Last Friday and Saturday 20 members of the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished our annual Club Classic at Lake Martin. Each of us qualified by placing in the top eight in the points standings in 2021 or fishing at least eight of the 12 tournaments that year. Martin was chosen as the site by a drawing held in December from all the lakes we fished last year.
After fishing 9.5 hours Friday and seven hours on Saturday, we weighed in 198 bass weighing about 258 pounds. There were 38 five bass limits weighed in, everybody but one person had five both days. Almost all the fish were spotted bass.
Caleb Delay had a good catch on Friday with 10.45 pounds, the best limit weighed in, and held on to win with ten bass weighing 17.38 pounds. Jason Turner came in second with ten at 16.02 pounds and my ten at 15.70 pounds was third. Kwong Yu had ten at 15.30 for fourth and Mike Cox placed fifth with ten at 14.76. He also had a 4.71 pound largemouth for big fish.
I went over Tuesday and camped at Wind Creek State Park. Wednesday, the first day of practice, I rode around checking some of my old favorite places and also looking for bedding bass. A big tournament was won by catching bedding bass the weekend before, but I saw none. I am not very good at spotting them, and even if I do see them I am not very good at catching them, but I just had to try.
I did find a brush pile full of fish and caught a two-pound largemouth on a jig in the back of a cove. That really didn’t give me much to go on for the tournament.
On Thursday I spent more time watching my electronics and checking new areas. I rode over a shoal and spotted a small brush pile, then a rock pile near it. When I cast a Carolina rig to it I caught a 15 inch spot, a little better than the average size, so I had some hope for that area. I also found some brush in front of a dock with more way out from it in about 15 feet of water and marked it.
Friday morning I started on the brush pile I had found, it was also in front of a dock with a light on it, and caught a keeper on a crankbait. Then I went to another lighted dock and caught my second keeper on a swimbait. Two in the boat before daylight.
In the middle of the day I went to the shoal and caught two decent size keepers, culling some smaller fish in the livewell. I landed about ten keepers that day but the best five weighed just 7.29 pounds, keeping me in the running.
Saturday I tried a couple lighted docks but got no hits. At sunrise I went to the shoal and caught a 15-inch keeper and several more smaller fish. Then in the cove with the brush I landed several 15 inch fish, giving me five fairly decent ones out of the 15 or so I caught that day.
With 20 minutes left to fish I headed to weigh-in. I decided to stop in a place where I have caught some decent largemouth in the past. As I eased to the bank I wanted to fish, I cast my jig and pig to a sandbar, thinking “I have made dozens of casts there and never caught a fish,” but a thump made me set the hook and land my biggest fish of the trip, a 2.7-pound spot.
That fish culled a one pounder and gave me enough to move me into third place! Never give up!!