Cletus T.
Senior Member
OK folks…..I know I get carried away with my stories and a lot of times I get really long winded on them but when telling a story you got to give all the juicy details and this past weekend was full of juicy details. Actually…..it’s not really juicy details…it’s more like bassy details. You see…..I took the family down to Big Sandy Plantation which is located right outside Macon in beautiful Dry Branch Ga. I have become good friends with Mr. Craig (the owner of Big Sandy) and he’s a super nice guy who is very generous with his place. He likes to share Big Sandy with people and as he has always told me…. “You be good to Big Sandy…..She’ll be good to you”. Some people have these really nice places that have awesome bass fishing and awesome deer and turkey hunting but they are not always willing to share it with you and they kind of keep it to themselves which has always rubbed me the wrong way a little. I understand……you put the time and money and hard work into a place you want to keep it that way but also…..why have a place like that if you’re not going to share it with some folks and see them experience it too. ANYWAY………If you have read any of our past stories we have been here before and had great adventures such as filming some material for Country Fried Cletus and having the Big Sandy Fluke Challenge last summer where Mr. Craig out fished my awesome super fluke with a Sharpie Highlighter that he glued treble hooks on. (YEAH…..that really happened and I still have a hard time believing it) but anyway…….Big Sandy is a great place to have all kind of outdoor adventures. It’s built for hunting and fishing and good times and this past weekend was just another example of how Big Sandy can be soooo good to you! Here’s how it went it down!
So it took forever to get home from work on Friday and we finally got the kids packed up in the truck with coolers and food and fishing poles….oh my. It takes about 2 hours to get down there from where we live so it was late thirty when we got down there so there wasn’t much going on that night but we ate a late super and let the kids run around and tire themselves out a little and then put them to bed. They probably didn’t go to sleep until 11 or 11:30 and guess what time they were up? 5:30……..yeah…they are crazy and make me and Jaimelou feel like zombies because when they don’t sleep neither do we but anyway……good thing was we were up in time to fish first light. I let Jaimelou stay in bed and I took the kids fishing on the main lake. We were just bank fishing and we went straight to a spot where I have gotten bit as well as lost a giant there too. It was down by the dam and right by the spill well and earlier this year a 12-pounder was caught and released back into the main lake. So that is where we went and on my very first cast with the buzzbait I had a bass hammer it. It was about a 2-pounder and it was really dark. The water in the main lake is really…really dark. It’s like that backrish water and it makes the bass look like spooky dark eating machines. So Hunter Jack and Presley girl both get to hold the bass and my little girl is the one who flings the dark bass back into the lake. So I head back over to spill well and again my buzzbait gets hammered but this bass had thicker shoulders on her. She moved a lot of water when she came and sucked the buzzbait in and then once she was hooked she headed straight to the pads to try and wrap me up but I was able to turn her and then lip her. She was a beautifully dark black bass and even though I didn’t put her on the scale she looked like about 4-pounds. It wasn’t even 6:30 a.m. yet and the bass had already put their stank on our hands. Big Sandy was starting to be good to us!
So Jaimelou got up and joined us and Mr. Craig had gotten up as well and was ready to take us on the big boat to fish the main lake. The main lake is pretty big….I think around 100 acres and it is filled with timber and lily pads and brush and I really can’t figure this lake out. I mean I can catch a fish or two out of here but I can’t put any kind of pattern together on this lake and for the couple hours that me….my wife….my two loud kids and Mr. Craig were on the lake we boated exactly ZERO fish. We fished up until about 11 and needed a break. It gets Africa HOT down there and it will zap you real quick. We ran into town for lunch and ate at the County Line Diner and had to buy some more milk because Hunter Jack had drank the lodge out of milk. We did all of our running around and got back to some afternoon adventure.
We went pond hoping on Big Sandy and me and Hunter Jack loaded up some poles and jumped on the golf cart and off we went. The first pond we hit up was “Blue Hole” and this lake is super clear due to the (K-ola) that is all over this region and I know I’m not spelling this word right but it’s used in make-up and crayons and a bunch of other stuff too but it makes this pond really clear. I bust one with the super fluke on the very first cast and even though he was a little guy I saw the whole thing play out in front of me….it was pretty cool. We moved to the other side of the “Blue Hole” and caught another one and by this time Mrs. Jaimelou and our precious little girl had caught up with us on their very own golf cart. We moved on to their trophy managed lake called “Tranquility” and we picked up another one there and then I snuck over to Church pond and busted a little guy as well so I hit for the cycle and busted a tri-fecta!!! It felt good after being humbled on the main lake earlier in the day. We took the kids to Mr. Terry’s place that afternoon because he has a swimming pool at his place and that was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. Mr. Terry owns the property across the street from Big Sandy and Terry and Craig are big buddies who love to hunt and fish and talk about managing their land together. He is a really nice man and his wife and son were there too and they are super nice people too. His son Kevin plays football for Ga. Southern and being that I played football at Western Carolina (which is in the same conference as Ga. Southern (Southern Conf.) we had a lot to talk about. I love talking football! Well....Craig had always told me that Terry had some ponds / lakes on his property too and that he had some great fishing over there. So Terry takes us on a tour of his property and I start seeing these ponds and they make my mouth water they look so bassy. Super clear water in some and mountains of timber and logs piled up….deep water meeting shallow water….blow downs….I mean…it had it all! I wanted to fish this place and later that night sitting around a high heat campfire we agreed to make that happen. So we were going to Terry’s place in the morning and Craig and I (Team Country Fried) were going to have a little fishing competition with Terry and his boy Kevin (Team Martin). Whatever team catches the biggest bass….WINS! No we really didn’t discuss what we won but we were both wanting to win because winning is so much better than losing…..right?
So Craig and I wake up really early Sunday morning and slip out into the dark of night (actually it was early morning) but it sounds so much cooler to say “dark of night” but we get over to Terry’s place and we are going to fish Beaver Lake first and that makes me happy because out of the 6 ponds he showed me the day before, Beaver Lake was my favorite. So we slip the boats in and I LOVE….LOVE….LOVE fishing first light because I love seeing the fog roll across the water and hearing the woods and water come alive and wake up but probably my favorite thing about fishing first light is topwater fishing. It might be my favorite bite and on this particular morning the buzzbait was getting hammered with a vengeance! From about 6 o’clock to about 9:30 we caught about 70 bass ALL on topwater. I was throwing “my now” lucky buzzbait and Craig was throwing a popper and the bass were just killing it. Also….there were very few rinky-dinks too. Most bass were in the 2 ½ - 3 pound range. It was the best morning topwater bite I have ever experienced…..I’m still having pleasant dreams about it! Our biggest in Beaver was 3 pounds 4 oz. Terry and Kevin had been whacking them too but they had yet caught one bigger than out leader. I had caught one that was 3 pounds even earlier in the day but nothing bigger than the 3 lbs. 4 oz. was caught. So Terry asked us if we wanted to fish the pond right up the hill called “Overlook” and of course we said yes. So we get out of Beaver Lake and put in to Overlook and this lake was super clear and we could see fish swimming everywhere….it was really…really cool.
There were some grass / weeds growing out from the bottom and it made fishing a warm or really anything on the bottom almost impossible but what was very possible was fishing a fluke and I was A-OK with that because I have a deep love affair with the fluke as most yall know but the fluke was the key in this super clear water. The water was so clear that in some of the pictures below you will see that the top of the water gives off a mirror reflection and it looks really wild. Hopefully you like it as much as I do. We had caught a lot of fish but they were a little smaller in this lake than the one before. Terry did manage to catch one that weighed 3 pounds 4 oz. too so we actually tied in the very intense fishing competition but it was one of the best fishing trips I had ever been on. I guess the coolest thing for me was that you could actually see the fish attack your bait and bite and it was really neat to see how they reacted to your presentation and to see them crept up and really stalk their prey and of course sometimes they would just torpedo it and that was super cool too to watch. I got some under water video too that isn’t the best view of what was going on down there but you will get an idea of how clear it was in this lake.
We called it a morning and I needed to get back to my wife because I’m sure she was about to put them in a choke hold s owe loaded the boat and headed back to Big Sandy where we loaded up our gear and after shaking Craig’s hand and giving him a pretty stout man hug we hit the road to head home. It was another awesome trip to Big Sandy and I can’t thank Mr. Craig for opening up his doors to me and my family and also Mr. Terry for letting my kids come over and swim and also letting me fish the coolest ponds / lakes I have ever fished! So I hope you enjoy the pictures and video and see how we had “Big Fun @ Big Sandy”
Stay Bassy My Friends!!!
Cletus
So it took forever to get home from work on Friday and we finally got the kids packed up in the truck with coolers and food and fishing poles….oh my. It takes about 2 hours to get down there from where we live so it was late thirty when we got down there so there wasn’t much going on that night but we ate a late super and let the kids run around and tire themselves out a little and then put them to bed. They probably didn’t go to sleep until 11 or 11:30 and guess what time they were up? 5:30……..yeah…they are crazy and make me and Jaimelou feel like zombies because when they don’t sleep neither do we but anyway……good thing was we were up in time to fish first light. I let Jaimelou stay in bed and I took the kids fishing on the main lake. We were just bank fishing and we went straight to a spot where I have gotten bit as well as lost a giant there too. It was down by the dam and right by the spill well and earlier this year a 12-pounder was caught and released back into the main lake. So that is where we went and on my very first cast with the buzzbait I had a bass hammer it. It was about a 2-pounder and it was really dark. The water in the main lake is really…really dark. It’s like that backrish water and it makes the bass look like spooky dark eating machines. So Hunter Jack and Presley girl both get to hold the bass and my little girl is the one who flings the dark bass back into the lake. So I head back over to spill well and again my buzzbait gets hammered but this bass had thicker shoulders on her. She moved a lot of water when she came and sucked the buzzbait in and then once she was hooked she headed straight to the pads to try and wrap me up but I was able to turn her and then lip her. She was a beautifully dark black bass and even though I didn’t put her on the scale she looked like about 4-pounds. It wasn’t even 6:30 a.m. yet and the bass had already put their stank on our hands. Big Sandy was starting to be good to us!
So Jaimelou got up and joined us and Mr. Craig had gotten up as well and was ready to take us on the big boat to fish the main lake. The main lake is pretty big….I think around 100 acres and it is filled with timber and lily pads and brush and I really can’t figure this lake out. I mean I can catch a fish or two out of here but I can’t put any kind of pattern together on this lake and for the couple hours that me….my wife….my two loud kids and Mr. Craig were on the lake we boated exactly ZERO fish. We fished up until about 11 and needed a break. It gets Africa HOT down there and it will zap you real quick. We ran into town for lunch and ate at the County Line Diner and had to buy some more milk because Hunter Jack had drank the lodge out of milk. We did all of our running around and got back to some afternoon adventure.
We went pond hoping on Big Sandy and me and Hunter Jack loaded up some poles and jumped on the golf cart and off we went. The first pond we hit up was “Blue Hole” and this lake is super clear due to the (K-ola) that is all over this region and I know I’m not spelling this word right but it’s used in make-up and crayons and a bunch of other stuff too but it makes this pond really clear. I bust one with the super fluke on the very first cast and even though he was a little guy I saw the whole thing play out in front of me….it was pretty cool. We moved to the other side of the “Blue Hole” and caught another one and by this time Mrs. Jaimelou and our precious little girl had caught up with us on their very own golf cart. We moved on to their trophy managed lake called “Tranquility” and we picked up another one there and then I snuck over to Church pond and busted a little guy as well so I hit for the cycle and busted a tri-fecta!!! It felt good after being humbled on the main lake earlier in the day. We took the kids to Mr. Terry’s place that afternoon because he has a swimming pool at his place and that was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. Mr. Terry owns the property across the street from Big Sandy and Terry and Craig are big buddies who love to hunt and fish and talk about managing their land together. He is a really nice man and his wife and son were there too and they are super nice people too. His son Kevin plays football for Ga. Southern and being that I played football at Western Carolina (which is in the same conference as Ga. Southern (Southern Conf.) we had a lot to talk about. I love talking football! Well....Craig had always told me that Terry had some ponds / lakes on his property too and that he had some great fishing over there. So Terry takes us on a tour of his property and I start seeing these ponds and they make my mouth water they look so bassy. Super clear water in some and mountains of timber and logs piled up….deep water meeting shallow water….blow downs….I mean…it had it all! I wanted to fish this place and later that night sitting around a high heat campfire we agreed to make that happen. So we were going to Terry’s place in the morning and Craig and I (Team Country Fried) were going to have a little fishing competition with Terry and his boy Kevin (Team Martin). Whatever team catches the biggest bass….WINS! No we really didn’t discuss what we won but we were both wanting to win because winning is so much better than losing…..right?
So Craig and I wake up really early Sunday morning and slip out into the dark of night (actually it was early morning) but it sounds so much cooler to say “dark of night” but we get over to Terry’s place and we are going to fish Beaver Lake first and that makes me happy because out of the 6 ponds he showed me the day before, Beaver Lake was my favorite. So we slip the boats in and I LOVE….LOVE….LOVE fishing first light because I love seeing the fog roll across the water and hearing the woods and water come alive and wake up but probably my favorite thing about fishing first light is topwater fishing. It might be my favorite bite and on this particular morning the buzzbait was getting hammered with a vengeance! From about 6 o’clock to about 9:30 we caught about 70 bass ALL on topwater. I was throwing “my now” lucky buzzbait and Craig was throwing a popper and the bass were just killing it. Also….there were very few rinky-dinks too. Most bass were in the 2 ½ - 3 pound range. It was the best morning topwater bite I have ever experienced…..I’m still having pleasant dreams about it! Our biggest in Beaver was 3 pounds 4 oz. Terry and Kevin had been whacking them too but they had yet caught one bigger than out leader. I had caught one that was 3 pounds even earlier in the day but nothing bigger than the 3 lbs. 4 oz. was caught. So Terry asked us if we wanted to fish the pond right up the hill called “Overlook” and of course we said yes. So we get out of Beaver Lake and put in to Overlook and this lake was super clear and we could see fish swimming everywhere….it was really…really cool.
There were some grass / weeds growing out from the bottom and it made fishing a warm or really anything on the bottom almost impossible but what was very possible was fishing a fluke and I was A-OK with that because I have a deep love affair with the fluke as most yall know but the fluke was the key in this super clear water. The water was so clear that in some of the pictures below you will see that the top of the water gives off a mirror reflection and it looks really wild. Hopefully you like it as much as I do. We had caught a lot of fish but they were a little smaller in this lake than the one before. Terry did manage to catch one that weighed 3 pounds 4 oz. too so we actually tied in the very intense fishing competition but it was one of the best fishing trips I had ever been on. I guess the coolest thing for me was that you could actually see the fish attack your bait and bite and it was really neat to see how they reacted to your presentation and to see them crept up and really stalk their prey and of course sometimes they would just torpedo it and that was super cool too to watch. I got some under water video too that isn’t the best view of what was going on down there but you will get an idea of how clear it was in this lake.
We called it a morning and I needed to get back to my wife because I’m sure she was about to put them in a choke hold s owe loaded the boat and headed back to Big Sandy where we loaded up our gear and after shaking Craig’s hand and giving him a pretty stout man hug we hit the road to head home. It was another awesome trip to Big Sandy and I can’t thank Mr. Craig for opening up his doors to me and my family and also Mr. Terry for letting my kids come over and swim and also letting me fish the coolest ponds / lakes I have ever fished! So I hope you enjoy the pictures and video and see how we had “Big Fun @ Big Sandy”
Stay Bassy My Friends!!!
Cletus
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...just let me know when!
