The first Sunday in July eight members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our June tournament at Bartletts Ferry. We also had one youth fish the tournament. The club has a special category for youth; they fish with an adult club member or family member and there is no entry fee for them. If they catch a keeper fish they win a prize package of fishing lures. We do not give participation prizes!
After eight hours of casting, we weighed in 27 12-inch keeper bass weighing about 31 pounds. There were three five-bass limits and one fisherman didn’t have a keeper.
Lee Hancock won with five bass weighing 7.87 pounds and Doug Acree placed second with three weighing 5.74 pounds. Doug also had big fish with a 3.41 pound largemouth. My five weighing 4.96 pounds was third and Niles Murray placed fourth with five at 4.80 pounds.
Fishing with Lee Hancock, Jett Collins won the youth division with four bass weighing 3.57 pounds, enough to place fifth in the regular tournament.
I started out pretty good with a keeper spot on a buzzbait within five minutes of our start at 6:00
AM. Then just over an hour later I got a keeper largemouth on a weightless worm under dock. Two in the livewell in less than two hours gave me hope.
At noon the hope was about gone. It was miserably hot with no breeze to cool me off. And the lake had gotten really rough from pleasure boaters by 9:00 and it was dangerous to sit out in open water fishing. Too many folks do not pay attention to where they are going when driving a boat.
Even halfway back in coves I thought I was going to get run over twice, once by a pontoon boat full of folks cruising the shoreline and once by a big wake boat pulling two little kids.
At noon I decided to go to an area with some docks that have produced some keeper fish in June for me in the past. My first cast with a shaky head hit a post and I got hung. Rather then go in and get it and mess up the fishing, I put that rod down, picked up a rod with a whacky rigged Senko on it and skipped it under the dock.
A keeper spot grabbed the bait as it sank and I was able to pull it away from the post and land it. Then on the next dock my first cast produced a keeper spot then another keeper spot, giving me my limit. Then the same dock produced a spot too short to weigh.
That was it. I fished docks for the last two hours and caught a couple more short fish, but no more keepers.
The hot summertime is not the best time of the year for bass fishing. Many bass go to deep water to avoid the heat and bright sun, and others get as far back into cover like docks for the shade. They are hard to cast to and even harder to land.
It can be dangerous, too. Way too many folks get in boats and run around without a clue there are rules on driving a boat, just like a car. I can’t count the times I have been meeting a boat going in the opposite direction and they insist on going to my right to try to pass me, the exactly opposite of the law.
I prefer fishing at night this time of year, it is more comfortable, the fish bite better and there are fewer boats out there. The clubs used to have night tournaments in the summer but some members don’t like them so they got them ended rather than just not fishing them.
It can be dangerous at night, but no more dangerous than during the day, and with fewer boats there is less dangerous.
Bigger lakes offer places to hide from the pleasure boaters. Fishermen can go way up creeks and rivers where stuff in the water keeps some pleasure boats out. But skidoos seem to thrill in running such places and making them tough to fish.
There are a few ways to cool off. I try to fish shady banks as much as possible. And dipping a cap full of water and dumping it over my head helps. Riding on plane in my boat creates a nice breeze, but the water is often so rough that is no fun.
Even with all the problems, I would rather be out there fishing rather than sitting at home at a computer wasting time!