I loved bass fishing from the time I caught my first one at about age 12. While catching bream with a cane pole, cork and earthworms below Usury’s Pond dam something pulled my cork under. Rather than the usual circling pull as I raised my pole, a small bass about 11 inches long jumped out of the water several times while I tried to land it.

That bass hooked me worse than I hooked it. After more than 50 years of trying to catch them, I still love to cast for them and sometimes hook one. When they jump and fight it is still a thrill. I get excited every time I set the hook.

One day not long ago while fishing with a partner in a tournament I hooked a bass. After I landed it my much younger partner said he could not believe I got so excited. After all, he knew I had caught thousands of bass in my life.

I told him the day I didn’t get excited about catching a bass was the day I would quit fishing. I don’t think the thrill will ever go away. It doesn’t matter if it is a tap on a plastic worm or jig, the surge of one hitting a crankbait, the jerk of one eating a spinner bait or the explosive splash of a topwater strike, I love it all.

Back when I started fishing in the 1950s no one thought about fishing in the fall and winter. It was a spring and summer sport. I didn’t find out how good fishing can be from October through February until I got my first bass boat in 1974. Some days you catch a lot of fish in the early fall but December, January and February are great months to land a big bass.

My first two eight pound bass were caught in January tournaments and my biggest every, a nine pound, seven ounce largemouth, hit the first weekend in February. And I have caught a lot of six to nine pound bass during this time of year. That is why I had high hopes of catching a six pound plus bass at Jackson last Sunday.

Last Sunday 27 members and guests of the Flint River Bass Club and the Spalding County Sportsman Club fish a combined tournament to end our year. We landed 59 keepers weighing about 73 pounds. There were five five-fish limits and 11 people didn’t bring a keeper to the scales after casting for eight hours.

Chuck Croft won it all with five weighing 9.50 pounds and his 3.52 pounder was big fish. Guest Tim Ledbetter had five at 8.47 for second, Sam Smith had five at 8.05 for third and Travis Weatherly had five at 6.21 for fourth.

I set my goals too low. Although I wanted to catch a six pounder since it would win both club’s cumulative big fish pots and be worth over $1400, I knew if I caught one 12 inch keeper I would win first place in the point standings in the Sportsman Club. I had already wrapped up first in the Flint River Club and I wanted to win both.

I started casting a DT 6 crankbait running rocky points and banks. It took almost two hours, but at 9:20 a 12.5 inch spot hit my crankbait and I landed it. That made me relax and fish much slower, not really working at it the rest of the day.

After landing the keeper I picked up a big jig and pig and started fishing it on deep rocks, thinking that was the best bet for a big fish. Within 20 minutes I landed a 14 inch spot on the jig so I knew the fish would hit it. But it didn’t work out.

For the next four hours I fished places where I had caught big bass this time of year in the past. I had one thump on the jig at about 11:00 but nothing was there when I set the hook. And at noon I had a fish pick up my jig on some rocks beside a dock and swim under it. When I set the hook it pulled drag for a second then just came off. Maybe that was the big one.

At 2:00 I picked up the DT 6 crankbait and caught a two pound bass on a rocky point. Maybe I should have been fishing crankbaits all day, but I didn’t get another bite on it for the next hour. At 3:00, with just 30 minutes left to fish I went to the rocky point where I had caught my second bass. I got two hits on a jig head worm but missed both of them.

I should have had a limit but ended up with three weighing a little over four pounds, not even as much as I had hoped my big one I dreamed of catching would weigh. But it was a pretty day even if a little cool and there is no where I would have rather been.

We landed 20 largemouth and 39 spots. The cold front Sunday after the rain on Saturday may have made it tougher to catch largemouth. Spots tend to hit better under tough conditions.

I kept the two spots I landed and fried them dusted with panko bread crumbs. They were delicious. Jackson is full of keeper spots, it would be a good place to go to catch some to eat. And Jackson is where I caught my first two eight pounders and the 9-7. I think I will go back tomorrow!