At Jackson last winter fishing was as tough as expected in the Spalding County Sportsman Club January tournament. Many members let the weather guessers scare them off with the terrible weather they told us to expect but which never arrived. Only nine of us braved the chance of bad weather to fish for eight hours and land a total of seven bass weighing just under 17 pounds. Five of the nine didn’t land a keeper all day.

Niles Murray wore us all out and caught more than the rest of us put together. His four keepers weighing 9.93 pounds ran away with first place. I got one bite but it was a good one and my keeper largemouth weighing 4.09 pounds was good for second place and big fish. Third went to Billy Roberts with a keeper weighing 1.42 pounds and Brent Terry was fourth with one spotted bass weighing .98 pounds.

Niles said he caught his bass on a crankbait and most were on rocky banks and points. My one keeper hit a jig and pig on a rocky point. Brent said his fish hit a crankbait, too.

Although it did rain some, I kept my rain suit hood down most of the day. And it was much warmer than expected. I dressed for very cold weather but had to keep my heavy rain suit bibs and jacket unzipped and open most of the day. And, although thunderstorms were predicted, we never heard any thunder all day.

I started fishing my favorite area of the lake with crankbaits but did not get a hit the first hour. Out on the main lake the water was 48 degrees and very muddy, with a chartreuse crankbait disappearing about 3 inches under the water. After the first hour I went into Tussahaw Creek,and the further up it I went the clearer the water got but the colder it got, too.

Clearer did not mean much clearer! At the best I could see a crankbait down about six inches. And the water was only 45 degrees. I went all the way to the Highway 36 Bridge and thought I had one hit up there but was never sure.

I used all my skill to catch the one I got. I was throwing a crankbait around the bridge in Tussahaw and decided to crank up and run up to some docks further up the creek. But it started raining hard so I just kept fishing up the bank and caught the bass in a place I had never fished before, and would not have fished if the rain had not started.

I cast a black and blue jig and pig up on a rocky point and worked it slowly down the slope under the water. Somewhere around 12 to 15 feet deep my bait felt mushy and I set the hook on a heavy fish. I almost had a heart attack when it came to the surface and I saw how big it was. It did not fight very hard in the ice water, which was good since I was fishing by myself and had to net it while fighting it.