In 2004 Ronnie Gregory showed me around Lake Eufaula before the Top Six Tournament and the places and patterns he put me on helped me place 7th.

On a Friday in August the next year Ronnie and I went to West Point. He fishes there a lot, and he helped me get ready for a Flint River club tournament we were fishing on Sunday. Ronnie’s knowledge of the lake was impressive, and he took me to some spots that I never fished before, even though I have been fishing that lake since it was built.

In five hours of fishing from 6:30 AM until 11:30 AM we landed five keeper bass and several under the legal size. Ronnie started the day right with one weighing about 4.5 pounds and it was the only largemouth keeper. The others were all spotted bass.

Most of the fish hit in brush down about 12 feet deep and I hope that pattern holds up for the tournament today. We are fishing until 3:00 PM and Ronnie showed me some places he says the bass bite better after noon. We did not catch anything there but I will try them. That is detailed knowledge of a lake when you can predict what time the bass will probably hit.

Then on Sunday 20 members and guests fished the Flint River August tournament at West Point Lake. Fishing was very tough and there were only 28 keepers weighing 47.13 pounds brought to the scales. There were eight largemouth and 20 spotted bass weighed in.

Kwong Yu won the tournament with 3 bass weighing 7.23 pounds, Tom Tanner was second with 4.66 pounds, Roger Morrow placed third with 4.41 ponds and Tony Roberts came in fourth with 4.40 pounds. Bobby Ferris had big fish with a bass weighing 4.20 pounds and placed fifth.

After Ronnie Gregory showed me some brush piles on West Point before the tournament I was fairly confident about this tournament. Ronnie and I fished for five hours and landed five keeper bass weighing about 10 pounds. Those five would have easily won the tournament, but they hit too early.

The brush piles that produced keeper fish on Thursday morning had nothing but short bass in them during the tournament. I did manage to land one barely legal spot weighing right at a pound and placed 14th. Linda fished with me and although she caught more bass than I did, all her fish were too short to weigh in.

Sometimes it seems practice before a tournament hurts rather than helps!