Although bass fishing is tough, its getting better and some big fish are being caught in big lakes.  At the September Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament at Sinclair, 12 members caught 35 bass weighing about 55 pounds. There were three five-fish limits and no one zeroed.

    Raymond English showed us all how to do it with five weighing 14.88 pounds and his 7.43 pounder was big fish.  George Roberts had limit weighing 8.39 pounds and had a 4.08 pounder.  Zane Fleck’s limit at 5.92 pounds was third and Randall Sharpton had four weighing 5.71 pounds for fourth.

    I had a frustrating day, catching only three keepers, and I landed every fish that I hooked.  I wrongly thought everyone was having a tough day and felt pretty good with a 2.42 pound largemouth until George weighed his four pounder then Raymond shocked us all with the seven pounder.

    Mayflies were hatching in many places and formed clouds in some of the spots I fished, but oddly I never saw any bream eating them, a bad sign.  I guess I was in the wrong places.

    After fishing a buzzbait without a bite for thirty minutes, my first cast to a dock post with a shaky head produced my first keeper. I stuck with that pattern for a while and caught some short fish, then tried some deeper brush. I caught nothing but short fish even there.

    At 9:30 I cast behind a dock and a bass grabbed my shaky head and went under the dock. Somehow, I pulled it around the dock post and landed the two pounder.  It was one of those bass just meant to be caught.  After retying my line, cutting out the frayed part from the dock post, I fished several more docks and finally got my third keeper, a bare 12-inch fish that grabbed my worm and ran back under the boat before I could set the hook. Another one just meant to be caught.

    Although I fished to the bitter end and tried everything I could think of, that was it for me.