Ronnie Garrison wrote:


I will post the details of my lucky trip later.

Ronnie

http://fishing.about.com

A little more detail about that tournament:

Each month I write a “Map of the Month” article for
Georgia Outdoor News. In these articles I go to a lake with a
local expert and we discuss the patterns for bass fishing that
will work during the month. Then we mark 10 spots on a lake map
where you can fish those patterns, and describe how to fish each
spot in detail.
Last Sunday the Flint River Bass Club had a tournament at
Lake Allatoona. Although I have done several “Map of the Month”
articles there over the years, I have never fished out of my boat
there and never fished a tournament on that lake. I did not have
a chance to go up and explore the lake and try to find some fish
before the tournament.
I pulled out a copy of my article on Allatoona in August,
2002 with David and Pansy Millsaps. I read it Saturday night and
rigged baits they suggested. On Sunday morning I headed to hole
number 1 in the article and started fishing as instructed. I
quickly caught a 14 inch spotted bass on a tube jig on a boat
ramp.
I kept fishing that spot and caught a two pound spotted bass
on a Carolina rig. I felt pretty good with two keepers in the
boat on the first place and I had nine more to fish. As I idled
to the second spot I read the instructions again - fish around
the point with a jig and pig, then throw a crankbait before
leaving.
After fishing around the point twice, first with the jig and
then with a Carolina rig, I had gotten no bites, so I started to
leave. I remembered about throwing the crankbait so I picked up a
rod with one tied on and hooked a good fish on the first cast. It
was a 3.65 pound spotted bass and turned out to be the big bass
of the day.
When I headed up to hole number 3 skiers has churned the
lake up pretty bad. I fished it and caught a short bass but no
keepers. It was rough fishing in the waves, and the sun was
getting hot. When I headed to hole number 4 I had to idle under a
bridge and the shade felt good, so I stopped and fished there.
I quickly got a hit on a small jig and pig and landed
another two pound spotted bass. About 30 minutes later I caught
another solid keeper on the jig and pig. That gave me my limit.
I fished one more spot from the article but caught nothing there
before heading to the weigh-in.
We had 14 members fishing the tournament and my five bass
weighing 10.8 pounds gave me first. The 3.65 pound spot was big
fish for the tournament. Bobby Ferris had a five fish limit
weighing 5.12 pounds for second, Don Schafer had 4.92 pounds for
third and Kwong Yu came in fourth with 4.78 pounds.
In the tournament three members caught five fish limits but
there were six people without a keeper. We landed 26 bass
weighing 33.61 pounds and there was only one largemouth weighed
in.
For many years Lake Allatoona has been called the “Dead Sea”
because it was so hard to catch a bass there. The population of
spotted bass has increased over the past few years, and now some
decent catches come out of Allatoona. I was real lucky to have
the article I wrote three years ago help me out in my first
tournament there. That information really helped.