Last Sunday six members of the Flint River Bass Club braved the cold windy weather to fish our February tournament at Lake Lanier.  After casting from 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM, we brought in five spotted bass that met the 14-inch size limit.  There were no limits and two members did not weigh a fish.

I won and had big fish with one bass weighing 4.04 pounds.  Alex Gober had two weighing 3.68 for second, my partner Will Mclean had one weighing 2.78 for third and fourth was Don Gober with one weighing 1.88 pounds.

Someday I will figure out the spots on Lake Lanier but it seems like not any time soon.  Like last year I went up three days before the tournament and camped at Don Carter State Park, a great campground.  At least it did not snow Saturday night like it did last year!

Last year I caught one bass in three days practice and zeroed the tournament as did everyone else except Brent Drake. He won with one keeper.  This year I did not hook a fish in three days practice. I mostly rode with my electronics looking for bass and bait.

Saturday afternoon I found some concentrations of bait – 80 feet deep!  Most of the local fishermen that know Lanier well say you have to be fishing around bait to catch winter spots, but I just cannot make myself fish that deep!

There are always some fish shallow and I told Will I felt like shallow fish were more likely to be eating.  So we were going to fish relatively shallow.  We went to a steep rocky bank and I kept the boat out in 25 feet of water. We cast up to a couple feet deep and worked out bait out to about 20 feet deep.

That seemed a good idea, Will caught his fish, his first tournament fish and also first spotted bass, on his fourth cast with a Texas rigged Senko.  I got three bites on a jig but missed all three, I think my frozen hands kept me from feeling the bites like I should, and Will missed two bites on that bank.

We tried a variety of similar places and I missed two more bites, and stupidly broke my line setting the hook on one fish. Usually I retie often, especially when fishing a jig on rocks, but my cold hands kept me from doing that. Will also missed a couple more bites.

I had just about given up at 3:05, with just 20 minutes left to fish, when I felt a thump on my jig and landed my keeper. We had gone back to where Will caught his bass and mine hit in almost the exact same place. We should have stayed there all day!

My motto is “Never give up!”