Tough Fishing

Poll What Safety Items Do You Carry and Use In Your Boat?    Join the Discussion "The best tip I can give is to not get discouraged! Muddy water is just part of a bass' world and he must still eat." Spo Roller Related Resources •Fishing Muddy Water •Cold Water Fishing  Past Articles One Year Ago -   3/20/00 - How To Fish A Carolina Rig Two Years Ago -  03/15/99 - Eufaula Bedding Bass Three Years Ago - 03/23/98 - Boats I Have Known and Owned Four Years Ago -  03/24/97 - Georgia On Your Mind  Reader Submitted Stories • Fishtales Library

Last weekend my club fished a two day tournament at Lake Walter F. George, also known as Eufaula.  The state Top Six will be there in two weeks and we were getting familiar with the lake the last weekend before it went off limits.

A heavy rain the week before caused the lake to be muddy from the upper river to the dam.  Debris washing down the river was so bad we had to get a worker to push logs and limbs away from the ramp so we could load our boats on Sunday!  They were pulling water from the lake and it had dropped 6 inches on Friday and dropped another 4 inches from Saturday morning to Sunday morning.

A cold front was coming through so, contrary to what the weather guessers had predicted it was cloudy, cold and windy all day both days.  I never took my snowmobile suit off while fishing.  The cold air meant the water temperature dropped from 62 early Saturday morning to 56 by Sunday morning.

What could be worse - muddy water that was dropping in level and temperature?  How about several other club tournaments and a 200 boat BFL Tournament on Saturday, meaning boats were everywhere.  It was tough to find a place to get in line and fish.  And the guys in the tournament that had practiced on Friday said they had caught only one bass between the 8 of them!

On Saturday morning we tried several places where I have caught bass in March in years past but never had a bite.  We knew the conditions were better down near the dam but we had already ridden 15 miles from the launch site and the dam was another 25!  Since we had not been able to practice, the weather was miserable and there were many boats there already, we found the clearest water around and started fishing it.

At about 11:00 my partner pitched a Zipper worm to an extremely shallow log and a 2 pound bass jumped all over it!  We were fishing a huge flat where bass often bed, and there was a lot of flooded bushes and other cover since the lake had been low all last summer.  A few minutes later I pitched a Rippler jig to a flooded willow tree and it never stopped going down.  I managed to land a 4.5 pound bass after a good fight.

We turned and went back down that bank since there were other boats coming from both directions but never got another strike. We fished across it again and my partner caught another bass, this one about 2.5 pounds, on his Zipper worm.  Although we fished that area and others similar to it until our 5:00 quitting time we never got another bite.

At weigh-in, everybody complained about the bad fishing.  Only 7 of the 17 entrants brought in a bass and my partner's 4.89 pounds was good for 5th.  My one bass at 4.42 placed 6th and was big fish.  Since 6 pounds was leading, any of us had a shot at first on the second day.

Sunday was even colder, more windy and more cloudy.  We headed back to the bank where we had caught fish on Saturday but the water was 4 inches lower and 6 degrees colder.  Since my bass had a bloody tail like it had been fanning a bed, we assumed the fish we had caught were males going in early.  The lower, colder water would not bring more bass in!

We went to another area, the deepest water closest to the spawning area, and my partner and I both caught 16 inch keeper bass.  His hit a crankbait and mine hit a Carolina rigged lizard.  At another place I landed another keeper on a Texas rigged worm.  That was it for the day.  I ended up in 3rd place with just over 8 pounds and it took just over 9 to win it.  My partner finished 5th with right at 7 pounds.

It was a real slap in the face to my fishing ability to find out it took five bass weighing 18.8 pounds and second place was five weighing over 16 in the BFL that day.  There were 4 five bass limits brought in.  Most were caught near the dam, the area I would not make the long run to!

Now what do I do in the Top Six? 

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