Privett Rules at Oconee!

December 1, 2007 saw the return of the club to Lake Oconee. Water levels were down by over 5 feet at the lake—changing some traditional fishing locations. 

Eddie Privett fished a purple and chartreuse Deep Baby N crank bait and hung tough all day bringing in the winning sack of fish with four largemouth totaling  6.46 pounds.

Following in second and a close third place were Tom Nicodemus and Cliff Bost respectively. Tom weighed in two largemouth at 4.1 total pounds—one of which was big fish weighing 2.76 pounds. Cliff weighed in two fish and finished just behind Tom with 4.06 pounds total weight.  Mike Brunett caught a single two-pounder taking fourth. All in all, 10 total fish were caught across 9 anglers with an average weight per fish of 1.85 pounds. Several of the anglers caught nice sized hybrids during the day as well. Results could have been better but it sure beat working that day.

The annual PTCBA awards banquet has been set for January 19^th at the Sharpsburg Community Center starting at 6:00 p.m. Prospective members are encouraged and welcomed to attend and bring their families.

Whatley Wins at Lake Sinclair

The November tournament found the club at Lake Sinclair for a one-day tournament. Fishing was tough for the club with results slightly better than the results at Lake Mitchell from the month prior. Only six fish were caught with an average weight of slightly less than a pound.

Bud Whatley claimed 1^st place with three largemouths. Bud found a pattern at noon using a Texas Rig with a 1/0 Round Bend Hook and Green Pumpkin Red Finesse worms. All three of his fish were caught off sea walls in shallow and clear water.

Jim Norton took big fish and 2^nd place with a single largemouth weighing 1.48 pounds. Mark Ward (who caught a limit of five fish at Lake Harding) and Tony Vacinek (who?) each brought in a keeper fish and rounded out 3^rd and 4^th places respectively.

Lanier Wins at Lake Mitchell

October’s tournament found the club at the much anticipated two-day Lake Mitchell event. Unfortunately, due to work or family commitments, there were only five anglers who participated in the tournament on Day One and two of them couldn’t fish the second day. To make matters worse, another Angler got a mild case of food poisoning and also could not fish the second day.

This left Eddie Privett and Lanier Hunt as the only two Anglers remaining to fish on Day Two. They were coincidently the only two Anglers who had also caught fish on Day One (Lanier – three spots just under three pounds and Eddie had a spot around 1.5 pounds).  Given the poor turn-out and wind conditions, Lanier and Eddie opted out of fishing for Day Two capturing 1^st and 2^nd place with only Day One’s results. Better luck next year here!

Bost Wins at Guntersville!

Five Way Tie for 2^nd!!

September 29- 30 saw the return of the club to Guntersville for the much anticipated lunker fishing weekend. The only thing caught other than Cliff Bost’s three fish were several bad attitudes.

Cliff’s three fish were good enough though to win the tournament with everyone else zeroing (other than Nick Ward).

Changing weather patterns and grass beds about two weeks too early made for tough fishing both days. Cliff came in on Day One with three fish – one largemouth and two spots (that’s right...a spotted bass on Lake Guntersville).The 2^nd day saw no relief as everyone hit it hard with some anglers catching fish but not one of them of a size that would keep.

Mark Ward's oldest son Nick fished from the back of his Dad’s boat. Nick is a senior at North Georgia Military College and future full-time member.Nick brought in a 3.13 pound largemouth on a RATL trap and took big fish money and 1^st place on Day Two and was able to provide some relief back to his Dad for his college tuition . . . NOT!  It should also be noted that Mark Ward did catch a limit at Lake Harding earlier this year.

Nicodemus Takes First Win

In June we traveled north to Lake Blue Ridge for a summer smallmouth tournament. It was tough fishing but the club managed to bring in some smallies.

Tom Nicodemus brought in the most, five fish and a total weight of 10.67 pounds. He also had the tournament's big fish at 3.68 pounds. With that he chalked up his first club win. Congratulations, Tommy.

As long as the congrats are going out, it should be noted that Tom and Sally also had their first child this summer. Sally weighed in Lucas Ward Nicodemus on August 18. Luke tipped the scales at 9 pounds, 5 ounces and measured 22 inches long. That's lunker of the year right there.

Jim Norton, Mike Brunett and Bud Whatley each managed to bring in a pair of fish.

Lake Guntersville is next on the schedule on September 29-30.

Brunett Is The WeeWee King

For the second time this year, Mike Brunett took the win at Lake Wedowee. Mike weighed in four fish, including the big fish of the tournament. Mike's total weight was 9.67 pounds. His big fish weighed 4.40 pounds. Pretty impressive since he was fishing from the back of the boat. His Partner, Mark Ward, caught a limit at Lake Harding earlier this year.

Mike taking first wasn't the only repeat at Wedowee. Donnie Hendrickson placed second back in January and followed that up with a second place finish in May. Donnie also had four fish and a weight of 9.39 pounds.

Third went to Eddie Privett with three fish and 5.56 pounds, and fourth place was George (who?) Edwards with a pair of fish that weighed 4.94 pounds.

The numbers weren't near as good as they were for us in January. Most of the better fish that were caught came early in the morning.

Three For Treon

Andy Treon made it three wins in a row when he took first place at West Point in late April.

The weekend prior to our tournament, the bass were on the beds and several club members saw some monster fish. By the time our tournament rolled around, it appeared that most of the fish were post-spawn, but there were still plenty of shallow fish.

The bite had been pretty good mid-week, but seemed to slack off as the days passed. By Saturday it was pretty tough.

Andy weighed in four fish that weighed a total of 8.10 pounds, including the big fish of the day, a fat four-pounder.

In second place, Bud Whatley's three fish weighed 6.09 pounds. Ronnie Hendrickson had three fish and 4.97 pounds and took third place, edging out Mark Ward who had four fish and 4.75 pounds.

Treon Wins At Lanier

Mid-April found us at Lake Lanier for a one day tournament. Andy Treon took his second tournament win in a row with his limit of spots and a weight of 13.26 pounds.

The only other limit was caught by Ronnie Hendrickson. His fish weighed a total of 11.24 pounds, not quite enough to take the win but good enough for second place. He did have the big fish of the tournament though—a 3.95 pound spot.

Third place went to Mike Brunett who had a nice pair of spots that weighed 6.41 pounds. In fourth place, Eddie Privett had three fish and 5.44 pounds.

Prospective member Daryl Akin had four fish and a total weight of 5.14 pounds.

The numbers of fish were off from the Wedowee and Harding tournaments, but there were several 3-4 pound spots weighed in.

Harding Gives Up Fish

We had Lake Harding on our schedule for late February until lodging problems at Lake Seminole made us swap the two tournaments. We didn't hit Seminole right, but the later date at Lake Harding appears to have been a good thing.

Twelve anglers participated in the one day event at Lake Harding. The weather was absolutely perfect for early spring fishing and the creel shows that.

A total of 45 fish were caught—a 3.75 fish per angler ratio. We came close to that at Lake Wedowee back in January with a 3.16 ratio, but this is by far one of the best tournaments (as far as number of fish) we have ever had.

It was a pretty tight finish with five anglers weighing in limits of five fish. The top three were only separated by a half pound.

Andy Treon took the win with 7.99 pounds, closely followed by Lanier Hunt with 7.50 pounds and Jim Norton with 7.47 pounds. Fourth went to James Kelley with 6.74 pounds. All of the top five guys had limits.

Lanier Hunt took the big fish pot with a 2.85 pound largemouth. There were a couple other fish in the 2.5 pound vicinity, but the lunker pot remains to be won.

April has two single-day events on the schedule. We will determine the lakes for those tournaments at the April 5 meeting.

Lanier Takes Seminole

This year, February marked the month of our long-awaited, much-anticipated, often anti-climactic trip down south to Lake Seminole. This year was no exception.

Everyone had high hopes for the tournament—not to mention breaking the ever-growing lunker pot which is at a record level. It looked like the weather would even cooperate with us as a few days of consistent warm weather preceded the tournament. Everything was set for an awesome weekend of pot-busting limits.

Well, as is often the case, we were pretty disappointed. Lanier Hunt was the least disappointed as he caught a lunker pot-busting 6+ pound fish on Friday. Too bad it was Friday. He followed that up with a nice five pounder on Saturday. Add that to the other two he caught and he had a total of 8.54 pounds.

James Kelley also weighed in three fish Saturday. His total was 5.41 pounds. Cliff Bost had some boat problems but managed to bring a pair of fish to the scales that weighed 3.59 pounds.

Andy Treon and Tom "Garp" Nicodemus each had a fish on Saturday. Other than that, nada. It was tough.

Day two wasn't much better. Cliff was the only one that had caught fish on Saturday who was able to bring in a Sunday fish.

Jim Norton brought in a solitary bass on Sunday. Mark Ward pulled out a come from behind second place finish with a pair of bedders that weighed 5.99 pounds.

In the end it was Lanier Hunt in first, Mark Ward second, Cliff Bost third, and James Kelley finished fourth.

There were some quality fish caught, but the quantity was not impressive. Maybe we just missed it by two weeks...

Brunett Lands Limit!

Mike Brunett scored his first tournament win at the first 2007 tournament on Lake Wedowee.

It was a proud day for all of us as we watched our new Secretary/Treasurer nervously collect everyone's big fish payments. He wasn't nervous about his new duties as the club's money man. No, he had other things on his mind. You see, he had a strong feeling that his sack of fish might just take the win. In the end, he was right.

Mike culled at least a limit of keepers throughout the day and brought 9.85 pounds to the scales. That included the day's big fish, a 2.74 pound largemouth.

His mentor (well, one of his mentors) Donnie Hendrickson placed second with a limit that weighed 6.60 pounds. Strangely enough, they were fishing from the same boat.

Third place went to Cliff (Cleophus) Bost who had the only other limit and 5.30 pounds.

Jim Bishop scored his first ever place in a club tournament when he took fourth with four fish and 5.15 pounds.

All in all it was a good tournament for the club. Everyone caught fish and the fish/angler ratio was 3.17:1.