seawall about a foot of water and felt a tap and my line started moving out. When I set the hook a 4.13 pound largemouth fought hard but I managed to keep it away from the trolling motor and Will netted it.

We went back to the dock where I caught my keeper and Will got a 3.16 pounder off the seawall beside it, again about a foot deep. That was it, we had to go in.

I don’t know if it was time of day, location or what but I wish it had started earlier, or we had more time to fish before the time ended. This time of year fishing is often better late in the day after the sun warms the water some. It was 62 degrees in that creek at 2:00 and I am sure those fish were thinking about bedding.

While waiting for Will to back the trailer in, I checked my smallest fish and decide it had shrunk, so I just weighed in four.

Last Saturday 25 members of the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished our January tournament at Lake Sinclair.  After eight hours of casting from 7:30 AM to 8:30 PM, we brought 73 12-inch keeper bass weighing about 112 pounds to the scales. There were eight limits and six zeros.

Robert Howell won with five weighting 9.04 pounds and Raymond English placed second with five at 8.67 pounds. Michael Cox came in third with five weighing 7.88 pounds and my four weighing 7.55 pounds was fourth.  Stevie Wright had big fish with a 4.37 pound largemouth.

The water in Little River was very muddy but the Oconee River and creeks downstream of the mouth of Little River were a decent color. I just knew I could catch some fish on a crankbait in the 52-degree water in the clearer areas, but at 1:00 my two bites were a two-pound channel cat on a crankbait and a bream on a spoon, jigging it in brush 18 feet deep.

At 1:00 I met a boat going down the bank and they fished my favorite dock before I could get to it, then left. I started to leave, too, but noticed they threw just to the front post, not the back post. That dock has some rock behind it and is usually good for a keeper.
    I cast my shaky head behind the dock and sure enough it started moving out. But when I set the hook my line broke!  That really disgusted me but I kept casting and managed to catch two keeper bass and a five pound flathead cat on a crankbait and two more keeper bass on my shaky head the last two hours of the tournament.

I was shocked but pleased to place but kept thinking if I had just landed that bass behind the dock and it weighed two pounds, I would have won! And if frogs had wings, they would not bump their butt every time they hopped!

 Fourteen members and guests fished our February tournament at West Point last Sunday. After fishing from 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM we brought 42 keeper bass weighing about 68 pounds to the scales.  There was one zero and four people had five bass limits.

    Lee Hancock won with five weighing 11.33 pounds and had a 4.46 pound largemouth for big fish. My five weighing 8.32 pounds was second and Jay Gerson had five weighing a close 8.23 pounds for third. Doug Acree came in fourth with five weighing 6.65 pound and my partner Will Mclean was fifth with four at 6.56 pounds.

    I started out pretty good. Will and I stopped on a steep bank with blowdowns on it where I caught a good keeper last Saturday and started casting to the trees in the water. I looked down at my Panoptix and saw what looked like several fish on a small brush top ahead of the boat in 2 feet of water.

    I cast a Carolina rigged Baby Brush Hog and watched the weight sink with the bait following it.  When the lead hit bottom one of the fish went to the bait. When I tightened up my line a little I felt weight, set the hook and landed a two pound largemouth, my biggest fish of the day. I would not have made that cast and caught that fish without the Garmin Panoptix.

    At our next stop on a long shallow point where I caught my biggest fish last Saturday a good keeper spot hit the same crankbait and I landed it. For the next few hours the only thing we caught was a largemouth that was not big enough to meet the 14 inch size limit.

    At 11:00 I caught a barely legal 12-inch spot on my Carolina rig on one side of a rocky point then Will got his first keeper on a spinnerbait on the other side of the point.  On our next stop Will got another keeper on his spinnerbait.  Then he caught two more on his spinnerbait in the next two stops, giving him four to my three at 1:00! Made me wonder what I was doing wrong!

    I caught one more keeper, this one on a shaky head worm, on our next stop.  At 2:45 with just 45 minutes left to fish we went into a small creek with three rocky areas on one bank. I told Will we would finish up here since we were across from the ramp. 

    As we fished the first rocky spot a bass boat with two fishermen idled past me and started fishing a short distance ahead of me on the next rocky area.  That made me mad but I learned long ago to just accept inconsiderate people and do something else.

    Will and I ran to the bank where I caught my first keeper but Kwong was fishing it, so we stopped on a rocky point behind him. My first cast with a shaky head produced my fifth keeper.  A short way down the bank I saw a brush pile in front of a dock, cast my shaky head to it and landed my sixth keeper, culling my smallest bass.

    Time ran out before Will caught his fifth keeper. I really wish he had caught the little one I culled, but that would have given him a limit when I had only two.  That might have messed up my mind even more!

Last Sunday 11 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our January tournament at Lake Sinclair.  After eight hours we brought 21 keeper bass to the scales weighing about 27 pounds.   There was one five-bass limit and two people didn’t have a keeper.

Jay Gerson had the limit and it weighed 7.11 pounds for first place and his 2.94 pound largemouth was big fish.  Raymond English had four weighing 4.77 pounds for second and third was Robert Proctor with three weighing 3.28 pounds. Kwong Yu’s two weighing 2.86 pounds was fourth, beating my one at 2.52 pounds that gave me fifth place.

After catching four keepers the week before in the Potato Creek tournament I had some hope, but those four were on no pattern, just one here and there.  Will Mcclean fished with me, joining this club as well as the Flint River club, and we started trying to hook a fish after a very cold run first thing that morning.

At 10:00 neither of use had a bite after fishing four or five different kinds of places trying to find some kind of pattern.  We then made a cold ride to near the dam where I had caught my fish the week before.

After about 30 minutes the keeper I weighed in hit my spinnerbait near a grassbed in front of some rocks. I told Will I felt like you needed to catch at least three bass to establish any kind of pattern, but that one was all we had to go on.

For the rest of the day we fished similar places, making hundreds of casts around grass beds near rocks, but neither of us ever had another bite!

Last Sunday six members of the Flint River Bass Club braved the cold windy weather to fish our February tournament at Lake Lanier.  After casting from 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM, we brought in five spotted bass that met the 14-inch size limit.  There were no limits and two members did not weigh a fish.

I won and had big fish with one bass weighing 4.04 pounds.  Alex Gober had two weighing 3.68 for second, my partner Will Mclean had one weighing 2.78 for third and fourth was Don Gober with one weighing 1.88 pounds.

Someday I will figure out the spots on Lake Lanier but it seems like not any time soon.  Like last year I went up three days before the tournament and camped at Don Carter State Park, a great campground.  At least it did not snow Saturday night like it did last year!

Last year I caught one bass in three days practice and zeroed the tournament as did everyone else except Brent Drake. He won with one keeper.  This year I did not hook a fish in three days practice. I mostly rode with my electronics looking for bass and bait.

Saturday afternoon I found some concentrations of bait – 80 feet deep!  Most of the local fishermen that know Lanier well say you have to be fishing around bait to catch winter spots, but I just cannot make myself fish that deep!

There are always some fish shallow and I told Will I felt like shallow fish were more likely to be eating.  So we were going to fish relatively shallow.  We went to a steep rocky bank and I kept the boat out in 25 feet of water. We cast up to a couple feet deep and worked out bait out to about 20 feet deep.

That seemed a good idea, Will caught his fish, his first tournament fish and also first spotted bass, on his fourth cast with a Texas rigged Senko.  I got three bites on a jig but missed all three, I think my frozen hands kept me from feeling the bites like I should, and Will missed two bites on that bank.

We tried a variety of similar places and I missed two more bites, and stupidly broke my line setting the hook on one fish. Usually I retie often, especially when fishing a jig on rocks, but my cold hands kept me from doing that. Will also missed a couple more bites.

I had just about given up at 3:05, with just 20 minutes left to fish, when I felt a thump on my jig and landed my keeper. We had gone back to where Will caught his bass and mine hit in almost the exact same place. We should have stayed there all day!

My motto is “Never give up!”

 The first Sunday in December 12 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our November tournament at Jackson Lake. After 8.5 hours of casting, we brought 35 keeper bass weighing about 43 pounds to the scales. Most were 12-inch spotted bass. There were three five fish limits and no one zeroed.

    Jay Gerson won with five weighing 5.72 pounds, Zane Fleck placed second with five at 5.35 pounds and Sam Smith was third with five weighing 5.05 pounds. Niles Murray came in third with three weighing 4.31 pounds and Carl Heidle had big fish with a 2.78 pounder.

I think I set my goals too low. My goal each year is to win the point standings, and I had a comfortable lead going into this tournament, with just two left. In my mind I thought if I just landed a keeper in each of the last two tournaments I would win.

When I landed a 13-inch spot at 7:45 I relaxed, I had my keeper. Then it hit me that with 12 fishermen I could lose over half my lead with a last place finish.  So I started trying harder but could not figure anything out.  I finally caught my second keeper at 2:00 and came in 11^th place.

That finish did cause me to lose almost half my lead. So, with one tournament left this year, I gotta do better next Sunday!

On a Sunday in November a few years ago ten members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our November tournament at Lake Lanier.  After eight cold, windy, rainy hours we managed to land 11 keeper bass longer than 14 inches, all spotted bass. There were no limits, the most any one fisherman had was three.  Four fishermen did not have a keeper.  They weighed about 26 pounds.

    I managed to win with two keepers weighing 7.11 pounds and my 3.81-pound spot was big fish.  Alex
Gober had three weighing 5.44 pounds for second, Chuck Croft was third with three at 4.67 pounds and fourth was Don Gober with one keeper weighing 3.30 pounds.

    The windy, cloudy day seemed perfect for throwing a spinnerbait on windblown rocky points and banks, usually a very good pattern this time of year. 

I hit three places like that quickly that morning and on the third one, at 7:25 AM, I landed the 3.30 pound spot on one of Ryan Coleman’s Mini Me spinnerbaits. That fish jumped two feet out of the water when I hooked it, unusual for a big spot, and made my heart stop. 

    That got me excited that I had a good pattern going so I fished it hard until 11:30, trying spinnerbaits, jerk baits and crankbaits. All I caught was two 13-inch spots, no keepers.  At 11:00 I got tired and tried some brush piles out of the wind but got no bites.

    At 1:00 I went back to rocky points and fished a jig and pig, working areas out of wind since I was so tired.  I caught my bigger fish within five minutes and again got excited, thinking that pattern would work. But two hours later I had not gotten another bite trying that pattern.

    Those big spots at Lanier fight hard and are fun to catch but unless you fish the lake a lot they are difficult to pattern.  The day of our tournament a guide there, Lanier Jim, posted pictures of the big spots he and a client caught.  He knows the lake well and fishes it every day.  They caught about a dozen keepers and their best five weighed about 18 pounds. And they fished the same area of the lake I fished. Knowing the lake makes a huge difference!  

    The Sportsman Club is fishing our November tournament there next Sunday.  I’m sure it will be tough but fun if we manage to hook any of those magnum spots!

Note – I won it, too, with a limit weighing 12.65 pounds i caught off wind blown points on spinnerbaits early and had big fish with a four-pound spot that came off the same rock as the 3.71 above!!

Sunday, January 9, eight members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our January tournament at Jackson Lake. After casting from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM, we brought 23 keeper bass weighing about 26 pounds to the scales. There were three five-bass limits and one fisherman did not have a keeper.

Alex Gober won it all with five weighing 7.35 pounds and had a 1.80 pounder for big fish.  Niles Murray came in second with five at 5.52 pounds and
Doug Acree was third with five weighing 4.34. Lee Hancock came in fourth with two weighing 2.50 pounds, beating my two at 2.48 pounds by .02 pounds!

    It was a tough day. Niles said he caught his five in about an hour.  This time of year there is often a “bite window,” a short time when if you are in the right place at the right time you can catch fish.

New member Will McLean fished with me and we fished hard.  But at 2:46 with five minutes left to fish I had gotten only one bite, a four-inch crappie that hit a spoon.  I found fish in many places, some of them set up under baitfish and looked like perfect places to catch one. But it did not happen for either of us.

As time ran out Will and I were working around a rocky point. I told him I would make a couple of casts across the downstream side of the point then we had to go in, even without anything to weigh.

On three casts I landed two keepers and lost one at the boat on a DT 10 crankbait. On my Panoptix I could see baitfish all over the end of the point with fish moving around under them, like in a few other places, but they were feeding better.

I wish I could have made a few more casts but we pulled up at the ramp two minutes before being late!