Last Saturday six members of the Potato Creek Bassmasters took the hazardous journey with our boats through downtown Atlanta to fish Lake Allatoona for our November tournament. We landed 23 keeper spotted bass weighing about 35 pounds. There were three five-fish limits and no zeros.

I managed to catch five weighing 10.08 pounds for first, Raymond English was second with five at 7.08 pounds, Mike Cox came in third with five weighing 5.41 pounds and Donnie Willis had fourth with two at 5.26 and big fish with a 2.76 pounder.

As we got ready to blast off someone asked if it was a 12 inch limit on Allatoona, and I said yes, and a 13 inch fish is a trophy. Allatoona is known for its small spotted bass but very few bigger fish. It is the only lake in Georgia that consistently does not produce a five pound fish each year in club tournaments.

I was pleasantly surprised when I stopped on a shallow point and landed a two pounder on a spinnerbait on my fourth cast. I did not expect to catch one that big all day, but a few minutes later, as the sky got a little lighter, I landed another two pounder on topwater. I was thrilled starting that way.

Two hours later I had missed three bites on topwater but had not landed another fish. Then, in a small pocket I had gone into trying to get out of the wind, I landed a 12 inch fish on a jig head worm. It was the size I expected to catch.

After that I started fishing pockets like that and landed another two pounder on a jig and pig. It was noon now and I moved out to a rocky point and landed another keeper, this one about 13 inches long, on a jig head worm. That filled my limit so I went back to the jig and pig hoping to catch a bigger fish.

At about 1:00 I landed my biggest fish, a 2.66 pounder, on the jig from a rocky point. Since I was in my new boat I headed back closer to the landing, knowing I had a good catch for Allatoona, and worrying something might go wrong. I wanted to be on time for weigh-in!

Another local club weighed in the same time we did and it took 10 pounds to win that club, too. One of their fishermen had a largemouth, the only one weighed in by either club. There was also an ABA tournament the same day and it took just over 10 pounds to win it and only eight to get a check.

Allatoona is hard to get to due to the traffic in Atlanta, especially pulling a boat, but you can catch a lot of keeper spots there.

I was also thrilled to win my first tournament out of my new boat. Twelve years ago I won my first tournament out of that boat when it was new, too. Now, if I can just keep fishing out of this one for 12 years I will be very happy!