March tournament

Sunday - March 20, 2011 - day 16

Spalding County Sportsman Club Tournament
Lake Oconee - March 20, 2011
cloudy windy cool day, water temps 64 to 65

Two weeks ago I fished Oconee with my other club and got one keeper
and two throwbacks all day.

Today I headed to my favorite point when I released the boats.
Tournament director gets to go last, and another boat in my club beat
me to it. I went across the creek to my second place, a line of
docks.

After a couple of casts with a spinner bait I asked my partner what
the water temp was - could not see the gauge from the front. When he
said 64 I picked up a topwater popper. Second cast a bass exploded on
it in front of a dock. Nice bass, I figured 5 pounds. It jumped twice
and my heart almost stopped, the plug was in the corner of its mouth,
looked like it was not hooked good. It made two runs under the boat
pulling drag but I managed to get it to the net. Both trebles were in
the corner of its mouth, it was hooked better than I thought. One in
the live well at 7:45 and it was a good one.

I threw the popper for an hour without another bite then used
crankbaits and spinner baits with no bites. Started catching a few
short fish under the 14 inch size limit on a Baby Brush Hog Texas
rigged, most very shallow.

At about 10:00 I saw a stump in about two feet of water and pitched
the Brush Hog to it. Got a thump and set the hook on a bare 14 inch
keeper. Two in the live well.

At noon we had caught several more short fish but no keepers. Worked
back into a small creek and my partner got two keepers off a small
secondary point on a Brush Hog. We had been talking about moving but
were catching a lot of bass and those two keepers made us stay.

About 100 yards further down the bank I got a throwback and a little
further my partner got a keeper. Had me three to two - a little
worried, but my big fish made up for a lot.

We had been talking about moving again but I turned to go back over
the area where he had caught the keeper. His catching the keeper made
me want to try it again. My reel started messing up, would not engage
easily, so I picked up another rod to tie the Brush Hog on. It had a
jig head on it so I decided to rig a Brush Hog on it. Saw some lizards
first and threaded one on.

Next two casts I got a 4 pounder and a 3 pounder! We turned and
worked down the bank and past where he had caught the keeper he got
another one. Went back over the good area and caught some throwbacks
but no more keepers. Worked further down the bank the other way past
where he caught the last one and my partner got another good keeper,
that filled his limit. Had me five to four now!

Not much further I got another solid 2 pound keeper to fill my limit.
Then got another one to cull the little one I had. We fished to where
the bank flattened out and my partner got a 3 ponder to cull. Fishing
back a little ways he got his seventh keeper to cull another one of
his smaller fish.

With about an hour left we worked all the way back around the good
area where we had caught fish and caught short fish but no more
keepers. Figured we had been following a school of good 2 to 3 pound
fish that were following shad.

At weigh in I had 16.38 for first and the first fish I caught was big
fish at 4.96. Second was 12.10 and my partner was third with 12.01.
Fourth was 10.82. The guys that beat me to the point were 2nd and
4th. I thanked them for beating me there and making me catch the big
one. They got a couple of keepers off that point.

One of my better club weigh-ins. We had 22 fishermen, 7 limits and
five bass over 4 pounds each. Oconee has been producing some good bass
- two weeks ago it took 14.5 to win and there were six over four
pounds each. Glad I found some fish this time. Good day, we had 13
keepers and about 20 short fish. Lots of fun.

Ronnie

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