This past Sunday seven members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our June tournament at Bartletts Ferry.  After eight hours of casting, we landed 22 12-inch keepers weighing about 36 pounds. For a nice surprise, there were only six or seven spots, the rest were largemouth. There were three five bass limits and one zero.

My five weighing 10.37 pounds won and Doug Acree had five at 7.10 for second.  Bailey Stewart fishing with Lee Hancock placed third with two weighing 6.60 pounds and his 4.90 largemouth beat my 4.74 pounder for big fish. Lee Hancock was fourth with five weighing 6.53 pounds.

I was “junk” fishing, just trying a lot of different things with no pattern and never found one. I got beat to the point I wanted to start on by another club member but caught my second biggest fish, a 2.5 pound largemouth, on a buzz bait beside a seawall I went to as my second choice.

A little later I eased the boat out on a point where I saw some brush on my electronics and caught a two-pound spot on a shaky head in about ten feet of water.  My next stop was a dock on a steep rocky bank. I noticed Mayflies around the bushes overhanging the water and started skipping a jig under them and caught the 4.74 pounder under the third one I tried.

Although it was only 8:00 and I had been fishing for two hours with some success, fishing got tough.  Three hours later after trying to get another bite around the Mayfly hatch I had not gotten one.

I went to a small creek where I can usually get a keeper around docks and got a 13-inch largemouth on a shaky head worm from one of them that consistently produced for me.  A guy sitting on the next dock said that was the first fish he had seen caught in that cove all weekend, although it had been fished by several others in bass boats.  I guess the fish liked my worm for some reason, maybe the JJs Magic on its tail.

That fish made me run to another dock that often has a keeper under it, and I got a 13-inch spot on a whacky rigged Senko.  It was a miracle I caught that fifth fish. As I skipped my worm under the dock, waves from a big boat going by pulling a tube hit my boat

sideways.  I had to grab my boat seat with one hand to keep from getting thrown out.

I thought I felt a bite while I was rocking and rolling and holding my rod in one hand. When the waves finally passed, I tightened up my line, set the hook and landed the fish.  I had to cut off the last six feet of line it was so frayed because the fish had gone around a concrete post.  Normally, my line would break or the fish would feel pressure and spit the bait.  I guess some fish are just meant to get caught.

I relaxed after catching a limit and went to some calmer water up the river and fished bluff banks with
Mayflies on the bushes for the last couple of hours.  Although it was calmer and conditions seemed ideal, I caught one 14 inch largemouth that culled the skinny 13-inch spot.  I did catch two 11-inch spots while fishing the area, but they were too small to weigh in.

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