On a Sunday in November 12 members and guests fished our November tournament at Lanier.  After eight hours of casting, we weighed in 31 keeper bass longer than the 14-inch size limit there.  There were two five fish limits and one zero.  There was only one largemouth, all the rest were spots.

    I won with five weighing 12.65 and had a 4.01-pound spot for big fish.  Zane Fleck had five at 10.26 pounds for second, third was Billy Roberts with four fish weighing 7.65 pounds and Kwong Yu placed fourth with three at 7.15 pounds.

    I guessed right.  While we were getting boats ready that morning I talked with fellow club member Russell
Prevatt.  He had been out with Lanier guide Jimbo that week and they had caught some good fish in 40 feet of water jigging spoons.  Other guides on Lanier had been posting pictures of all the three and four-pound spots they were catching from 35 to 50 feet deep on spoons.

    From all that I knew most of the big fish were deep. But I told Russell I was going to stick with what I feel most comfortable doing. If I got a limit, which I felt was very unlikely, I would try to catch fish deep. I planned to start with a spinnerbait then a jig and pig on rocky points, the way I won the Flint River tournament two weeks ago there.

    We took off at 7:00 and I ran out of the creek. As I went by the point I started on in the Flint River tournament I considered stopping there. I have caught a lot of spots there up to four pounds. But I had a feeling I should run to another point to start, mostly because I knew the wind would be blowing right on it.

    After making the short run I picked up a spinnerbait and started casting, quickly hooking a good spot. After putting it in my livewell I looked at my watch, it was 7:05!  I put my second keeper in the livewell at 7:10 and my third one that I estimated weighed about 3.5 pounds in it at 7:25.

    I felt pretty good about my catch. By now the sun was bright so I went back around the point to the shady side and fished it with spinnerbait and crankbait without a bite.  Back on the sunny side I picked up a swim bait and caught my fourth keeper at 8:00.

    I started to go look for deeper fish to try to fill my limit but decided to fish around the point more slowly with a jig and pig.  With the brighter light I could see rocks under the water. At 9:00 I cast my jig and pig to the same boulder where I had caught the 3.81-pound spot that was big fish in the Flint River tournament, got a bite on the same jig and pig as I caught it on, and landed the 4.01 pound spot.

    I had six hours left so I started looking for deeper fish, playing with my electronics, fine tuning them and looking for baitfish and bass in 40 to 50 feet of water. I fished several places that looked good but had no bites.

    With one hour left to fish I ran around to the point I almost started on and quickly caught a keeper on the jig and pig, but it was not big enough to cull anything in the live well.  That was it, I got no more bites before having to go in for weigh-in.

    I had a feeling that morning about what to do.  I get that rarely, but I think really good fishermen get it often.  I call it a sixth sense for fishing and I think pros and other really good fishermen have it often. That is what makes them so good. 
    I wish I had it more often!