For someone who loves fishing as much as I do, writing fishing articles for magazines gives me fantastic opportunities to go fishing with some really good fishermen and have a lot of fun. And being in two bass clubs gives me even more changes. It seems like doing those articles I would learn how to catch bass eventually!
Last Monday I went to Lake Wedowee in Alabama to do an article and went out with Gary Mercer. Gary was in the Flint River Bass Club more years ago than either of us want to remember and it was great seeing him and fishing with him again after being out of touch except through email for several years.
Gary retired and got a place on Wedowee and now fishes it every week. He had retired from his job and from tournament fishing and now goes just for the fun of finding bass and catching them. Several people from Griffin have bought houses on Wedowee and spend a lot of time there.
Every time I go to Wedowee I am reminded of how pretty a lake can be. Its clear water is lined with many very nice houses but many miles of shoreline are natural, with no development. And its rocky waters are full of big spotted and largemouth bass.
We didn’t get to spend as much time as I would have liked on the lake but Gary showed me ten spots where folks can catch bass during May. The fishing has been good over there, with it taking 5 bass weighing 28 pounds to win a tournament a week ago. And second and third places were not far behind, with 25 pound plus stringers for each, and the second place team had a largemouth weighing just under ten pounds.
If you want to go to a beautiful lake and catch some bass, a trip to Wedowee should be in your near future.
On Wednesday I met Jeremy York on the north side of Atlanta at 4:45 and we drove up to Chickamauga Lake just outside Chattanooga. This lake has been on fire for bass fishing this year with incredible catches. One tournament was won with five bass weighing 44 pounds. Jeremy had five weighing 30.25 pounds in a BFL tournament and came in third!
Jeremy lives in Athens and owns Anglers Warehouse and is a tournament fisherman. He makes the three hour drive to Chickamauga several times a week and guides there some. In five of his guide trips so far this year there has been an eight pound plus largemouth caught, and in five of them he and his clients had five weighing between 27 and 36 pounds.
Of course we were about a week too late to catch bass on that pattern. He was catching bass on a pre spawn pattern and the warm weather the last week or so has made many bass go on the beds. We saw many bass weighing from five to seven pounds starting to fan beds but they were very skittish and we could not catch them. Just my luck.
Fishing will be great up there in a few weeks, sight fishing for big bedding bass or catching post spawn fish. It is about a three hour drive, and you need a non resident fishing license, but you might catch the biggest bass of your life if you make the drive. I definitely want to go back.
Last Sunday 19 members and guests of the Flint River Bass Club fished our April tournament at West Point. Fishing was great but catching was very disappointing for all but two or three of us. There were three five-fish limits weighed in but five fishermen didn’t have a keeper all day.
Gary Hattaway won with five weighing 10.55 pounds and his 6.13 pound largemouth was big fish for the day. It also won our cumulative pot since it was the first six pounder caught this year. Bobby Ferris had five weighing 10.26 pounds for second, Javin English had five at 7.66 pounds for third and Niles Murray’s four weighing 4.50 pounds placed fourth.
Al and I started the day fishing shallow water, expecting the fish to be up in the bedding areas. After spending over half the day in those type places and catching just one keeper we moved out to the points at noon to try to catch some keeper spots. I ended up with four weighing 4.26 pounds and came in fifth, just out of the money.
Bobby said he caught his fish shallow doing what I had been doing all morning, but they didn’t start biting there until after lunch. As usual I did the reverse of what I should have done. Gary said he caught his fish in tree tops. Javin didn’t tell me how he got his.
Al and I caught five spots and broke off three or four more on rocky points the last two hours of the tournament. They had started biting there but we got too little, too late!