Mama was a great cook as were all my extended family, both blood relatives and in-laws. I often said Aunt Nancy could cook and old boot and make it taste good. Her husband, Uncle Adron, hunted and fished constantly and she cooked great meals of game and fish.
One of my favorites was her catfish stew. It really was more like hash, everything was ground up. Mama would get with her anytime I caught a big catfish and cook up a big pot. I enjoyed many winter meals of it and saltine crackers sitting on my porch at my small trailer at Clarks Hill.
I tried making it last week with a big cat I caught in the Sportsman Club tournament at Sinclair. A few years before she died I asked mama to write some of her recipes down and I have dozens of index cards with her hand written ingredients and instructions.
Unfortunately, mama’s Alzheimer’s was starting to affect her memory and many of her recipes I have to guess at some steps. For example, her catfish stew recipe calls for ten strips of fatback but it is never mentioned again in the instructions.
The ten quarts I made are pretty good but not quite right. I will keep trying.
I love any kind of fish stew or chowder. When I eat out the first thing I check on the menu is the soups and stews. Fishtales in both Griffin and Zebulon make a good gumbo and a good shrimp chowder.
I make two kinds of fish chowder, one with a red tomato sauce Manhattan style and one with a milk and cream base New England style. The Manhattan style has a very strong fishy taste and smell, to the point no one would come in my office when I was principal at RESA Academy and took it for lunch.
Both start with bass filets but the Manhattan style I boil what I call backs and wings – the backbones and rib cages left after fileting – and use the strong broth from that process. I pull all the meat off the backbones and “wings” and add the filets to the broth then add other ingredients.
The New England style I just boil diced potatoes, pour off the water and add milk and other ingredients, adding the filets last thing.
I have cooked pretty much everything I have shot my whole life. BBQed raccoon was one of the oddest, but Southern Mississippi Beaver was definitely the most unusual, and also the most difficult. I spent a long time skinning out the hindquarters of the beaver, it was by far the most difficult animal I have ever skinned and gave up on the front legs and shoulders. They were very small anyway.
I have many detailed recipes for game and fish that I make in the Fish Recipes category.
Another year of fishing has gone by. As I look back on the past fishing season, I can’t help but remember other past fishing seasons. Many, many past fishing seasons. As I remember those days, I’m reminded of how much I’ve learned about fishing and fishing techniques. And then I’m reminded of how, when I thought I had mastered a particular fishing technique, I discovered that I hadn’t. There are almost always exceptions to a technique. Same with fish species. Just when I thought I had the walleyes or bass or whatever figured out, the walleyes or bass or whatever taught me that I didn’t have them figured out. Lure color and lure weight are factors that can contribute to better fish catches.
There are times when fish, any species of fish, will respond better to a particular lure color. A very successful angler once told me that when it comes to walleyes and color, “walleyes like any color as long as it’s chartreuse”. Another very successful walleye catcher said the same thing but substituted orange as the color walleyes like best. Come to find out, Walleye Catcher #1 only used chartreuse lures, and #2 only used orange lures. That’s why they had the most success with those colors. Much of the time they caught walleyes, but every now and then they didn’t. Eventually #1 and #2 started experimenting with other colors when the walleyes weren’t biting. They started catching even more walleyes. There are times when fish want a particular color.
Another color quirk: If you’ve been catchin’em good on a particular color but the action slows, try a different color. Fish can become conditioned to color.
It’s surprising how jig weight can impact how many fish we catch. It became very obvious to me in my early days of chasing largemouth bass how important jig weight could be. In the lakes that my friends and I fished in central and north central Minnesota, walleyes were the preferred fish. Largemouth bass were mostly ignored, and some anglers even considered bass to be undesirable. My friends and I preferred to chase the largemouth because they were usually very willing biters. When we went fishing, we spent almost all of our time in the summer on the deep weedline casting an eighth ounce jig with a four inch plastic worm on six pound test line. When the bass were really biting, we used a larger worm. The larger worm was more appealing to larger bass.
However, every now and then the bass got finicky. We would work our eighth ounce jig/four inch worm along the weedline and couldn’t get bit as often as usual. On one of those slow-bite days, I picked up a rod that had a sixteenth ounce jighead tied on. I threaded my four inch worm on the lighter head and started casting. It didn’t happen immediately, but eventually the bass revealed that on that day they liked this combination better. The lighter jig made the bait fall slower. On slow-bite days, the bass preferred the slower fall. We learned that we could slow the fall of the bait even more by going to a little heavier line or a bulkier bait. Heavier line and bulkier baits have more water resistance so they fall slower.
When we go fishing, we need to remember that, if we’re not having success doing what we’re doing, do something else. In fact, that’s a pretty good rule for life in general.
Photo Caption—When the fish aren’t eating what you’re using, use something else.
If something didn’t hurt when I woke up, I would think I was dead. That is supposed to be joke but it is an all-too-true statement of getting old.
Our bodies were not designed to last this long. I think my warranty ran out years ago and there are no replacement parts available. I always said I would rather wear out than rust out, and still believe it, but it gets harder and harder to keep the parts moving and rust free every year.
That is one good thing about fishing, it can be done at any age. I have had to adjust the way I fish; I can no longer stand with one foot on my trolling motor foot pedal and fish for eight hours in a tournament. Now I slowly get up from the driver’s seat pulling up on a handle on the console, hold on to the windshield and carefully move up sit down on the front seat. But I can still fish!
Backing my boat down the ramp, hopping out and crawling across the truck bed to get to the boat and back it off the trailer is no longer easy. Without friends in the bass clubs doing it for me I would not be able to fish three tournaments each month.
When I fish by myself I tie a rope to the front of the boat and the other end to the trailer, slowly back the boat off and ease the truck forward, pulling the boat back to the bank with the rope. That would cause major problems and slow everything down at a tournament.
Another thing I used to love doing makes it frustrating to not be able to cut, split and stack wood like I did for years. I never really had to do it to heat my house but always enjoyed all parts of it from cutting to burning the wood.
Both my parents died in their mid-70s. When I retired, I hoped, if I was like them, I had about 25 good fishing years left. That was 22 years ago!
Make the most of every day right now before you run out of them!
The Flint River Bass Club held its first 2023 tournament last Sunday at Jackson. In it, six of us fished for eight hours in a mudhole to land 12 bass weighing about 14 pounds. There was one five bass limit and no one zeroed.
I landed five weighing 5.70 pounds for first, Doug Acre came in second with two weighing 3.36 pounds and had a 1.94-pound fish for big fish and Lee Hancock had three weighing 3.1 for third. Fourth went to Alex Gober with one at 1.71 pounds and new member Scott Smith had keeper weighing .63 pounds for fifth.
When we started at 7:30 AM I could tell the water was very muddy even in the cove at the ramp. My first cast I found out how muddy, my crankbait disappeared about two inches deep.
I fished one place in the muddy cove without a bite for about 30 minutes. When I headed up the river to try to find some clearer water to fish, I was shocked and scared when I saw all the wood floating in the water. Everything from twigs to logs twice as long as my boat covered the water from bank to bank.
That made me stop on a point and try to fish, although it was very muddy and almost every cast produced some kind of trash on my line and lure. After about 30 minutes the light breeze had moved the wood away from one side of the lake enough to run on plane if you were slow and careful.
I had hoped to go up the Alcovy River above the mouth of the South River where the water is often clearer, but when I got to the mouth of Tussahaw Creek I changed my mind. The wood going up the river covered it even worse from bank to bank and the wind had not made any open water at wall.
That condition made me go up Tussahaw Creek where there is often some clear water. And it did get better above the bridge, I could see my bait down a solid six inches!
I caught a small keeper spot by casting a brown three sixteenths ounce Bitsy Bug jig with a green pumpkin Creepy Crawler trailer to a cement seawall. Of course I dipped the tails of the trailer in chartreuse JJs Magic. There are rocks at the bottom of most seawalls and bass will hold against them to feed on crayfish and baitfish.
I kept fishing seawalls like that and every one of my fish, two more spots and two largemouth, hit the jig on a seawall. Lee was fishing the same area and caught his three on a variety of baits.
I invited the spots I caught home for dinner. When I cleaned them they had parts of small crayfish in their stomachs. That is why they liked my brown jig with the twin trailer arms!
As I wrote about in another blog detailing bass fishing recently, the past open water fishing season was one of the best that I can remember! Various fishing partners and I were fortunate to be on several bodies of water when the fish were biting, we were lucky to catch lots of fish, and were fortunate to catch some big ones. Here are some of the things I learned, or at least was reminded of, as it relates to walleye fishing during 2024’s fishing.
Forward Facing Sonar (FFS) Rules, Or Does It?
In 2022 and in 2023 we caught lots of walleyes by “looking at them” out ahead of the boat utilizing FFS. These fish were often suspended and moving and we caught them by casting various lures to them, often a jig and minnow or jig and portion of nightcrawler. The FFS helped us monitor the walleye movements and let us see how high they were holding in the water column.
We used the same method in 2024, but this past season, however, we caught lots of fish using traditional 2D sonar technologies to find and target the walleyes. Don’t get me wrong, we still realize the effectiveness of FFS, but we found that we could also catch walleyes using traditional methods.
Pulling Plain Through ‘Em!
One of the very first bites we were on in early summer of 2024, was one where the walleyes were in the 18-22 foot mark relating to the drop-off edges of a couple underwater points. We cruised these areas, saw and marked the fish on 2D sonar, and then started to fish. We employed a rig we call “plain” which is simply a heavy bottom bouncer weight, rigged with about a 40” CONTRA fluorocarbon snell, and with 2 hooks tied in. We thread a nightcrawler on the 2 hooks and move through the fish cruising at around .8 mph. Often, we find walleyes that can’t resist this method and this summer was no different. The first “plain” walleye of 2024 pushed 30-inches, followed by a 28” a few minutes later.
On our first pass of a subsequent fishing trip on another lake, the day’s first walleye was 25 inches long, followed by several more good fish. Safe to say, “plain” continues to get lots of attention in my boat when walleyes are the target.
The “Other Rod” For Success
We caught walleyes pulling plain in good numbers in 2024. We also caught them on jigs and minnows and, in fact, often joked that we only need 2 rods for walleye fishing, a plain rig baitcasting rod and an extra fast walleye spinning jigging rod. We’ve settled on a 6’10” Lew’s Speed Stick jigging rod with that action that we use for light jigs of 1/16 ounce and also on heavier jigs up to ¼ ounce and even heavier! This rod has a cork handle, is lightweight, and is very sensitive. Plus, it’s very affordable. We used that rod, along with FFS, to look at fish early in the season on a bite where we fished the jigs with shiner minnows as bait. Again, the FFS allowed us to keep track of the fish and where to cast for them.
Starting in September and lasting into late October, we also used a jig-n-minnow combination, this time a big fathead or sucker minnow, to cast to walleyes. Some of the times we found the FFS to be important, while at other times the fish seemed to hold in the same area and we could simply cast repeatedly to productive spots.
We were fortunate to find productive walleye fishing spots in 2024 and are hopeful for the same, or similar type successes in 2025.
And, as always, remember to include a youngster in your next outdoors activity!
Mike Frisch hosts the popular Fishing the Midwest TV series on Sportsman Channel, World Fishing Network, and FanDuel Sports. Visit fishingthemidwest.com to see TV schedules and all things Fishing the Midwest!
Photo – Walleye ace Shane Gesell with a giant walleye from last summer!
Although bass clubs seem to be a thing of the past, with young fishermen wanting to fish for money and not joining clubs, they are still very important to me. I joined the Spalding County Sportsman Club in 1974, the Flint River Bass Club in 1978 and the Potato Creek Bassmasters in 2015 and currently fish three club tournaments each month.
All three clubs start their new tournament years this month, with Flint River starting Sunday, January 8. All are accepting new members and I have an open seat in my boat for the Flint River Club if anyone is interested in joining and trying club fishing.
The Flint River club meets the first Tuesday each month at Panda Bear and fishes our tournaments the following Sunday. We have two two-day tournaments each year. Dues are $20 annually and tournament entry fee is #25 with a $5 daily big fish pot. We also have two additional optional pots, $5 for the cumulative pot that increases until someone catches a six-pound bass and a $5 points pot that is split with half going to the points winner at the end of the year and half going to a raffle for all that are paid up.
The Potato Creek Bassmasters meet the Monday after the first Tuesday and fish our tournaments the following Saturday. We have three two-day tournaments each year. Dues are $50 a year and entry fees are $30 and the daily big fish pot is $5. There is an optional $5 cumulative pot.
The Sportsman Club meets the third Tuesday each month and fishes our tournaments the following Sunday, with two two-day tournaments. Dues are $50 each year and entry fee is $25 with a $5 daily big fish pot. There is an additional $5 cumulative pot.
Both Potato Creek and Sportsman Club have Club Classics. For those a member must fish at least 8 of the 12 monthly tournaments or finish in the top 8 in the points standings the previous year. Part of club entry fees are saved all year to make a nice payout in those tournaments for the top five fishermen in them.
There is a point system in each club and the top fishermen each year get plaques. Trying to place high in each club is important to me, probably more so than for most other members. Club competition is at a lower level that other types of bass tournaments but as long as I can compete at the club level I will keep trying.
In the Flint River Club 100 points are awarded to first place in each tournament. Second gets 90 points dropping ten points per place like that to 10 points for 10th. Fishermen catching a fish but finishing lower than 10th gets five points. In addition, ten points are awarded for attending the meeting and 20 for attending the tournament.
In Flint River this past year I placed first with 1410 points and caught 46 keeper bass weighing 75.7 pounds in 12 tournaments. I was the only one to attend all 12. Don Gober placed second with 890 points and 26 bass weighing 35.63 pounds. His grandson Alex was third with 800 points, 25 bass and 32.03 pounds.
Fourth place went to Niles Murray with 660 points, 35 bass and 46.25 pounds. Fifth was Lee Hancock with 530 points, 25 bass and 35.38 points. Doug Acree rounded out the top six with 480 points, 22 bass and 28.13 pounds. My 4.19 pound largemouth caught at Sinclair in March was big fish.
Potato Creek awards 100 points for first down to 10 for tenth and five points for catching a fish if you fish lower. Each meeting will get you five points and you get an additional 20 points for attending the tournament.
In the Potato Creek club I placed first with 1015 points and 72 bass weighing 131.09 pounds. Raymond English came in second with 900 points, 65 bass and 111.44 pounds. Third was Lee Hancock with 760 points, 58 bass and 91.67 pounds.
Fourth place went to Michael Cox with 680 points, 36 bass and 65.85 pounds. Fifth was Kwong Yu with 595 points, 61 bass and 83.91 pounds. Caleb Delay completed the top six with 560 points, 44 bass and 72.60 pounds. Tom Tanner had big fish for the year with a 5.78 pounder.
The Sportsman Club gives 25 points for first dropping one point per place down to one point for 25th. One bonus point is awarded for each meeting attendance, tournament attendance, weighing in a limit and having big fish.
With 301 points and 56 bass weighing 93.01 pounds I won the Sportsman Club standings. Jay Gerson was a close second with 299 points, 56 bass and 82.17 pounds. Raymond English placed third with 289 points, 55 bass and 95.14 pounds.
Fourth place went to Kwong Yu with 283 points, 53 bass and 73.93 pounds. Fifth was Zane Fleck with 39 bass, 55.56 pounds. Glenn Anderson was sixth with 199 points, 31 bass and 48.34 pounds. My 5.63 pound largemouth caught in September at Oconee was big fish for the year.
Club fishing is a lot of fun and can be educational. Contact me at Ronnie@fishing-about.com for more information on the clubs in Griffin.
What Does It Mean For Hunting with FIRST POSITIVE CASE OF CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CONFIRMED IN GEORGIA
SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. (January 23, 2025) – The Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Wildlife Resources Division (WRD) has confirmed through the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories that a hunter-harvested deer sampled for routine surveillance in Lanier County has tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). This is the first case of CWD detected in Georgia.
The sample was taken from a two-and-a-half-year-old male white-tailed deer harvested on private property. Immediately following the positive confirmation, WRD staff implemented the CWD Response Plan and are taking additional samples from the area.
“I want to assure our hunters that deer hunting will continue to thrive in Georgia, despite this current discovery,” said Walter Rabon, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. “Working together with our hunters and all Georgians, we will manage CWD and maintain healthy deer herds.”
What is Being Done?
The DNR CWD Response Plan is in effect and a CWD Management Area is established. The CWD Management Area includes the county where the positive sample was found and any county that touches a 5-mile radius around the location of the positive sample. The current CWD Management Area includes Lanier and Berrien counties.
The critical next step is to determine the geographic extent and prevalence rate in that Management Area (i.e., how far it has spread and what percent of deer have CWD). The Department will do that with landowner cooperation through “cluster sampling” in the immediate area.
What is CWD?
CWD was first discovered in 1967 in Fort Collins, Colorado. CWD is a fatal neurological disease of deer, elk, and moose caused by infectious, misfolded proteins called prions. There are no current treatments or preventative vaccines.
CWD in deer, elk ,and/or moose has been reported in 36 states and 3 Canadian provinces: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming as well as Canadian provinces Alberta, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.
There is no known transmission of CWD to humans. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that hunters harvesting a deer, elk, or moose from an area where CWD is known to be present have their animal tested for CWD prior to consuming the meat and do not consume the meat if the animal tests positive.
How You Can Help Prevent Spread
Don’t move live deer. Moving live deer is the greatest risk for introducing CWD to new areas.
Dispose of carcasses properly and don’t bring whole carcasses into Georgia from out of state or move whole carcasses outside the CWD Management Area. Any carcass parts you don’t intend to consume should be left on the property the deer was killed, sent to a landfill, or buried.
Report sick or abnormal deer to your nearest WRD Game Management Office.
The Georgia DNR with its partners – Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study – will continue to update the public as more information becomes available.
Someone jokingly said “lets go fishing” last Saturday. With a low of 8 degrees and a high well below freezing at my house, not nearly enough degrees out there, I declined. But I have been out there fishing in weather about that bad.
In a January Sportsman Club tournament more than 20 years ago I drove by First National bank at 5:30 AM on the way to Sinclair. The bank thermometer read 11 degrees. About a dozen of us showed up at Little River landing just before sunrise but the lake was so low we could not use that ramp.
Rather than giving up we all headed to Sinclair Marina where the ramp is much steeper and goes out into deeper water. The first boat was launched with no problem, but when the trailer was pulled out the water running off it froze on the ramp.
The next person backing down the ramp warned it felt slippery and when he pulled out he had to spin his tires to get up the ramp.
By the time I backed down the ramp I started sliding before my trailer tires hit the water. Luckily I slide straight, and as soon as my van tires hit the water I stopped. The ice ended at water’s edge. Then I had to “burn rubber” all the way up the ramp, melting through the thin layer of ice all the way to the top. Everyone after the first two had the same experience.
It was miserably cold but I ran the few miles to the Highway 441 Bridge where I felt I had my best chance of getting a bite. Every cast I had to dip my rod in the water to melt the ice out of the guides. The water temperature was in the upper 30s, as low as I had ever seen it.
Since I knew the bass would be very sluggish I tried casting to the pilings and reeling my crankbait very slowly by it. I had to slow down to a crawl, just barely keeping the bait moving, but I caught seven keeper bass, enough to win the tournament!
Luckily the sun on the ramp melted the ice so we had no trouble pulling out. But when I went by the bank on the way home at 5:00 PM it showed the high for the day, 17 degrees!
A February Flint River tournament at Jackson gave me a thrill but not from catching fish. When we took off I headed up the lake on plane, running about 40 MPH just before sunrise.
Suddenly there was a horrible grinding sound. I stopped the boat, just knowing I had blown a power head. But then I saw the sheet of ice running from bank to bank. It was only a half inch thick, but when the boat hit it the sound was awful. That is one of the few times my bass boat was an ice breaker!
For some reason on my Christmas trips to Clarks Hill, every year the weather seemed to get much worse after Christmas Day. On year back in the 1990s I woke to howling wind and sleet. It was not comfortable, and everywhere I tried to fish the wind made it impossible.
I finally pulled in behind an island where a rock pile was protected from the wind and caught an 8.2-pound bass on a crankbait. It was the only bite I had in the four hours I forced myself to fish.
One year I took Linda to the Augusta Airport the day after Christmas to fly to Salisbury MD to visit her folks. My dog Merlin and I went back to the lake. We were staying in my small camping trailer and the only heat was a small electric heater.
During the night Merlin jumped up in bed with me. She always slept on the floor by the bed so that was strange. But when I got up the next morning I saw why, her water bowl on the floor was frozen solid.
The little heater kept it tolerable about three feet above the floor at bed level, but the uninsulated floor was below freezing.
That got me worried. Back then I heated my house on Rebecca Circle with a wood burning insert. There was no heat in the house while I was gone. I called my neighbor and ask her to check to see if she heard water running. She called back and said she did not hear water but my well pump was running steadily.
I knew what that meant and headed home. I learned how to solder copper pipe the next day, there were 11 split pipes under the house. The well pump had pumped the well dry and that is why it was still running.
I have been ice fishing one time in my life. One January a hard freeze got my upper pond hard on top. I went out to the end of my dock, knocked a small hole in the inch thick ice with a pipe, and dropped a piece of fish food on a small hook into the water.
After a few minutes a small bluegill hit it and I landed it through the ice. That remains and probably will always remain the only ice fishing fish I have caught.
I think I will hook the boat up and head to the lake!!
“You typically see some solid weights this time of year,” the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour qualifier said. “There is a potential for 25- to 30-pound bags, and once every couple of years there is a double-digit-class bass caught. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a mega-bag, but low to mid-20s is about the average winning weight this time of year.
“Six of the Top 10 anglers could be doing something completely different from one another,” the Emmanuel University graduate added. “It is a very diverse fishery, and I think it will show out. I’m excited about it.”
Competition days are scheduled for Jan. 23-25 with daily takeoffs and weigh-ins to be held at Wildwood Park in Appling, Ga. The full field will compete the first two days of the event before the Top 10 competitors vie for the trophy on Championship Saturday. The winner, given they are signed up for all four tournaments in Division I of the Opens, will punch their ticket to the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour.
Those registered for all of the Division I events will also earn points based on their finishes throughout the season, with the Top 50 anglers from Division 1 as well as the Top 50 anglers from Division II of the Opens qualifying for the Elite Qualifiers Series, a three-tournament series that will determine the nine anglers moving on to the Elite Series in 2026.
Straddling the border between South Carolina and Georgia, the Savannah River impoundment has hosted plenty of Bassmaster events in the past, from the 1973 Bassmaster Classic won by Rayo Breckenridge to several Bassmaster Elite Series events in the early 2000s. Last February, B.A.S.S. returned to Clarks Hill as the College, High School and Junior Series took on the massive reservoir and brought impressive bags of largemouth and spotted bass to the scales.
Depending on how much rain the lake receives, Campbell anticipates that anglers will be able to spread out and fish their strengths.
“You will see some guys run to the very north end. The cool thing about Clarks Hill is you can win in any region of the lake. Guys will catch them deep and shallow. It is really weather-dependent. If we get a couple of good, bright, sunny days, you will see the shallow bass turn on.”
This is the first time in a long time Elite Series veteran Jason Williamson, who won the last Elite event that was held on Clarks Hill in May 2010, will be fishing a true winter tournament. December was mild across the region, but as soon as the calendar turned to the new year, Old Man Winter made his appearance.
“It’s been cold. So, the water temperatures are going to be pretty low,” he said.
He isn’t going away for this tournament, either. While this coming weekend is supposed to be relatively mild temperature-wise, forecasts call for heavy rains to accompany a cold front on Saturday and Sunday. When anglers start practice on Monday they will be greeted with 20-degree air in the morning.
It will only get colder, as another weather system is expected to move into the area with the potential to drop several inches of snow. Whether the snow forecast actually comes to fruition is yet to be seen and likely won’t be accurately determined until one or two days out, but it could throw a wrench into some competitors’ game plans before some milder weather moves in for the tournament days.
With this set of ingredients, Williamson anticipates plenty of spotted bass being caught in deeper water. Those bass will likely be chasing blueback herring, a staple baitfish in the Savannah River. Natural rock in deep water and deeper brushpiles will be key elements. Shaky heads, drop shots and minnow-style baits like a Zoom Winged Fluke will all come into play.
“The spots are going to bite. The herring are going to be out deep,” he said. “The consistency will definitely be with the spotted bass. Guys that are good with their electronics, finding bait and structure, those are the guys who are going to shine. Sun and clouds are going to make a big difference. Cloud cover hanging around early in the mornings will change the game big time.”
While largemouth may be more lethargic that time of the year, Campbell anticipates whoever wins will likely land some of the better largemouth the lake has to offer.
“(For the top half of the field) I would say it is going to be predominantly largemouth, but there will be plenty of quality spotted bass too. But guys near the top will have all largemouth or three or four largemouth and a spotted bass or two.”
Natural rock on top of deep humps will hold largemouth offshore. On the bank, meanwhile, Hurricane Helene provided plenty of new laydowns for the bass to hunker down around. Shallow crankbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits and ChatterBaits could all produce quality bites if the conditions are right.
“Conditions will be set up for power fishing,” Campbell said.
Daily takeoffs are scheduled for 7:15 a.m. and anglers will return for weigh-in beginning at 3:15 p.m. Full coverage of the tournament will be available on Bassmaster.com.
2025 Bassmaster Opens Series Title Sponsor: St. Croix
2025 Bassmaster Opens Series Presenting Sponsor: SEVIIN
2025 Bassmaster Opens Series Platinum Sponsor: Toyota 2025 Bassmaster Opens Series Premier Sponsors: Bass Pro Shops, Dakota Lithium, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Power-Pole, Progressive Insurance, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Skeeter Boats, Yamaha 2025 Bassmaster Opens Series Supporting Sponsors: AFTCO, Daiwa, Garmin, Lew’s, Lowrance, Marathon, Triton Boats, VMC
About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S., which encompasses the Bassmaster tournament leagues, events and media platforms, is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting-edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), TV show, radio show, social media programs and events. For more than 50 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.
The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, St. Croix Bassmaster Opens Series presented by SEVIIN, Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Qualifier Series presented by Lowrance, Strike King Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Strike King Bassmaster High School Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Team Championship, Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series presented by Native Watercraft, Yamaha Bassmaster Redfish Cup Championship presented by Skeeter and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour.
Memories of Christmas past are melancholic for me this time of year. Almost all my memories have hunting and fishing involved and most include family time, too. But those times are only memories now.
Most memories when I was in elementary school involve decoration with homemade, nature sourced items. We sprayed pinecones and sweetgum balls different colors and used them in a variety of ways, from making small “trees” by piling them into round pyramids to making wreaths for the door.
We collected “smilax,” also known as greenbrier, to outline out front door. We built manger scenes with pine bark and green pine limbs. And we made toothpick and ice cream stick decorations.
One of my jobs from ten years old on, after I was allowed to take my .22 out into the woods by myself, was to shoot down mistletoe. Many of the big oaks in the woods on Dearing Branch had clumps of it, mostly way up in the top. I prided myself on bring down a twig with every shot.
Through middle and high school I did all that and included hunting trips after a big family lunch. Daddy often took me out quail hunting when we had pointers. After we stopped trying to find quail, even back then wild coveys were getting harder to find, I would go rabbit hunting with my friend with his pack of beagles or squirrel hunting by myself.
After I went off to college a trip home usually included all the above. Then after Linda and I got married we would visit my folks in Dearing then drive to Salisbury Md where her folks lived.
We bought our first bass boat in 1974 and that year I found out bass would bite in late December, addicting me. Most every year after that I would go to out place at Clarks Hill the day school got out and stay by myself until Christmas day.
By then Linda had a job in a doctor’s office and had just one day off, so I would meet her at my parents house for Christmas dinner then head back to the lake when she headed back to Griffin. I would stay at the lake until I had to come back to Griffin the day before school opened back up.
Those days were my favorites. For about ten days each Christmas it was just me and my dog Merlin at the lake. I seldom saw anyone else. I ate when hungry, slept when sleepy and fished or built brush piles the rest of the time.
The lake was so uncrowded that, after reading the regulations carefully, I kept my 30-30 in the boat. As long as the boat was not moving from motor power and the deer was not in the water it was legal to shoot one from the boat. If I read the regulations right.
I killed five over a six year period. They were so unused to seeing a boat in the winter that they would just stand and stare at me. All were young does, but that is what I wanted to shoot for the meat.
One year I went back to the lake after dinner on Christmas Day and did not see another person for five days. I would not have seen anyone the sixth day but I had to go into town for gas for the boat!
I caught many bass and learned a lot fishing the lake when it was completely peaceful and the water was down from five to seven feet, exposing rocks and stumps for me to fish later when the water came back up.
The first brush I put out really fired me up. There was a bare bank with two stumps on it and nothing else for 100 feet. I seldom caught anything on that bank. Up in the edge of the woods, someone had cut a big cedar tree and cut the trunk out for a post. The remaining top was about 15 feet tall.
I dragged it to the edge of the water and tied the base to a stump right on the edge of the lake. After flipping it over, the top was out in seven or eight feet of water.
The next morning, I went to that bank and ran a crankbait by the tip of the tree and caught a two-pound bass. That fired me up to put out many more brush piles that year and the next few.
In 1975 I found with my first depthfinder what turned out to be an old underwater roadbed running across a ridge. I took two big cedar trees out there and dropped them on the edge of it, anchoring them in 15 feet of water and 50 feet apart with five-gallon buckets of cement.
Those trees are still there. They never rot since they are never exposed to air. And I still catch bass out of them on many trips to the lake!
I have great memories of staying at the lake during Christmas but, unfortunately, after my parents died in 2000, I have a hard time going to the lake and staying by myself. I get way too melancholy remembering all the spring and summer trips with them there.
I guess the ghosts of the boat club and all the memories get to me when I am all alone.
