Flint River Tournament at Lanier

Last Sunday seven members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our November tournament at Lake Lanier.  We landed 18 14-inch keepers weighing about 34 pounds total. There was one five-fish limit and no one zeroed.  There was only one largemouth weighed in.

    I won with five at 8.42 pounds, Chuck Croft placed second with four weighing 7.73 pounds and Don Gober was third with three weighing 6.77 pounds, including a chunky 3.09 pounds for big fish.  Niles Murray placed fourth with three weighing 5.37 pounds.

    Niles fished with me and our day started wrong. After driving 70 miles per hour on I-75, I-675, I-285, I-85 and I-985 with no problems just getting to the ramp, I started backing down the ramp.  A guy walking in the parking lot yelled that I was losing a tire on my trailer.

    When I got out and looked one of my trailer tires was leaning at an angle.  I told Niles to continue backing up and before the trailer got to the water the tire fell off. The bearings were completely gone, even though there was no warning and I check them often.

    I threw the tire in the truck and we go the boat launched.  Thank goodness for dual axle trailers!  But I knew I could not get home with all the weight on that side on one tire.  I tried to forget it and fish.

    The first place we stopped after taking off, a rocky point, Niles quickly caught a keeper spot on a cramkbait.  A few minutes later I landed one on a jig and pig then Niles caught his second fish.  We worked that area hard, thinking there should be more feeding fish, but didn’t get another bite.

    At the next place we tried, an old roadbed that runs out on a point, I caught my second keeper ona  crankbait. We had four in the boat the first hour of the tournament, so I felt pretty good, but then it got slow.

    We tried another rocky point and I got my third keeper on the jig and pig.  By now the sun was up and it was bright, so we tried some deep brush and some more deep rock points. I caught three short bass on a shaky head worm but no keepers.

    At about 11:00 we decided to try a different pattern and ran up Flat Creek to more shallow water. As we worked a series of rocky points, I caught my fourth keeper on the jig and pig, then got my fifth one on a shaky head on another point.

    Niles had a good keeper pull off his worm hook near the boat down about six feet deep. We could see it fighting in the clear water and I had the net ready, but it just came unhooked.  He then got his third keeper on another nearby point.

    We came in and weighed the fish, then I called the toll-free number for BoatsUS.  Membership costs $36 a year and that level includes free towing up to 100 miles.  I called them at 3:30 and they started looking for a tow service that could handle my boat.

    About 15 minutes later the dispatcher called me back and said no one wanted to tow my boat on Sunday afternoon but one local service would pick it up, store it in their secure lot overnight and bring it to Griffin Monday morning. I told them that was fine.

    At 4:00 the flatbed wrecker arrived. By 4:15 my boat was loaded and I headed home, glad I didn’t have to fight the ridiculous traffic with boat in tow, much less one missing a tire.

    Monday morning a little before noon they delivered my boat to Jack and, luckily, he still had an old spindle from the last axle I broke.  By 2:00 my boat was home in my garage, ready for my next trip. All my worries were pointless.

    BoatsUS is well worth the price of membership just for the towing service. They also offer on-the-water freshwater towing for $85 a year. I have used the road towing twice and on water towing once.  Since I did not have the higher membership, water towing cost me $300!  But it was well worth it at the time.

    Overall, a bad start ended up not too terrible.