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.

Last Saturday 16 members of the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished our club classic at Lake Wedowee.  To qualify for the classic, a member must either finish in the top 8 in point standings for the previous year or fish at least eight tournaments of the 12 the club holds.

After nine hours and 15 minutes of casting, we brought 64 keeper fish weighing about 98 pounds to the scales.  Catching keepers at Wedowee is complicated.  All largemouth from 13 to 16 inches long must be released immediately so can not be weighed in.  Spots over 12 inches long are legal.  We had two illegal largemouth brough to the scales.  They were thrown out and a three-pound penalty assessed for each illegal fish.  That hurts!

 There were ten five-fish limits weighed in and two people did not have a limit.  Most folks had a mixture of spots and largemouth in their catch. All fish weighed in were released alive, as required in club rules. Fish not released alive draw a penalty, too, so it pays to take care of your fish.

Mitch Cardell had a great catch of five bass weighing 13.22 pounds for first and a 5.66 pound largemouth for big fish.  Drew Naramore came in second with five weighing 9.67 pounds, Raymond English was third with five at 9.46 pounds, Donnie Willis placed fourth with five weighing 9.33 pounds and Evan Skipper was fifth with five at 8.96 pounds.

I went over on Wednesday and camped at Gold Mine Camp about 15 minutes from the lake.  Gold Mine Camp is an interesting place, you can actually pan for gold and gems there.  The campsites are rustic but there is a bathroom and shower available, a requirement for me.  The lake was off limits for us until Thursday.

I had probably the most frustrating three days fishing in my life.  Thursday I thought I had found a pattern and caught some nice largemouth and spots, but Friday I got only one bite all day.

In the tournament I did not get a bite until 11:00, then caught five small spotted bass weighing just over 5 pounds in the next two hours.  After that I did not get another bite.

I guess I should be thankful. The tornado that did so much damage in Newnan started just a few miles from where I was camped in my slide in pick up camper!

Last Sunday 15 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our January tournament at Lake Sinclair.  After eight hours of cold casting, we brought 28 12-inch keeper bass weighing about 45 pounds to the scales.  Two people caught five fish for a limit but seven people did not land a keeper.

    Wayne Teal won with four bass weighing 9.89 pounds and had a 3.81 pound largemouth for big fish.  Jay Gerson had five weighing 7.46 pounds for second, Chris Davies five at 6.41 pounds was third and Niles Murray had three weighing 6.33 pounds for fourth.

    Chris fished with me and we started where I caught my two the weekend before but never had a bite.  After

two hours I decided to do what I thought I should have done last weekend and went to clearer water. 

    The first place we stopped Chris caught a small keeper on a rattle bait.  I kept casting a bladed jig to grass and docks, thinking that would attract a decent fish.  A little later Chris caught another keeper on a crankbait, then one on a jig head worm.

    Down three to nothing I decided to go to a jig head worm just to try to catch a keeper and landed two.  Chris then lost two keepers, the first one the biggest we saw all day.  I caught my third keeper and we were tied.

    With a little over an hour left to fish, I caught my fourth keeper on the worm then, before I could get it in the livewell, Chris got his fourth one.  A few minutes later he got his fifth to fill his limit.

    I tried hard to catch another one but did not. My four weighing 5.16 pounds was good for fifth.

    I don’t know if we got to the right area after lunch when we had almost all our bites, or if it was the time of day.  Whatever it was, I am glad it happened.

    After weigh-in Wayne said he caught all his fish in the muddy water on a bladed jig.  It drives me crazier to find out the winning pattern was something I tried but never head a bite!

Last Saturday catching bass at Sinclair was very “hit and miss” for the 21 members of the Potato Creek Bassmasters in our January tournament.  In 7.5 hours we landed 35 12-inch keeper bass weighing about 58 pounds.  There were two limits and seven people did not land a keeper.  

    Shay Smith won with five weighing 14.50 pounds and Mitch Cardell came in second with five at 12.68 pounds.  Tom Tanner had three weighing 7.65 pounds for third and Frank Anderson had one fish for fourth, but it was the right one and was also big fish at 5.65 pounds.

    There were three largemouth weighing more than five pounds each, and two more between 4.5 and five pounds weighed in.

    I thought I started my day right with a good 1.75-pound keeper on my second cast with a crankbait, but my next bite came seven hours later, on the same crankbait in a similar place as the first one.  I tried just about everything I could think to do except make a long run to clear water.  The wind was howling, and I just did not want to beat myself to pieces in the waves. And it waw cold!

    We put in up Little River at Dennis Station and the water was extremely muddy.  Downstream, if you went up the Oconee River it got a little clearer and a decent color to fish, if you could get out of the wind.  After the tournament I heard the creeks at the dam were the clearest water on the lake, as is usual this time of year, and where I should have gone, I think.

Even with just two fish I felt pretty good as the first five people weighed in. Nobody had more than three, and I hoped I might place. When Mitchell put a 5.05 pounder on the scales, then added a 4.9 pounder, my hopes sank. Then Shay showed up at the scales. 

I did place – eighth with two at 3.62 pounds!

We are fishing Sinclair this Sunday in the Spalding County club.  I hope the wind isn’t bad and I can go to clear water!