Tournament Results

Lake Oconee

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Hot Start To New Season

Sunday July 17th, the Duluth Bass Club kicked off the Fall Season by venturing to Lake Oconee. For many years, Oconee has been a favorite summertime stop for very few teams in the club, probably due to anglers' inability to find quality fish lurking shallow in the extreme summer conditions. Oconees’ average depth is less than 20 feet and fish can be patterned year round in less than 5-6 feet of water.  Sunday's results were of little exception. 

While no records were shattered, it was not bad for the dog days either, as 29 of the 32 teams carried a bag to the scales. Tournament creel reports, 76 bass weighed for a total weight of 142 pounds making an average weight of 1.88 pounds per fish.  The club had four fish over the three-pound mark and none over the 4-lb. mark. 

Finding a multiple shallow water pattern combination and fine tuning it throughout the day; Mike Haddad - Joe Yurina took command of the fall opener with a five fish limit pressing the scales to 12.17.  Joe sealed their win with the tournaments second BB, a 3.59 lb'er caught on a 3/16 oz jig/GP trailer under a brush covered shallow water dock near the ramp on the last cast of the day. According to Mike; "We had a one-two combo working early morning - I was working a top-water prop bait to get their attention, and Joe worked a #5 shad-rap right behind my bait and caught fair 8-9 lb. limit by 7:00 AM. We worked a stretch of docks in two major creeks where deeper water was nearby. Late-morning, we changed to the jig/pig combo and culled at least 3 of the early morning fish. We boated 14 keepers during the day with Joe's final cast being the most important one. All our fish were caught in less than 4' of water."

Second place finishers were Steve Nalder and alternate Bobby Hyde with a five fish limit which benched the scales to 10.86. Steve & Bobby stated their pattern was almost identical to Mike & Joe....working creepy crawler jigs with GP trailers under shallow water docks. Steve noted they culled several keepers during the day, however needed a couple bigger bites.

Third Place was Ken Sponsler - Jack Smith with a solid limit weighing 7.60. Jack noted they had a multiple bait pattern working also as they caught keepers on small Mann's crankbaits, then switched to a T-Rig & C-Rig working GP finesse & T-worms in shallow pockets.

Fourth place went two guys who have had good success on Oconee and were the pre-tournament pick to win, however Sunday; Steve Hicks and Josh Petty brought in a scantly 4 bass sack weighing 6.86 lbs caught on a 3/8 oz blk/Blue jig-n-pig combo. They worked several areas near the ramp in Sugar Creek along with many other teams which received extreme fishing pressure the entire day.

The fifth place position went to the club's new "Dream Team", two guys who appear unlikely to be teamed up, however Bobby Anderson - Jay Donohue seem to have it together as they put together a sack of five that weighed 6.85 and quickly hushed all the nay-sayers. Jay noted; "maybe it was our different fishing styles put together which made it work as Bobby successfully worked a blue/silver trap and I worked the C-Rig with the finesse worms." 

Tony Combs took home big fish honors with quality bass that benchmarked at 3.81.  Tony noted that his fish came late day on a DD-22 on the rip-rap near the launch with only a couple minutes to go. Another good story.

Congratulations, Mike - Joe on an excellent Oconee team effort win!

Winning Patterns: Shallow water patterns prevailed.  The quality stringers all reportedly came above the 44 bridge in the creeks off the Oconee.  Very few reports of fish coming off main lake points, however many fish held tight to cover in brush piles.  Shallow docks with brush where deep water nearby were holding the quality fish.

Weather Conditions:  Mother Nature made it tough; the dog days pushed the 90 degree mark at weigh-in time, very little wind. Water surface temp ranged from 84 to 87 degrees. Up the Oconee river was lightly stained and was mostly clear below the 44 bridge.

Looking ahead:  The club still has a few team memberships available for those interested in joining.  It's not to late to jump in and join the fun, as next month the club heads to West Point Lake on Sunday August 21st. The meeting is Tuesday August 16th at Bass Pro Shops.  Team registration begins at 6:30 PM.

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Complete Tournament Results