Good fishermen are consistent. This year in the
Flint River Bass Club’s five tournaments, I won the January tournament, zeroed the next three, then won last Sunday in the May tournament. That is about as inconsistent as you can get!
At West Point last Sunday six members of the Flint River Bass Club fished for eight hours to land 13 keepers weighing about 24 pounds. There was one limit and one zero. About half the bass were spots that can be weighed in at 12 inches. Largemouth have to be 14 inches long to be legal.
I won with five weighing 9.40 pounds and Chuck Croft placed second with three at 6.87 pounds. His 5.39 pound largemouth was big fish. Don Gober came in third with three weighing 4.44 pounds and his grandson Alex Gober was fourth with one keeper weighing 1.52 pounds.
When I got to the parking lot over an hour ahead of our 7:00 blast off time and it was already crowded, I knew it would be a mess. The West Georgia Bass Club had 60 boats in their tournament. Fortunately, they blasted off at safe light, about 6:40, so we waited and had the six ramps to ourselves to launch our four boats.
Fortunately for me, Alex Gober backed me in and parked my truck so I did not have to climb in and out on the trailer tongue or walk far. I have had a lot of help at tournaments the past two years, I could not have fished them without it.
It looked like most of the boats in the big tournament went up the river, my original plan. But I decided to go down near the dam since I knew the river pockets would be crowded. It turned out to be a good decision.
My first stop on a shallow gravel point where shad usually spawn was also a good decision. Although there were no active shad, I caught two keeper spots on a topwater plug the first 20 minutes.
With all the boats on the lake, there was only one fishing near me, back in one arm of the creek I was in. I fished around the arm I was in and they left. That arm is full of stumps and a good bedding place, so I went over there and started dragging a Carolina rigged Baby Brush Hog around, and caught my best fish, a 2.75 pound largemouth.
Then I went back to the starting point and dragged the Carolina rig and caught two keeper spots, filling my limit. Two of the five in the livewell were two pound spots so I had three good fish.
After fishing around the area, I landed my second largemouth on a shaky head near some brush, culling my smallest fish. Then I ran to another creek closer to weigh-in at 11:00 and landed two keepers, one big enough to cull my smallest spot.
My motor didn’t want to crank at 1:00, my battery was dead from running electronics and live well pumps, so I jumped it off with trolling motor batteries and went back to the launch site.
Just wasting time there I landed two more keepers, one a largemouth that culled another spot. I was surprised there were not more limits since I caught 11 keepers.
The West Georgia tournament was won with over 15 pounds and they had a six-pound kicker. It took over 15 pounds to place second, and over 12 for 11th place and a check.
Sometimes comparisons reinforce my feeling I am not a very good fisherman!