An early April Sunday 19 members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our April tournament at West Point. After all the rain on Thursday and Friday the lake looked like coffee with cream in it
and the water temperature dropped from 63 degrees on Thursday to 56 Sunday morning. My truck thermometer showed 34 degrees when I launched my boat at 6:30 AM.

Even with those bad conditions there were five limits of bass brought in. We had a total of 47 keeper bass weighing right at 77 pounds. Most were spotted bass which I think hit better under bad conditions than do largemouth.

I managed to win with five weighing 9.79 pounds, Kwong Yu was second with five weighing 8.68 and his partner Steve Blackerby was third with five weighing 8.48. Toney Roberts placed 4th with five weighing 8.01. Dan Riddle had just one keeper, but it was a big one. His 5.91 pound bass was big fish for the tournament.

Bass were caught on spinnerbaits, crankbaits and Carolina rigs. The largemouth bass Jim Berry and I found in shallow water before the tournament had mostly moved back out with the dropping temperatures and were harder to catch.

The next Monday and Tuesday the Georgia BASS Chapter Federation Top Six tournament was at West Point. The three Griffin clubs, Flint River Bass Club, Potato Creek Bassmasters and Spalding County Sportsman Club each had six man teams fishing this tournament.

Griffin fishermen had a tough time at the Top Six last week. Although everyone caught a lot of bass, 14 inch keepers were not easy to find at West Point for some of us. It seems easy, in theory, to catch just five keeper bass in 6 to 8 hours of fishing, but it isn’t always so.

It took 10 bass weighing 30.64 pounds to win this tournament and 23.57 pounds to earn 12th spot on the state team. If you had 19.12 pounds you came in 25th and got a check. There were 86 clubs with six man teams in the tournament, so about 516 of us were beating the waters trying to catch bass Monday and Tuesday.

Lee Hancock, fishing with the Potato Creek Bassmasters, was the highest Griffin area fisherman. He weighed in 13.76 pounds of bass in two days. Kwong Yu and Javin English, fishing with the Flint River Bass Club, had 11.74 and 11.69 pounds respectively, to lead that team. Jimmy Waddle lead the Spalding County Sportsman Club with 11.30 pounds and I had 11.19 pounds in that club. I finished 139th!

The Top Six Tournament is quite and experience each year for the fishermen that qualify for it. I have been to 26 of them, missing only one since 1979. I was too sick to go to one in the early 1990s and hate missing that one.

Members of each club are fishing now for points in club tournaments to qualify for the Top Six next year. It is not too late to join a club and try to make it. Maybe you can show us how to catch fish in that tournament next spring.

How do you fish in muddy water in the spring? Share your thoughts in them comments section