Sunday - June 22 - Day 157- six days missed

Spalding County Sportsman Club Tournament

Bartlett's Ferry - 6 AM - 2 PM

Water temp 84 - air 70 at blast off, 88 at 2 PM, hazy clouds and some
breeze.

I took off and ran to a bridge I like to fish. Started throwing a
popper and got a 14 inch very skinny largemouth. One in the livewell
at 6:10 - at least I would not zero.

Worked the riprap and caught two throwbacks, including one spot that
might have touched - but I let it go rather than worry about it. Then
another 13 inch largemouth jumped on the plug. Two in the livewell at
6:45.

Sun was over trees so I ran to a small creek I like. Worked the docks
going in and a rocky point - caught a couple of bluegill. Then,
throwing right against a seawall, got another keeper largemouth on the
popper. A few minutes later another one hit - four in the livewell at
7:30. Partner got a keeper on a worm so we kept working back into the
creek although the water was very shallow.

Fished to the back and started out. We were catching a good many short
bass and some bluegill. Back toward the mouth of the creek we saw
some minnows jumping - had been seeing a good bit of that. Threw the
popper under a dock and it stuck on the post as I worked it out.
Before I could ge tto it a bream hit is and pulled it off. My partner
caught his second keeper at that dock.

Just past the dock I got another keeper largemouth - five in the
livewell at 8:25 but I figured they weighed about 4 pounds total. Not
good.

Back at the mouth of the creek I threw a jig and pig across the rocky
point and something made me look away - and a bass almost jerked the
rod out of my hand. Reeled in, cast back and felt mush when I
tightned up. Set the hook on a 1.5 pound largemouth - one cull. Next
cast caught a 14 inch spot - it culled another little largemouth.
Partner got his third keeper off the point.

Partner caught another keeper then lost a good 1.5 pounder that jumped
20 feet from the boat and threw the worm. We worked the creek for a
couple of hours without another keeper.

One amazing thing happened. While we were fishing the rocky point
another bass boat pulled up on the next point. Guy by himself - made
one cast and then asked if we were fishing a tournament. I said a
small club tournament and he said he would leave and not mess us up. I
told him it would not matter but he left anyway.

We hit several more places but no luck. On one of them, working a
line of docks, a guy by himself pulled up and started fishing the very
next dock ahead of us, about 50 feet away. I told him I was sorry I
was fishing his docks - he ignored me and kept fishing the docks ahead
of us.


At 12:30 ran to a rocky bank/point and worked it. Cast the jig and pig
across the point and jiggled it on the rocks and got a hard thump and
landed another 1.5 pounder. Three little largemouth culled.

That was it. At weigh-in my five weighed a whopping 7.69 pounds and I
won! Second was five at 7.60. My partner's four weighed 6.2 pounds -
the one he lost would have won it for him. We had 5 limits out of 13
people. Big fish was 3.5 pounds but it was the only one he had. Lots
of little keeper bass but few decent ones.

To end the day on a sour note, some idiot had put in a big ski boat
and it would not crank. He left his trailer in the water and truck
blocking one of the two ramps the whole time we were taking out and
others were trying to put in. The ramp was pretty crowded at 2 PM on
Sunday afternoon but that bozo was either an AHole or clueless - or
both.