Winning A Clarks Hill Tournament – Details

April fishing was very good last weekend( April 27 -28) for the 13 Spalding County Sportsman Club members fishing our tournament at Clarks Hill. In 17 hours of casting over two days, we weighed in 98 bass weighing about 166 pounds. There were 15 five-fish limits and the only angler to not catch a fish went home early on
Saturday.

I managed to win with ten bass weighing 23.22 pounds and Niles Murray was a close second with ten weighing 22.01 pounds. Raymond English had ten at 19.12 pounds for third. Billy Roberts came in fourth with eight weighing 15.73 pounds and his 4.28 pound largemouth was big fish.

I found a shad spawn early Saturday and caught fish on a swim bait, underspin and whacky rigged Senko, landing a limit by 7:20, only 50 minutes after blasting off. The current was moving from generation at the dam, a critical factor. There was one big rock when I came over it just right I hooked a fish on almost every

Later in the day I caught fish on a shaky head and Carolina rig. Saturday, I had five weighing 13.95 pounds, including a 3.26 pounder, but I lost a bass that looked like it weighed about 4.5 pounds when it jumped and threw may bait back at me. I landed 15 keeper bass and 5 short ones that day even though I had to go in early and lie down in the back of truck while others fished the last three hours.

Sunday started slow, with my only bite before 7:30 a four-pound striper. But then I got on the right bite and had a limit an hour later at 8:30 and put my tenth keeper in the boat at 9:00. All those fish hit an underspin with a swim bait on it. Then, in other areas, I caught fish on a shaky head, ending up catching 20 keepers and nine short fish.

It was fun getting constant bites all day after a slow start.