Sunday, July 25 was certainly a challenge at West Point for the 12 members and guests in the July Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament. We landed 16 keepers weighing about 25 pounds in eight hours of very hot casting. There was one five-bass limit and five people didn’t catch a keeper.

Jay Gerson made it two in a row, winning with the only limit weighing 7.97 pounds. Kwong Yu caught two keepers weighing 6.19 pounds for second and his 4.78 pound largemouth was big fish. Third went to Wayne Teal, fishing with Jay, with three weighing 3.60 pounds and Raymond English had two at 2.07 pounds for fourth.

Chris Davies and I started at 6:00 AM in the dark on a deep rocky bank that transitioned to shallow wood. I thought some bass may have moved to that area to feed during the night. The full moon would encourage them to feed at night, and bream should be bedding around the wood, another attraction.

It was the same bank I started on last July and got and missed my only bite that day on a buzzbait at first light. I started casting the buzzbait in the dark. We could barely make out the bank we were casting to in the moonlight.

Suddenly, at the end of a cast right beside the boat, a bass grabbed my buzzbait. I instinctively set the hook, the fish arched out of the water but luckily stayed on the hook and landed in the bottom of the boat. It was a 13-inch spotted bass.

I continued to fish the buzzbait around cover while Chris tried a variety of baits behind me. Neither of us could get a bite. As the sun got higher, I went to a rocky point where I have caught bass this time of year in the past. My first cast with a shaky head something thumped it as soon as the bait hit the bottom.

I tried to set the hook but the fish ran toward me, never a good sign. But then my line tightened up and went under the boat, the fish was hooked. Unfortunately, when I reeled the pound and a half fish to where I could see it, it was a channel cat. Fun to catch, good to eat, but no help in a tournament.

At weigh-in Zane said he caught two catfish while fishing for bass. A trip to West Point for catfish might be a good idea right now. If they are hitting artificial baits no telling what you can catch on catfish bait!

In the next shallow pocket I caught a 13 inch largemouth on my buzzbait, but largemouth have to be 14 inches long. Then Chris caught a 13-inch largemouth. Although we fished hard until quitting time and were the last boat to come back to the ramp, we did not catch another fish!

My 13 inch spot weighed one pound and was good for 7th place!

This past Sunday seven members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our June tournament at Bartletts Ferry.  After eight hours of casting, we landed 22 12-inch keepers weighing about 36 pounds. For a nice surprise, there were only six or seven spots, the rest were largemouth. There were three five bass limits and one zero.

My five weighing 10.37 pounds won and Doug Acree had five at 7.10 for second.  Bailey Stewart fishing with Lee Hancock placed third with two weighing 6.60 pounds and his 4.90 largemouth beat my 4.74 pounder for big fish. Lee Hancock was fourth with five weighing 6.53 pounds.

I was “junk” fishing, just trying a lot of different things with no pattern and never found one. I got beat to the point I wanted to start on by another club member but caught my second biggest fish, a 2.5 pound largemouth, on a buzz bait beside a seawall I went to as my second choice.

A little later I eased the boat out on a point where I saw some brush on my electronics and caught a two-pound spot on a shaky head in about ten feet of water.  My next stop was a dock on a steep rocky bank. I noticed Mayflies around the bushes overhanging the water and started skipping a jig under them and caught the 4.74 pounder under the third one I tried.

Although it was only 8:00 and I had been fishing for two hours with some success, fishing got tough.  Three hours later after trying to get another bite around the Mayfly hatch I had not gotten one.

I went to a small creek where I can usually get a keeper around docks and got a 13-inch largemouth on a shaky head worm from one of them that consistently produced for me.  A guy sitting on the next dock said that was the first fish he had seen caught in that cove all weekend, although it had been fished by several others in bass boats.  I guess the fish liked my worm for some reason, maybe the JJs Magic on its tail.

That fish made me run to another dock that often has a keeper under it, and I got a 13-inch spot on a whacky rigged Senko.  It was a miracle I caught that fifth fish. As I skipped my worm under the dock, waves from a big boat going by pulling a tube hit my boat

sideways.  I had to grab my boat seat with one hand to keep from getting thrown out.

I thought I felt a bite while I was rocking and rolling and holding my rod in one hand. When the waves finally passed, I tightened up my line, set the hook and landed the fish.  I had to cut off the last six feet of line it was so frayed because the fish had gone around a concrete post.  Normally, my line would break or the fish would feel pressure and spit the bait.  I guess some fish are just meant to get caught.

I relaxed after catching a limit and went to some calmer water up the river and fished bluff banks with
Mayflies on the bushes for the last couple of hours.  Although it was calmer and conditions seemed ideal, I caught one 14 inch largemouth that culled the skinny 13-inch spot.  I did catch two 11-inch spots while fishing the area, but they were too small to weigh in.

…

I went to Hartwell on Tuesday, May 11 to camp and fish, getting ready for the Potato Creek Bassmasters tournament.  Wednesday was miserable, windy rainy and cold, so I was on the water only about three hours.  I went way up a creek to put in to get out of the wind and did not find anything to make me want to go back.

Thursday was nicer but still cold, and I explored some new places to try to find a pattern.  I caught one barely 12-inch-long spotted bass. I felt completely lost even though I found one point with a lot of shad and bigger fish under them, so I planned to start there in the tournament Friday morning.

I pulled up there Friday and caught a throwback on my first cast with a topwater plug, then had a 2.5 pounder jump and throw my bait. I stayed there an hour and got one more bite but missed it.

I started running to places where I have caught fish in the past this time of year, trying all kinds of patterns, structure and cover. I manage to catch one keeper spot and one keeper largemouth by weigh-in.

Saturday I started in a different place and got no bites, so I went to a small creek that has been good in the past. I quickly caught a two-pound largemouth on topwater so I thought maybe it would be a better day.  By the end of the day I had caught one more small keeper spot, on a Carolina rig.

That was a very frustrating trip for me.

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Last week at Hartwell 21 members of the Potato Creek Bass masters fished our May tournament. We landed 102 spots and largemouth weighing about 157 pounds.  There were six five bass limits during the two days and no one zeroed.

Raymond English won with ten weighing 15.89 pounds and Niles Murray placed second with nine at 15.46 pounds.  Lee Hancock came in third with seven weighing 14.63 pounds and that included the big fish weighing 4.83 pounds.  Kwong Yu rounded out the top four with nine keepers weighing 14.58 pounds.

Fish were reportedly caught on a variety of baits in a big variety of places.  With weights that close, one bite makes a huge difference.  On Friday, Kwong culled several fish but could land only four on Saturday.  If any of his culls weighing 1.5 pounds had hit Saturday he would have won, just like if Niles had landed one of his culls from Friday.

Its amazing how often that happens and how close the top four often are in weight. I keep telling myself that during the tournament, especially if it is a bad day for me. Just one bite can make a big difference!

At Hartwell it would have taken a lot more than one more bite for me, though!

   Congratulations to Jordan McDonald for finishing in second place in the Bulldog BFL on Lake Eufaula last weekend.  He beat out about 199 other fishermen on the boaters’ side in the tournament.  Fishing against some of the best fishermen in the state, that is quite an accomplishment.

    Jordan’s five bass weighed 16 pounds, 12 ounces, just two ounces less than first place winner.  Those two ounces were worth $2000 each in winnings!

    Jordan joined the Flint River Bass Club as soon as he turned 16, the minimum age.  He started fishing as my partner the end of that year and joined the Spalding County Sportsman Club the next year as my partner. 

    We fished together for almost ten years then he moved on up, fishing as a no-boater in BFLs and the BASS Weekend series. He did well in both, winning one trail’s no boater points standings one year and making the regional tournaments in both.

    After starting a business and a family he got a boat and got back into fishing big time the year, and I look forward to seeing him post many wins and top ten finishes in the future!

Last weekend 14 members and guests of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our May tournament at Lake Eufaula. It was a madhouse with more than 200 boats in the BFL on Saturday and several smaller tournaments going on. Then on Sunday there was a 60-boat tournament along with us, all out of Lake Point State Park where we launched.

    After 16 hours of casting on two hot days, we weighed in 40 bass weighing about 85 pounds.  Most were largemouth that had to be 14 inches long or longer to bring to the scales, but there were a few spots that are legal at 12 inches.  There were no five fish limits and two members did not catch a fish either day.

    Randall Sharpton won with six bass weighing 14.01 pounds and John Miller had five keepers weighing 11.95 pounds for second.  My five weighing 9.67 pounds placed third and Sam Smith had five weighing 8.81 pounds for fourth. Glenn Anderson had a largemouth weighing 4.68 pounds for big fish.

    Eufaula is an extremely popular bass fishing lake, producing many four-and five-pound bass over the past five years. But fishing there is getting tough, partly due to the fishing pressure and partly due to stupid management practices.

    The lady at the marina store at Lake Point told me there had been at least one tournament every weekend this year, since January 1, with at least 150 boats in it.  That is a lot of pressure, especially since several of them were two-to-five-day tournaments. 
Add that to the usual number of club tournament and local fishermen and it is overwhelming.

    The bass population at Eufaula is so healthy due to habitat. The waters of the Chattahoochee River feeding it are fairly rich in nutrients by the time it gets that far south. And the thousands of acres of shallow water filled with water plants like water willow, lily pads, alligator grass and hyacinths, provide cover and feeding aeras for bass.

    For some reason either the states of Alabama and/or Georgia, and/or the federal Corps of Engineers that manages the lake, it trying to kill all the water plants.  Last year I could stand at the campground at Lake Point and look across acres of water lilies between the campsites and islands across Cowikee Creek.

    This year there was not a lily pad in sight from my campsite, or anywhere else on the lake.  Areas where I usually fish topwater baits through the pads for hundreds of yards for bass hiding and feeding there are open water now.  It is sad.  One local fisherman told me there were four air boats spraying on the lake two weeks ago.

    Add to that the fact the Corps of Engineers, during spawning season for many species of fish there, were dropping the water.  It was almost two feet low by the time I left Monday, dropping several inches each day. Cypress trees with roots under water last Wednesday were dry by Monday and any bass or other fish beds in two feet of water a week ago were now dry and dead.

I could understand if the Corps was generating power at the dam during the hot days, but all the drop in water level was at night!

    I am doing some research trying to find out the reasons the lake is being managed like it is.  The economy of the area depends on the millions of dollars spent there by fishermen.  The cost of a motel room for two or three nights, gas for vehicle and boat, launch fees of five dollars a day and meals for two or three days can easily run three hundred dollars per fisherman.

    Multiply that by the 500 to 600 fishermen there just last weekend and you get an idea of what the local economy will lose, more that $150,000 per weekend, if fishing gets bad and tournaments are not held in the future.

    Maybe there is some good reason for the management practices I see as stupid.

The Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our April tournament at Clarks Hill out of Mistletoe on April 24 and 25th. After 17 hours of casting, the 15 members brought in 118 12-inch keeper bass weighing about 206 pounds.  There were 20 five fish limits and no one zeroed.

Kwong Yu won with ten weighing 21.52 pounds for the two days.  Raymond English came on strong on Sunday with a 15-pound limit and placed second with eight at 21.05. Sam Smith placed third with ten weighing 18.22 pounds adding over 12 pounds on Sunday. Billy Roberts had ten weighing 17.04 for fourth and his 5.15 pound largemouth was big fish.

I should know the lake better than anybody else in the club but it seems I always do good on Saturday then do terrible on Sunday, and this year was no exception.  Chris Davies fished with me and we both had limits Saturday, his at 12.35 was first place and my 11.44 pounds was third place that day.

After an hour of fishing Saturday, I had eight in the livewell and culled down to five. I don’t think I culled the rest of the day although I caught 19 keepers total.  The bigger fish were feeding on the shad and herring spawn first thing in the morning on riprap.  The rest of the day I caught them on a spinnerbait around button bushes and willow trees.

Sunday morning Chris and I ran to the riprap, and there was a kayak sitting right on top of the sweet spot where we caught them in the rain Saturday.  We never got a fish that morning.

At noon I had been fishing bushes for several hours and had one bare 12 inch keeper, then added three more before we had to go in at 2:00.  My nine for two days weighted 16.31 pounds, dropping me to fifth.

Maybe next year will be better on Sunday!!

Days like Sunday, April 11 make me wonder why I am addicted to bass fishing.  Seven members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our April tournament at Lake Oconee.  After eight hours of casting we brought four bass weighing about seven pounds to the scales.  There were no limits and four us zeroed.

Jerry Regan won with two bass weighing 3.57 pounds, Don Gober had one at 2.01 pounds for second and big fish and Phil King’s one weighing 1.65 pounds was third.  That was it.

It was a weird trip for me.  AS week ago Sunday night after a shower I stepped out and the cool air hitting my body made me go into chills, shivering uncontrollably. I  was miserable all night.

Last Tuesday, after two very bad nights with chills and body aches, I tested positive for both Covid and the flu! I had my second vaccine dose on March 24 but a second more accurate test Tuesday afternoon confirmed the Covid, even after the vaccine.

I did not feel terrible during the day but at night I hurt, to the point moving cover on my skin made me want to cry in pain.  It felt like every muscle, joint and bone in my body ached.

Tuesday I took Tylenol every six hours and put some by the bed. That kept the pain down and I was able to sleep some, and felt better Wednesday morning and the fever was gone.

The doctor that gave me the test said I was the first they had to test positive after the vaccine, and warned me to quarantine myself for ten days. A few hours later I got a call from the state health department asking questions about where I had been and who I had contact with during the past two weeks. And they told me to quarantine myself until Wednesday this week.

    I felt fine Thursday and Friday, night and day.  I decided me alone in my truck going to the lake and in my boat alone on the lake was quarantine and fished the tournament. Plus, I was going stir crazy in the house!

    To add to my woes, when I checked the boat Friday night, oil was dripping very slowly from my motor lower unit.  Saturday morning, I tried to add oil to it.  You have to remove two screws and pump the oil from the lower one to the top one.  I pumped enough to see some oil come out the top hole and stopped.

    Last summer I hit something and bent the prop shaft a little, just enough to let the oil leak out without my knowledge, and it cost me $4500.00 to fix it. 
Every time I cranked up Sunday I could hear the “clunk” in my mind of the motor locking up last year.

    I idled around a little, never leaving sight of the ramp and never getting on plane, and fished close by. That is my excuse for not catching a fish, I could not go to where I won the Sportsman Club tournament at Oconee three weeks ago!

Last Sunday 27 members of the Potato Creek Bass Club fished our April tournament at Lake Lanier.  We landed 84 14-inch keeper bass weighing about 174 pounds.  There were nine five-fish limits, and one person did not weigh in a bass.

Jamie Beasley won with five weighing 13.16 pounds, Sam Smith was second with five weighing 12.93 pounds, third went to Jeff Wright with five weighing 12.75 pounds and Edward Folker was fourth with five weighing 12.57 pounds.  David Martin had a largemouth weighing 4.74 pounds for big fish.  Most of the fish weighed in were spotted bass.

I went up on Tuesday and camped at Don Carter State Park.  Don Carter is our newest state park and it had very nice facilities. The campground is spacious and there are great bath houses but there are also hiking trails, horse riding trails, a beach and cabins.

I put in at the park way up the river on Wednesday and fished the stained water in small coves. The water was stained and in the low 60, a perfect combination for the way I like to fish this time of year, but after five hours I landed four keeper bass. 

I did catch two nice largemouth on a buzzbait, one about 2.5 pounds and one close to four pounds, but both hit later in the afternoon. I did not think it was worth the 20 mile boat ride up there from our tournament launch site.

Several folks told me there was a good bite on the lower lake fishing Flukes around boat docks, so Thursday I put in at Balus Creek, our tournament launch site, and tried that pattern for several hours without a bite. The back end of Balus Creek was stained and there were shad everywhere but I could not get a bite there, either. 

I did finally catch a four-pound largemouth from a dock in the back of a creek, on a Carolina rig of all things, but that was no pattern. One bite does not tell me much, even though it was a good one.

On Friday I tried different things and final caught one keeper spot from a brush pile on a Fluke. I had no idea what to do in the tournament, so I decided to fish memories.

The first rocky point I want to fish Saturday morning had a boat fishing it so I tried other things.  At 11:00 I had not caught a fish so I went back to the first point and caught two keepers and two short fish and lost another keeper, all in 20 minutes.

By 2:00 I had not had another bite, including fishing all the docks where the big hit on Thursday.  I stopped on another rocky point on the way in to the ramp and caught two more keepers the last hour. All four hit a Carolina rig but four weighing five pound was good for about 20^th place!

Maybe I should have made that run up the river.