Fishing Jackson in January

Last Sunday 12 members and one guest of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our January tournament at Jackson.  After eight hours of trying, we brought 31 bass longer than 12 inches to the scales.  Only four of them were largemouth. There was one five fish limit and no one zeroed.

Wayne Teal won with the only limit and it weighed 7.72 pounds.  Second was Zane Fleck with four weighing 5.72 pounds, Billy Roberts placed third with four weighing 4.98 and Niles Murray had four weighing 4.83 pounds for fourth.  Randall Sharpton’s 3.21 pound largemouth was big fish.

I should have gone squirrel hunting!  I guess I used up all my luck at Sinclair, it was one of those days when everything was just wrong for me.  I fished hard but ended up with one keeper largemouth weighing a whopping 1.27 pounds for tenth place.

Glenn Anderson fished with me and caught a keeper spot on a crankbait the first place we stopped.  After fishing two or three more spots, I got a bite on a shaky head worm. The fish swam toward the boat and when I set the hook I pulled a keeper largemouth to the top and watched it come off the hook.

The next place we stopped I got five bites, four on a shaky head worm and one on a jig, in five casts and missed all five!  Then Glenn threw a drop shot worm to the rocks where I got the bites and landed his second keeper.

Soon after Glenn landed his third keeper, I felt a fish pick up my shaky head in a brush pile but felt the thump of it spitting out the worm just as I set the hook.  I missed several more bites during the day, finally catching my keeper with an hour left to fish. I was in such a hurry to get it in the boat I hit Glenn in the face with it as he grabbed the net!

To add insult to injury, there was a Robby’s tournament out of Berry’s Boat House the same day. It took five bass weighing 17 or 18 pounds to win it! When I hear results like that the same day I struggle to catch a keeper, I wonder why I even bother fishing.