Cletus T.
Senior Member
Well folks – another Spring Fling has come and gone and this one we appreciated a little bit more since Covid took Spring Fling 2020 away from us so we really tried to soak it all up as these are crazy times we are living in and who knows what will happen next so we we’re very grateful to be able to keep doing this thing after 19-years.We held it at Charlie Elliott / Marben Farms PFA and we’ve been there before and it’s treated us so well that we decided to have it there again. Next Year will be the 20th Anniversary of our Spring Fling Fishing Trip and we’re taking it back to where it all began – Paradise PFA in Tifton, Ga. - BUT before we get excited about that I need to provide a re-cap on this past years Fling so here you go!
DAY 1
So I tried something different this year and I drove down early on Thursday morning instead of coming down on Wed. afternoon but we already had about 10-guys there on Wed. I fished with Rhettro on Thursday in his J12 Carolina Skiff and we fished Fox Lake to start off and we were the first ones on the water. I threw topwater hoping something big would jump on it but nothing even sniffed it. Rhettro ended up catching one about an hour into the morning but ole Cletus was struggling to get bit. I had 5 different rod and reel’s rigged up with different baits and I threw all of them but nothing every bit my offering. Rhett caught one more small one before we got off the water around 11:30. I had to go get my pass for my camping spot and talk to Mrs. Sue who BTW is a lovely lady up there and she took great care of us. All of the folks out there at Charlie Elliott are great people who want you to enjoy your stay there so they really take care of the place and they take care of you. Thank you to the staff at Charlie Elliott for making our trip so nice. When we broke for lunch Johnny Awesome had caught a 3.5 bass that was leading the day. We switched from Fox to Bennett for the Afternoon Fish and I felt good about it because I’ve always had the most success out there on Bennett so I just knew I was going to hammer some bass – I DID NOT. I threw everything I had in the tacklebox and never got bit. It was frustrating and I ended the day with a Skunk. Johnny Awesome’s 3.5 was the Day 1 leader!
DAY 2
Friday morning comes and I find myself in the boat with Wojo. Wojo is my longtime Thursday partner but he couldn’t make it down until Friday this year but we were out on Bennett again and I thought there was no way I would get skunked again – well – I was wrong and Wojo got skunked for the morning fish too and he’s a heck of a fisherman so I’m not sure what was wrong with the fish but they were not active at all. My frustration was beginning to turn to Anger! I decided to just bank fish some ponds on Friday afternoon and finally broke the skunk off with two tiny bass that fell for the super fluke. It was nice to get the skunk off but I needed some size to my catches. Other folks in our group were struggling to catch a fish too so I wasn’t the only one but a few guys had started to catch some fish and ole Dubnik had caught a 4-pounder over in Fox that ended up being the Day 2 leader. He fishes hard too and when most folks are getting off the water for lunch he’s eating a pack of crackers and fishing his face off. So while the weather was absolutely Gorgeous and one would think that fish would be jumping in the boat – they were not. Dubs 4-pounder ended the day as the leader and we ate like kings that night.
DAY 3 (CHAMPIONSHIP DAY)
I woke up super early on Championship Day and went on foot to Lower Raleigh and I was going to win this dang thing on topwater in a pond that nobody had really fished a lot yet but once again – I was wrong. I didn’t get the first sniff. I did get one roll on my whopper plopper but I’m pretty sure the fish was scared of my bait and was running away from it. Wojo and Birdsong came down to bank fish some too and while they didn’t catch anything on lower Raleigh they did catch a few on Upper Raleigh and the little bity pond above it. I walked more ponds and ended up catching another small bass on a fluke in Otter lake but my confidence was at an all-time low! I needed to get in a boat on one of the bigger ponds / lakes and make it happen. Nick Adams had caught a 4 & a half pounder that was now our new leader but it only lasted a few hours as Lane busted a 5.2 pounder that put the pressure on all of us because with the fishing as tough as it was it might as well been a 10-pounder in the lead.
I ended up getting in a big bass boat with Thomas and Nick and while we were fishing 3 out of that boat it’s plenty big enough to fish 3 out of it. We we’re beating the banks and fishing shallow because that’s where they “should” be and it was only a matter of time before they would be there. Every so often there would be some topwater explosions out in the open water because Bennett is loaded with baitfish and while that is good – it also makes the bite tough because their bellies are so full that they don’t want to eat your spinnerbait or crankbait or topwater or lizard or worm or jig or fluke or sweet beaver - you get the point! So while Nick and Thomas are beating the banks I’m just throwing it out into the open water and then we see and hear some topwater boils and Thomas puts the trolling motor on high so we can get into casting range and I’m casting my arm off but it looks like I missed the feeding time but then all of a sudden something absolutely crushes my fluke and the very second I set the hook I knew it was a heavy fish and this fish digs deep and never comes up to show itself and it stayed down forever so I thought it might be a catfish but this was no catfish folks……I let it run and hopefully tire itself out but it didn’t seem to tire and I was finally able to get it to the surface and Thomas got a good luck at it as it surfaced towards the front of the boat (I’m in the back of the boat) and he said it was a monster bass! So it digs again and I probably fought it for 2-3 mins and once again I tried to pull it to the surface and she finally showed her side to me and it was unbelievable how big she was and it appeared she was going to give herself up but she made one more hard dive and my 10-pound line couldn’t hold her anymore and she broke my line and broke my heart. It was terrible! She was the fish of a lifetime and I’ve tangled with two 10-pounders in my life and both times they broke my line so I’ve seen some 10-pounders up close and this fish was bigger than both of them. There’s no telling what she would have brought the scale down to. I was heart broken and I still am! It just wasn’t meant to be I guess???
So even with all that Sadness I can’t be too deep into the darkness because we had a wonderful time with friends and the weather was amazing and we ate and drank like kings and we made wonderful memories! This was the 19th year of the Fling and the fact that we can still do this is downright amazing! It’s a fishing trip but it’s more than just that and that’s why we keep coming back to this thing year after year. We know the fishing is going to be tough and if that’s the only reason we did this we would have stopped this trip long ago. So Lane won the Big Bass Championship with his 5.2 and not only did Lane win but with this win it makes him a 3-time Champion and he joins Wojo as the only 3-time Champion. That’s very impressive as we have a bunch of good fisherman in our group.
So we turn the page on this Fling and look forward to our 20th and we are going to take it back to where it all began – Paradise PFA in South Georgia! I’m sore and tired and still a little sad but I look back on all these pictures and a huge smile stretches across my face. Thanks for taking the time to read the re-cap and check out the pictures.
Happy Fishing Everybody!
Cletus
DAY 1
So I tried something different this year and I drove down early on Thursday morning instead of coming down on Wed. afternoon but we already had about 10-guys there on Wed. I fished with Rhettro on Thursday in his J12 Carolina Skiff and we fished Fox Lake to start off and we were the first ones on the water. I threw topwater hoping something big would jump on it but nothing even sniffed it. Rhettro ended up catching one about an hour into the morning but ole Cletus was struggling to get bit. I had 5 different rod and reel’s rigged up with different baits and I threw all of them but nothing every bit my offering. Rhett caught one more small one before we got off the water around 11:30. I had to go get my pass for my camping spot and talk to Mrs. Sue who BTW is a lovely lady up there and she took great care of us. All of the folks out there at Charlie Elliott are great people who want you to enjoy your stay there so they really take care of the place and they take care of you. Thank you to the staff at Charlie Elliott for making our trip so nice. When we broke for lunch Johnny Awesome had caught a 3.5 bass that was leading the day. We switched from Fox to Bennett for the Afternoon Fish and I felt good about it because I’ve always had the most success out there on Bennett so I just knew I was going to hammer some bass – I DID NOT. I threw everything I had in the tacklebox and never got bit. It was frustrating and I ended the day with a Skunk. Johnny Awesome’s 3.5 was the Day 1 leader!
DAY 2
Friday morning comes and I find myself in the boat with Wojo. Wojo is my longtime Thursday partner but he couldn’t make it down until Friday this year but we were out on Bennett again and I thought there was no way I would get skunked again – well – I was wrong and Wojo got skunked for the morning fish too and he’s a heck of a fisherman so I’m not sure what was wrong with the fish but they were not active at all. My frustration was beginning to turn to Anger! I decided to just bank fish some ponds on Friday afternoon and finally broke the skunk off with two tiny bass that fell for the super fluke. It was nice to get the skunk off but I needed some size to my catches. Other folks in our group were struggling to catch a fish too so I wasn’t the only one but a few guys had started to catch some fish and ole Dubnik had caught a 4-pounder over in Fox that ended up being the Day 2 leader. He fishes hard too and when most folks are getting off the water for lunch he’s eating a pack of crackers and fishing his face off. So while the weather was absolutely Gorgeous and one would think that fish would be jumping in the boat – they were not. Dubs 4-pounder ended the day as the leader and we ate like kings that night.
DAY 3 (CHAMPIONSHIP DAY)
I woke up super early on Championship Day and went on foot to Lower Raleigh and I was going to win this dang thing on topwater in a pond that nobody had really fished a lot yet but once again – I was wrong. I didn’t get the first sniff. I did get one roll on my whopper plopper but I’m pretty sure the fish was scared of my bait and was running away from it. Wojo and Birdsong came down to bank fish some too and while they didn’t catch anything on lower Raleigh they did catch a few on Upper Raleigh and the little bity pond above it. I walked more ponds and ended up catching another small bass on a fluke in Otter lake but my confidence was at an all-time low! I needed to get in a boat on one of the bigger ponds / lakes and make it happen. Nick Adams had caught a 4 & a half pounder that was now our new leader but it only lasted a few hours as Lane busted a 5.2 pounder that put the pressure on all of us because with the fishing as tough as it was it might as well been a 10-pounder in the lead.
I ended up getting in a big bass boat with Thomas and Nick and while we were fishing 3 out of that boat it’s plenty big enough to fish 3 out of it. We we’re beating the banks and fishing shallow because that’s where they “should” be and it was only a matter of time before they would be there. Every so often there would be some topwater explosions out in the open water because Bennett is loaded with baitfish and while that is good – it also makes the bite tough because their bellies are so full that they don’t want to eat your spinnerbait or crankbait or topwater or lizard or worm or jig or fluke or sweet beaver - you get the point! So while Nick and Thomas are beating the banks I’m just throwing it out into the open water and then we see and hear some topwater boils and Thomas puts the trolling motor on high so we can get into casting range and I’m casting my arm off but it looks like I missed the feeding time but then all of a sudden something absolutely crushes my fluke and the very second I set the hook I knew it was a heavy fish and this fish digs deep and never comes up to show itself and it stayed down forever so I thought it might be a catfish but this was no catfish folks……I let it run and hopefully tire itself out but it didn’t seem to tire and I was finally able to get it to the surface and Thomas got a good luck at it as it surfaced towards the front of the boat (I’m in the back of the boat) and he said it was a monster bass! So it digs again and I probably fought it for 2-3 mins and once again I tried to pull it to the surface and she finally showed her side to me and it was unbelievable how big she was and it appeared she was going to give herself up but she made one more hard dive and my 10-pound line couldn’t hold her anymore and she broke my line and broke my heart. It was terrible! She was the fish of a lifetime and I’ve tangled with two 10-pounders in my life and both times they broke my line so I’ve seen some 10-pounders up close and this fish was bigger than both of them. There’s no telling what she would have brought the scale down to. I was heart broken and I still am! It just wasn’t meant to be I guess???
So even with all that Sadness I can’t be too deep into the darkness because we had a wonderful time with friends and the weather was amazing and we ate and drank like kings and we made wonderful memories! This was the 19th year of the Fling and the fact that we can still do this is downright amazing! It’s a fishing trip but it’s more than just that and that’s why we keep coming back to this thing year after year. We know the fishing is going to be tough and if that’s the only reason we did this we would have stopped this trip long ago. So Lane won the Big Bass Championship with his 5.2 and not only did Lane win but with this win it makes him a 3-time Champion and he joins Wojo as the only 3-time Champion. That’s very impressive as we have a bunch of good fisherman in our group.
So we turn the page on this Fling and look forward to our 20th and we are going to take it back to where it all began – Paradise PFA in South Georgia! I’m sore and tired and still a little sad but I look back on all these pictures and a huge smile stretches across my face. Thanks for taking the time to read the re-cap and check out the pictures.
Happy Fishing Everybody!
Cletus
