Good Day Fishing West Point Lake

To mangle an old saying “Spring has sprung, the grass has riz, I wonder where the basses is.” My trip to West Point last week with Mike Morris helped me answer that question in the Flint River Bass Club tournament last Sunday.

In that tournament fishing West Point Lake 11 members and guests brought 22 keepers to the scales that weighed about 51 pounds. There were four five-fish limits and three fishermen didn’t have a keeper. We had 11 largemouth over 14 inches long and 11 spots longer than 12 inches.

I got real lucky and landed five bass weighing 16.53 pounds and my 6.69 pound largemouth was big fish. Travis Weatherly was second with five at 9.63 pounds, Niles Murray placed third with five at 9.23 pounds and chuck Croft rounded out the top four with five weighing 6.70 pounds.

Tyler Gruber fished with me in the youth tournament and got first place and big fish in that tournament. All our club tournaments are also youth tournaments and they compete against each other, not the adult club members. There is no entry fee for them.

We didn’t know that the West Georgia Bass Club, a team tournament trail, had a tournament that day with 149 boats in it. We started at 7:00 and they started at what the tournament director thought was safe light, about 6:45. While we were waiting to take off we heard boats start running down the lake and they continued to come by until about 7:15.

I got real disappointed when a boat in that tournament pulled up on the point I had planned on starting on a few minutes before 7:00. I got even more frustrated when I saw them catch two keepers before we even started! But I went to Plan B and it worked out.

I started on a danger marker near where we launched and landed five keepers by 8:00, including a spot weighing almost three pounds and a five pound largemouth. That made me feel pretty good but I kept fishing hard. But by 1:30 I had caught only three small spotted bass, not big enough to cull anything I had.

At 1:30 I pitched a jig to a log in about three feet of water, felt a thump and fought the big one to the boat. Tyler did a good job netting it and I really felt good. They I lost a three pounder a few minutes later to bring me back down a little.

In the past month I have fished three tournaments at West Point. In the first I didn’t catch a keeper, in the second I landed three for eighth place then had the good day Sunday. I will never figure out why I can’t be more consistent. But I would rather have highs and lows rather than be consistent with all lows!

The bass were on the same pattern that Mike Morris showed me, the same one I have been fishing for a month. I did not catch any keepers on the places he showed me for the article but I went to similar places where I have caught bass in past years, and it worked.

A lot of folks were fishing for crappie and they should continue to bite good for the next month or so. And bass will bite better and better as the water warms. It is a great time to go fishing.