Lake Weiss proved to be an interesting lake for a club tournament in early June a few years ago for the Flint River Bass Club. Although the weather did not treat us very good, with rain all day Saturday and strong winds on Sunday, most of the members managed to catch some bass.

Bobby Ferris had an outstanding catch on Saturday bringing in a limit of 5 bass weighing 17.64 pounds. That is the kind of catch you see in pro tournaments. He had five more on Sunday and his ten keepers weighed 26.14 pounds and gave him first place. He also had big fish in the tournament with a 4.74 pound largemouth.

I thought I had a real good catch until I saw what Bobby had. My ten bass in the two days weighed 22.13 pounds and gave me second place. Gary Blackmon had limits both days and came in third with 15.95 pounds. Roger Morrow had 9 bass in the two days and placed fourth with 15.52 pounds.

The 17 fishermen brought in 76 bass weighing 135.98 pounds. Half of them were largemouth and half were spotted bass. There were nine 5 fish limits weighed in during the two days.

I went over on Thursday and met state fisheries biologist Kevin Dalmier at the lake. He has a cabin on the lake and not only studies fish, he loves to bass fish. We fished together in practice but a family illness kept him from fishing with me in the tournament.

On Thursday afternoon we fished the lower lake, about 20 miles by water from where the tournament launched. Kevin showed me some great places we planned on fishing in the tournament, including a hump near the dam. He told me as we approached it he had never seen another fisherman on it but had always caught bass there and we should catch some big spotted bass.

Sure enough, I hooked a 2.5 pound spotted bass almost as soon as we started fishing there. Mine got off but then Kevin hooked and landed a 3 pound spot, then a 2.5 pounder. I landed one about 2 pounds before we left the spot, and I was sure we would catch fish there in the tournament. Unfortunately, the wind and rain kept me from returning during the tournament.

While fishing Thursday Kevin at one point made the statement that “I am no expert but…” I stopped him, saying if he was not an expert on fish, who was? He explained just knowing fish biology was not a guarantee of catching them. That made me feel real inadequate – if he is not an expert after going to college and studying fish all his life, how could I ever hope to be one?

I did see how great fishermen are during my trip. On Saturday morning Bobby told me some lowlife had stolen the tail lights off his boat trailer while it was parked in the marina lot on Friday. I had not locked my trailer to my van that morning and was worried about it.

By 8:00 AM I had a limit of fish in the boat and decided to go to the ramp and lock my trailer. As I got out of my boat at the ramp a father and son idled up to leave. We talked as I walked toward my van, and when I reached under my rainsuit pants for my keys they were not in my pocket. I was afraid I had missed my pocket in the dark that morning and dropped them down the pants leg of my rainsuit.

The man I had just met helped me look for them, then took his boat out of the water and went to a nearby store to get the number of a locksmith for me. While he was gone I found my keys in the boat, I had dropped them when taking my cell phone out of my pocket.

He returned with the phone numbers and I thanked him. He went out of his way, in the rain, to help a stranger out.

On the way home I had a blowout on my van and pulled over to fix it. Club member Dan Riddle stopped behind me and helped me change it in the miserably hot sun. Without one of his tools I would not have been able to get my hubcap off. That is another good example of how great fellow fishermen are. Thanks, Dan!

During the tournament I made a dumb mistake and broke a club rule. I was fishing a buzzbait and a fish hit at it and missed it. I quickly threw a worm to where the fish hit and sure enough, as soon as it hit the water the fish grabbed it. I fought the three pound bass to the boat then got a sick feeling. I had not stopped and reeled in my buzzbait before casting the second bait.

A club rule says you can use only one rod at a time, so I broke the rule. It made me feel awful to let the bass go, but rules are rules even if I don’t like them. As it turned out that fish would not have helped my weight enough to catch Bobby, but I did not know that at the time.