Lake Martin in Alabama is my favorite lake in the world. I have been fishing it since the mid 1970s and the bass clubs I am in fish a tournament there every October. Fall is a great time to be on Martin. Spotted bass are active and you can catch a lot of bass this time of year.

Two years ago in October the Potato Creek Bassmasters had a two day tournament at Martin. The 18 members of the club landed 162 bass weighing 215.03 pounds and there were 25 limits of five bass weighed in over the two days. Twelve of the members had a limit both days.

Lee Hancock won with ten bass weighing 18.77 pounds. Bobby Ferris was second with ten at 17.22 pounds, Tommy Reeves was third with ten weighing 16.4 pounds and Ryan Edge came in fourth with ten at 14.92 pounds. Jamie Beasley had big fish with a 3.89 pound bass.

The next weekend the Flint River Bass Club and the Spalding County Sportsman Club had a two day two club tournament at Martin. In 17 hours of fishing the 16 members of the two clubs brought in 130 keeper bass weighing about 166 pounds. There were 19 limits of five bass weighed in during the tournament and 8 members had limits both days.

I managed to win with ten bass weighing 15.57 pounds. Tom Tanner was second with 10 at 13.80 pounds, Gary Hattaway was third with ten weighing 13.39 and Mark Hawkins was fourth with 7 bass at 13.39 pounds. He also had big fish with a 3.93 pound bass.

It was fun catching a lot of bass even though the bigger fish were hard to find. I landed 31 keepers in the two days but my biggest fish was about two pounds. I tried everything I knew to find a bigger bass after landing my limits each day but never hooked one.

On the way to the lake last Thursday I called two people I have done articles with on the lake. One, a guide and tournament fisherman there, told me a pattern he was catching bigger fish on, but it only worked the first two hours each morning. He was fishing a spinner bait in blowdowns going into coves and creeks.

Friday morning I got up late and spend half the day riding and marking such places on my GPS, planning on fishing them fast each morning. At about 11:00 I decided to fish some and stopped in a creek I used to fish a lot. It is full of docks and brush piles but it gets fished so heavily now I seldom go there.

I quickly caught a 1.5 pound spotted bass from under a dock on a jig and pig so I started fishing docks. On about the fifth one I fished I hooked another 1.5 pound spot and, as I fought it to the boat I could see four more bass following it in the clear water. One of them was a solid five pounder!

A little further in the creek I cast into a brush pile, hooked another 1.5 pound spot and saw nine more bass following it! Four of them were bigger. The next brush pile produced another keeper spot and I saw six or seven following it. I knew where I would start.

Saturday morning I ran to that creek and thought I had messed up. I fished the docks and brush where I had caught and seen fish the day before and did not get a bite. I went across the cove at 8:00, after an hour of casting without a bite and cast a spinner bait across a point.

A solid fish slammed it and when I set the hook a nice two pound spot jumped. Since it was cool I was wearing a jacket with a hood. I had noticed the cord from the hood was hang down but had not done anything about it. Sure enough, it wrapped up in my reel handle as I fought the fish. Somehow it loosened the drag and I could not reel in line!

I managed to pull that bass in hand over hand and land it, so I figured I would have a lucky day. By 9:00 I had landed four more bass, one on a spinner bait and three on topwater. Bu 10:00 I had ten in the boat and culled down to the best five. I kept fishing that area but didn’t catch any more big enough to cull.

At 11:00 AM I ran way up the river where I have caught some big largemouth in the past but didn’t catch anything big enough to cull even tough I got five keepers up there.

Sunday was a repeat. At 9:00 I had five and had ten at 10:00. I tried something different, running down the lake to a hump where I had been told it was common to catch a big spotted bass in deep water, and I landed seven keepers there, but none were big enough to cull any I had caught first thing.

Did I mention I love Lake Martin?