Fishing the Georgia Top Six

The 2003 Georgia Bass Chapter Federation tournament on Lake Eufaula is history. As always it was a frustrating tournament for most everyone fishing it. For some reason, putting 462 fishermen on a lake for five days always means bass change their behavior during the tournament.
Many of the fishermen went down last Friday and fished and had good luck. The warm sun had the bass in shallow water and many were on the beds. By Saturday when I arrived a lot of folks were sight fishing for those bedding bass. I managed to catch several bass in shallow grass beds on spinnerbaits, including a 5 pounder. A big Easter Seals tournament that day produced a five bass limit weighing 25 pounds to win.
On Sunday the wind blew! George Roberts and I put in at Whiteoak Creek and started fishing the riprap at 8:00 AM. I immediately caught a 3 pound bass on a jerk bait then a few casts later landed one weighing 6-5 according to George’s digital scales. Both bass looked like they had already spawned, and I just knew I have found a great pattern.
Post spawn fish will often move out of the creeks at Eufaula, headed back to the main lake, and hold on points and riprap near the mouth of the creek. The fish holding on riprap seem to be less affected by cold fronts, and a major one was predicted for Monday morning. I was confident the riprap bass would stay there even though I was sure the shallow bass in the grass and those on beds would be real hard to catch.
George and I went across the lake and fish some places, and by the time we headed in at 11:00 AM the waves were awful. We had to pound through them and I was glad for my 20 foot boat, and wished it was 40 feet long. We made it in and went to get ready for the big meeting and drawing.