===========================
Dateline: 07/13/98
Fishing with BigAl
Ronnie Garrison
Those of you who drop by the chat room regularly have met Al Bassett - BigAl in the chat room. Al lives on Georgia's Lake Oconee and guides for bass when his real job lets him. He and his wife came in second in a Guys and Dolls tournament there on June 27th with five bass weighing over 13 pounds.
Al invited me to fish with him on Monday, July 5th since I needed to talk with him to get information for a Georgia Sportsman article I was working on. He picked me up at Sugar Creek Marina at 6:30 am and we fished until 2:00 pm. He wore me out!
We started on a drop-off were he and his wife had caught a limit in the tournament the week before. They had a limit in the livewell by 7:30 am and, true to form, he caught a three pound bass on his second cast with me. After about an hour of trying, nothing else would bite there so we started hitting other spots were Al had been catching bass.
It was a very frustrating day. We could see the fish stacked on the drops in about 15 feet of water but they would not hit. Al managed to catch four or five 12 or 13 inch bass - non-keepers at Oconee with its 14 inch size limit - on one hole and I even caught one that size.
It was getting very hot by 1:00 pm so we headed back to the marina. Al said he wanted to fish the riprap on a bridge at the marina before we headed in and it paid off! Al caught a 5 pound 5 ounce bass on a crankbait off the rocks in the blazing hot sun. That fish should not have been there, but it was!
All in all we had a good day - and that last big fish really helped!
BigAl's first fish - about three pounds.
Al with the five pounder caught on the riprap!
BigAl's best ever from Oconee - a 8 pound 3 ounce wallhanger!
