Cletus T.
Senior Member
Well folks…..another Spring Fling has come and gone and that makes me sad but this Fling produced the most BIG fish we have ever caught as a group. Last year Buck set the all-time Spring Fling record with his 9-pounder and while we didn’t break that record……….we did put more BIG fish up on the board than ever before so without further a-do do………here’s your recap.
DAY 1
Thursday morning fishing started right at safe light and I started this Spring Fling just like I’ve started out every other spring fling………with topwater!!! The weather this year was very warm leading up to Spring Fling so I felt pretty good about a strong topwater bite going on and on about my 3rd cast I had one swallow up my gold wake bait. I buried my hooks in her mouth and brought her to the boat. I thought alright…..alright….the topwater bite in ON!!! Then I never got another bite on top…..BOO!!!! As always I was fishing with Wojo on Thursday and it didn’t take him long to start busting them too. He was catching them with D-Bombs (soft plastic) and also on a paddle-tail swimbaits. As we were making our way to the dock to break for lunch we saw Devin and Lane coming at us shouting they had a fish to weigh. I had the official scale on my boat so we linked up on the water and sure enough……….Lane had busted a fat mama!!! We weighed her and she weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. and was just a beautiful looking fish with great colors and all. Lane was pumped……..but……he said it wouldn’t hold……and he was right!
So we broke for lunch and that 7 pound 2 ounce bass was your mid-day leader which is pretty dang strong. This Fling marked the 5th time we had held it at Big Sandy Plantation and every year at least one 7-pounder has been caught so that was nice too. We ate some lunch and got off our feet for a little bit ready to attack the afternoon bite.
The afternoon bite got hot for some folks but that wasn’t me. I caught one bass for the afternoon but The Renegade caught his new personal best and we just so happened to be close by to see the whole fight and I was able to film it on my gopro so hopefully the footage comes out good but he caught her with a soft plastic working it slow and they didn’t have a net so we were trying to get over to them with ours but before we could get there Dunaway (The Renegade) had lipped her but get this……he lipped her on the top lip. She must have had a stiff upper lip or something. Then there HOOTS and HOLLERS and high-fives…..it was awesome. Since they didn’t have a live well either we cruised up to them and I took it from Dunaway and put it on the official scales……..7-pounds 9 ounces…..we have a new leader folks!!!!! We fished some more as the sun started to get low in the sky and started making our way back to the dock to close the door on Day 1…..but when we got to the main dock Thomas was there waiting on us with a big ole grin on his face…….he had one in the box to weigh too and he said she had some shoulders on her. He pulls her out of the box and she is a big girl……..looks very similar to one Dunaway just weighed in. I put her on the scales and she weighs 7-pounds 9 ounces………are you kidding me???? We got a tie for first place folks……..and we have had ties before folks. Me and Wojo had to share the title a few years back with a 7-1/2 pounder so it has happened before and now Dunaway and Thomas were in a dead tie for the Spring Fling Championship……..but……we still had two whole days of fishing to go, even though the 7 -9 was strong…….we all had a feeling that it wouldn’t hold. We washed our hands…..ate some fine fine dinner that JT had pre-pared for us (BBQ) and we laughed and told stories around the campfire that night. What a great first day!!!
Day 2
Friday morning came and once again……it was warm right off the bat. This rain that they keep talking about just never showed up. I mean….most of us fished in flip-flops and shorts all weekend……it was really nice. I was actually fishing with Wojo one more morning and he picked up right where he left off by busting bass throughout the morning as poor poor Cletus sat in the back of the boat smelling like a skunk! Craig Brown the owner of Big Sandy actually made an appericance this year with his buddy Johnny Awesome and they brought us a fish to weigh. Johnny Awesome had busted a nice one and they gave it to me to weigh. 7-6 is what the scale was brought down too……so it was a heck of bass…….but not bigger than 7-9. We had more people rolling in today and at about 10 o’clock I saw my brother’s skiff coming across the water but my brother wasn’t in it……..my brother BB was fishing with somebody else in their boat so he let KB, Duncan and Chris use the skiff to crappie fish. Chris brought a spinning reel and a pack of Senkos to get in some bass fishing too and it’s a good thing he did too………he said that they were trolling and catching crappie but he threw his Senko out the back and was just dragging it and popping it and then letting it sit and he at first thought he was hung, so he told his brother KB to turn the boat around but that hang-up soon turned into a monster bass and the fight was on. We heard them hoot and holler and then they started to holler for us because we needed to weigh it and also keep it alive in the live well. I overheard KB telling his brother Chris that it might be 5-pounds but the closer they got to us and the more I could put my eyes on this bass it was WAY bigger than 5-pounds. We got to the fish and it was without a doubt bigger than 5-pounds. You aint gonna believe what the scale went down to………7-pounds 9-ounces, so I weighed it again and it said 7-8…….so we weighed it a 3rd time and again it said 7-9 so folks………we have a 3-WAY TIE……..DO WHAT????? I couldn’t believe it……I still can’t believe it. 3 big ole 7-pounders all weighing 7-9……..that is just crazy…..super crazy but it really happened folks. I saw it with my own eyes! We haven’t even broke for lunch yet and we have a 3-way tie to be the 2016 Spring Fling Champion!!!!! We break for an awesome Fried Chicken and sides lunch that Pat, Tiny and BB provided and boy was it good!!
I took Friday afternoon off from fishing and just enjoyed the beautiful weather and hung out…..I took it easy and rested my weary legs and feet. Not everybody took Friday afternoon off and once again……the big girls were biting! As we were sitting over at Tranquility we had a text come through which was a miracle within itself but the reception down there isn’t the greatest but the text was titled : NEW LEADER and it had a pic of Mr. Chad Reed with an 8-pound 13-ounce monster of a BASS…….Chad caught it off a small plastic worm (a French fry style bait) and he got that little piece of plastic in the right spot and wiggled that thing and the big girl sucked it in……..the pics of the bass were amazing but so was the smile on Chad’s face. Chad is a dude that has been coming for years and this was his all-time best bass. He’s one of those guys that is so jolly. Always smiling and always in a good mood. He’s always positive and has a great laugh so I was so happy to see him so happy with a bass of that magnitude. Other than Buck’s 9-pounder from last year this is the biggest bass ever caught in the 14-years of the Spring Fling so that is very impressive. And with that we made our way back to the Lodge to start getting dinner ready but before Day 2 drew to a close we had one more fish to weigh. It was dark and dinner was about to be served and here comes JT walking up the hill looking for me and my scale. He stuck one…….and she’s a big girl. So off we went into the night to go weigh this fish down at the main dock where he had her in the live well. This big girl pulled the scale down to 7 pounds 15 ounces, I really wanted to call it an 8-pounder but all three times it came back 7-15. That is JT’s personal best……so it wasn’t enough to knock the leader off but it’s the 2nd place fish and the 2nd place fish does get some money……..so that’s nice. We close out the day……stuff our faces and sit around the fire that night laughing and telling fish stories. Tomorrow is Championship Day!
DAY 3 (Championship Day)
So Championship Day arrives and once again…….no rain. This is the first Fling in our 14-year history where it hasn’t rained on us……not even a little bit. The weather was glorious this year…….just simply glorious and we’re very grateful for that. I was finally able to get into my brothers boat with him and that was a lot of fun. My brother this year though……caught more fish than me and also bigger fish than me so big brother was pretty excited about that. My brother BB caught a few that morning and I got one more on my gold topwater bait so that was nice. We got off the water at lunch with a few fish caught but no real big ones…..ole Chad Reed was looking pretty stout with that 8-13 bass. Folks…..at this point in the competition I had caught a grand total of 3-bass and none of them were over 3-pounds so my confidence was shaken. I had to get my confidence back and the best way to do that is to get back out there and go with what you know and I know a fluke. So me and BB and Duncan went pond hoping on some of the other lakes out there and we went to Blue Hole where the water is super clear and started wacking ‘em on the fluke and what was cool was that every fish I caught I saw. I was out there bass stalking them from the bank and it was so much fun. BB spotted a big one cruising and I slung my fluke out there and got her attention and she nosed down on…….flared her gills and I set the hook and it came right out of her mouth…….not sure how that happened but she got me shaking for sure. She was in the 6-7 pound range so that would have saved my fishing weekend but oh well. I did get my confidence back though so that was good. Ole Rhettro finally busted his biggest Big Sandy Spring Fling Bass with a beautiful 6-11 fish. Even though my performance was down there were so many great fish caught and so many people caught their biggest bass ever so when folks are catching their personal bests……….how can you complain???
Here’s a list below of the big fish caught and if it was a personal best or not.
Lane 7-2
Johnny Awesome 7-6
Dunaway 7-9 (Personal Best)
Thomas 7-9
Chris B 7-9 (Personal Best)
JT 7-15 (Personal Best)
Chad Reed 8-13 (Personal Best)
That right there is stronger than a Garlic Milkshake…….you know it is!!!! The 8-13 took home the title this year and like I’ve already said, it couldn’t have happened to a better person. Chad will be a great ambassador as the Spring Fling Champion for the year. We had a great Banquet Night and stuffed ourselves silly with delicious food. We got to sit around the fire one more night as a solid group of buddies and then we had one heck of a firework show put on for us. My buddy Dew does an excellent job of this every year and then we had another buddy flying his drone over the booms and capturing what I imagine will be a mind-blowing video!!!! Spring Fling is the one time a year where we are all in the same place at the same time doing the same thing……..fishing our tails off. We got guys that go down early and get wood for us and do all the dirty work. Real solid / Real Men type of dudes so thank you Bih John and Wells and Ross and Chad for going down early and getting it ready for us! The older we get the more special this time is. Ole Rhettro drives all the way from Wisc. Every spring to come back to this event so it’s a pretty big deal. The Fling was very good to us again and I have to thank Big Sandy Plantation for opening her doors to us. Craig got to actually be there with us this year so he saw with his own two eyeballs how special this event is and how we take care of the place. Craig told me way back when during my first trip to Big Sandy that “if you be good to Big Sandy / She’ll be good to you” this weekend was one of the best examples of that every. She was VERY good to us!
So there you have it folks……another Spring Fling is in the books and the memories and the pictures and the videos and everything from this past weekend will always put a big ole smile on my face. Until next year…….where I plan on catching a 15-pounder on the 15th Anniversary of Spring Fling and winning it all!!!!!!!!!
Cletus
DAY 1
Thursday morning fishing started right at safe light and I started this Spring Fling just like I’ve started out every other spring fling………with topwater!!! The weather this year was very warm leading up to Spring Fling so I felt pretty good about a strong topwater bite going on and on about my 3rd cast I had one swallow up my gold wake bait. I buried my hooks in her mouth and brought her to the boat. I thought alright…..alright….the topwater bite in ON!!! Then I never got another bite on top…..BOO!!!! As always I was fishing with Wojo on Thursday and it didn’t take him long to start busting them too. He was catching them with D-Bombs (soft plastic) and also on a paddle-tail swimbaits. As we were making our way to the dock to break for lunch we saw Devin and Lane coming at us shouting they had a fish to weigh. I had the official scale on my boat so we linked up on the water and sure enough……….Lane had busted a fat mama!!! We weighed her and she weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. and was just a beautiful looking fish with great colors and all. Lane was pumped……..but……he said it wouldn’t hold……and he was right!
So we broke for lunch and that 7 pound 2 ounce bass was your mid-day leader which is pretty dang strong. This Fling marked the 5th time we had held it at Big Sandy Plantation and every year at least one 7-pounder has been caught so that was nice too. We ate some lunch and got off our feet for a little bit ready to attack the afternoon bite.
The afternoon bite got hot for some folks but that wasn’t me. I caught one bass for the afternoon but The Renegade caught his new personal best and we just so happened to be close by to see the whole fight and I was able to film it on my gopro so hopefully the footage comes out good but he caught her with a soft plastic working it slow and they didn’t have a net so we were trying to get over to them with ours but before we could get there Dunaway (The Renegade) had lipped her but get this……he lipped her on the top lip. She must have had a stiff upper lip or something. Then there HOOTS and HOLLERS and high-fives…..it was awesome. Since they didn’t have a live well either we cruised up to them and I took it from Dunaway and put it on the official scales……..7-pounds 9 ounces…..we have a new leader folks!!!!! We fished some more as the sun started to get low in the sky and started making our way back to the dock to close the door on Day 1…..but when we got to the main dock Thomas was there waiting on us with a big ole grin on his face…….he had one in the box to weigh too and he said she had some shoulders on her. He pulls her out of the box and she is a big girl……..looks very similar to one Dunaway just weighed in. I put her on the scales and she weighs 7-pounds 9 ounces………are you kidding me???? We got a tie for first place folks……..and we have had ties before folks. Me and Wojo had to share the title a few years back with a 7-1/2 pounder so it has happened before and now Dunaway and Thomas were in a dead tie for the Spring Fling Championship……..but……we still had two whole days of fishing to go, even though the 7 -9 was strong…….we all had a feeling that it wouldn’t hold. We washed our hands…..ate some fine fine dinner that JT had pre-pared for us (BBQ) and we laughed and told stories around the campfire that night. What a great first day!!!
Day 2
Friday morning came and once again……it was warm right off the bat. This rain that they keep talking about just never showed up. I mean….most of us fished in flip-flops and shorts all weekend……it was really nice. I was actually fishing with Wojo one more morning and he picked up right where he left off by busting bass throughout the morning as poor poor Cletus sat in the back of the boat smelling like a skunk! Craig Brown the owner of Big Sandy actually made an appericance this year with his buddy Johnny Awesome and they brought us a fish to weigh. Johnny Awesome had busted a nice one and they gave it to me to weigh. 7-6 is what the scale was brought down too……so it was a heck of bass…….but not bigger than 7-9. We had more people rolling in today and at about 10 o’clock I saw my brother’s skiff coming across the water but my brother wasn’t in it……..my brother BB was fishing with somebody else in their boat so he let KB, Duncan and Chris use the skiff to crappie fish. Chris brought a spinning reel and a pack of Senkos to get in some bass fishing too and it’s a good thing he did too………he said that they were trolling and catching crappie but he threw his Senko out the back and was just dragging it and popping it and then letting it sit and he at first thought he was hung, so he told his brother KB to turn the boat around but that hang-up soon turned into a monster bass and the fight was on. We heard them hoot and holler and then they started to holler for us because we needed to weigh it and also keep it alive in the live well. I overheard KB telling his brother Chris that it might be 5-pounds but the closer they got to us and the more I could put my eyes on this bass it was WAY bigger than 5-pounds. We got to the fish and it was without a doubt bigger than 5-pounds. You aint gonna believe what the scale went down to………7-pounds 9-ounces, so I weighed it again and it said 7-8…….so we weighed it a 3rd time and again it said 7-9 so folks………we have a 3-WAY TIE……..DO WHAT????? I couldn’t believe it……I still can’t believe it. 3 big ole 7-pounders all weighing 7-9……..that is just crazy…..super crazy but it really happened folks. I saw it with my own eyes! We haven’t even broke for lunch yet and we have a 3-way tie to be the 2016 Spring Fling Champion!!!!! We break for an awesome Fried Chicken and sides lunch that Pat, Tiny and BB provided and boy was it good!!
I took Friday afternoon off from fishing and just enjoyed the beautiful weather and hung out…..I took it easy and rested my weary legs and feet. Not everybody took Friday afternoon off and once again……the big girls were biting! As we were sitting over at Tranquility we had a text come through which was a miracle within itself but the reception down there isn’t the greatest but the text was titled : NEW LEADER and it had a pic of Mr. Chad Reed with an 8-pound 13-ounce monster of a BASS…….Chad caught it off a small plastic worm (a French fry style bait) and he got that little piece of plastic in the right spot and wiggled that thing and the big girl sucked it in……..the pics of the bass were amazing but so was the smile on Chad’s face. Chad is a dude that has been coming for years and this was his all-time best bass. He’s one of those guys that is so jolly. Always smiling and always in a good mood. He’s always positive and has a great laugh so I was so happy to see him so happy with a bass of that magnitude. Other than Buck’s 9-pounder from last year this is the biggest bass ever caught in the 14-years of the Spring Fling so that is very impressive. And with that we made our way back to the Lodge to start getting dinner ready but before Day 2 drew to a close we had one more fish to weigh. It was dark and dinner was about to be served and here comes JT walking up the hill looking for me and my scale. He stuck one…….and she’s a big girl. So off we went into the night to go weigh this fish down at the main dock where he had her in the live well. This big girl pulled the scale down to 7 pounds 15 ounces, I really wanted to call it an 8-pounder but all three times it came back 7-15. That is JT’s personal best……so it wasn’t enough to knock the leader off but it’s the 2nd place fish and the 2nd place fish does get some money……..so that’s nice. We close out the day……stuff our faces and sit around the fire that night laughing and telling fish stories. Tomorrow is Championship Day!
DAY 3 (Championship Day)
So Championship Day arrives and once again…….no rain. This is the first Fling in our 14-year history where it hasn’t rained on us……not even a little bit. The weather was glorious this year…….just simply glorious and we’re very grateful for that. I was finally able to get into my brothers boat with him and that was a lot of fun. My brother this year though……caught more fish than me and also bigger fish than me so big brother was pretty excited about that. My brother BB caught a few that morning and I got one more on my gold topwater bait so that was nice. We got off the water at lunch with a few fish caught but no real big ones…..ole Chad Reed was looking pretty stout with that 8-13 bass. Folks…..at this point in the competition I had caught a grand total of 3-bass and none of them were over 3-pounds so my confidence was shaken. I had to get my confidence back and the best way to do that is to get back out there and go with what you know and I know a fluke. So me and BB and Duncan went pond hoping on some of the other lakes out there and we went to Blue Hole where the water is super clear and started wacking ‘em on the fluke and what was cool was that every fish I caught I saw. I was out there bass stalking them from the bank and it was so much fun. BB spotted a big one cruising and I slung my fluke out there and got her attention and she nosed down on…….flared her gills and I set the hook and it came right out of her mouth…….not sure how that happened but she got me shaking for sure. She was in the 6-7 pound range so that would have saved my fishing weekend but oh well. I did get my confidence back though so that was good. Ole Rhettro finally busted his biggest Big Sandy Spring Fling Bass with a beautiful 6-11 fish. Even though my performance was down there were so many great fish caught and so many people caught their biggest bass ever so when folks are catching their personal bests……….how can you complain???
Here’s a list below of the big fish caught and if it was a personal best or not.
Lane 7-2
Johnny Awesome 7-6
Dunaway 7-9 (Personal Best)
Thomas 7-9
Chris B 7-9 (Personal Best)
JT 7-15 (Personal Best)
Chad Reed 8-13 (Personal Best)
That right there is stronger than a Garlic Milkshake…….you know it is!!!! The 8-13 took home the title this year and like I’ve already said, it couldn’t have happened to a better person. Chad will be a great ambassador as the Spring Fling Champion for the year. We had a great Banquet Night and stuffed ourselves silly with delicious food. We got to sit around the fire one more night as a solid group of buddies and then we had one heck of a firework show put on for us. My buddy Dew does an excellent job of this every year and then we had another buddy flying his drone over the booms and capturing what I imagine will be a mind-blowing video!!!! Spring Fling is the one time a year where we are all in the same place at the same time doing the same thing……..fishing our tails off. We got guys that go down early and get wood for us and do all the dirty work. Real solid / Real Men type of dudes so thank you Bih John and Wells and Ross and Chad for going down early and getting it ready for us! The older we get the more special this time is. Ole Rhettro drives all the way from Wisc. Every spring to come back to this event so it’s a pretty big deal. The Fling was very good to us again and I have to thank Big Sandy Plantation for opening her doors to us. Craig got to actually be there with us this year so he saw with his own two eyeballs how special this event is and how we take care of the place. Craig told me way back when during my first trip to Big Sandy that “if you be good to Big Sandy / She’ll be good to you” this weekend was one of the best examples of that every. She was VERY good to us!
So there you have it folks……another Spring Fling is in the books and the memories and the pictures and the videos and everything from this past weekend will always put a big ole smile on my face. Until next year…….where I plan on catching a 15-pounder on the 15th Anniversary of Spring Fling and winning it all!!!!!!!!!
Cletus
