Last Sunday 12 members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our February tournament at Lake Lanier. After eight cold hours of casting we brought in 20 keeper bass longer than 14 inches that weighed 46 pounds. There was one five-fish limit and four members didn’t have a keeper.

Chuck Croft won with a nice limit of spots weighing 14.09 pounds and had a spot that weighed 4.46 pounds, a big one! My four weighing 10.95 was second and my 5.34 pound largemouth was big fish. Third was Don Gober with three weighing 6.39 pounds and Travis Weatherly, Chuck’s partner, came in fourth with two weighing 4.46 pounds.

I had heard a lot of big spots were being caught on a Fishhead Spin in the ditches at Lanier. But I have never been able to catch a fish on one even though I have been in the boat with guys catching them on it. So I have no confidence in it.

I started at daylight fishing that bait and others in ditches and on points. After almost three hours with no bites I went into Mud Creek to a deep brush pile I had been shown for a magazine article. It looked like fish were on it 35 feet deep on my depthfinder so I started jigging a spoon, and caught a 2.5 pound spot. That encouraged me!

Three hours and several brush piles later I had not had another bite. I decided to do something different the last two hours by going back in a creek and fishing the way I like to fish.

I was riding one last point looking for brush pile when Chuck pulled up to talk to me. He seemed surprised I had only one fish – he said they were hitting in the backs of the pockets on the Fishhead Spin. Of course I thought he meant in shallow water in the backs of the ditches but found out later he was catching them 30 feet deep!

I started to try that but went back in Flat Creek instead, going to my first idea. I smiled when I stopped on a rocky point and saw the water was a little stained and 52 degrees, several degrees warmer than the lake.

I quickly caught a keeper spot on a DT 6 crankbait, then missed a bite on a jig and pig in a shallow tree top. The next small pocket had a log in the back of it about two feet deep. I could see the whole thing, the water was not that stained. As soon as my jig and pig fell by the end of it the five pounder hit. It was great to catch a largemouth at Lake Lanier

The next small tree top about two feet deep produced another keeper spot, giving me my four. I am very glad I guessed right and went to shallow water and used baits I have confidence in!