Cletus T.
Senior Member
Well folks……another Spring Fling has come and gone and yet again we had a blast doing what we love to do. Fish and Eat and Fellowship!!!! The weather was pretty much doo-doo the whole weekend but HEY…..it’s what always happens to us on Spring Fling. It never fails……the weather can be nice and pretty and most importantly (in my book) STABLE……then it all gets jacked up and gets cold on us and rains on us but no matter how bad the weather, it can’t take our good times from us! There were some very good fish caught this year and we also set the all-time Spring Fling record with the biggest bass being caught in our 12-year history. We also had a first-time Champion crowned that has worked his butt off for the title every year only to fall a little short. He has been with us for 10 of the 12 years so it was nice to see him bust through the banner and finally get his Spring Fling Big Bass Trophy. Let’s get to the day by day action……………………
DAY 1
Thursday started out with a few clouds in the sky but the air temp had dropped on us considerably. There was a freeze warning for Wed. night into Thursday morning. There was ice all over the boat and I actually almost fell in at one point when I went to take a pee-pee off the side of the boat. It was slick folks. The water temp was 58 degrees on Wed. afternoon and by the time we got on the water Thursday morning it was 48 degrees. Those bass got STUNG with the coldness on Wed. night. As always, I fish with my good buddy Wojo on the first day and even though it was cold I started the day off with how I usually start off all bass fishing this time of year…….throwing topwater! I was chunking a buzzbait and I didn’t have the first swell on it. I still thought it was worth 30 mins of seeing what might happen? Wojo was hitting them with a Senko off the front of the boat but the morning was starting off pretty slow. Like I said…….they got STUNG the night before with the cold temps. I finally got a couple to bite a fluke that I was throwing and the bite seemed to turn on a little better once the sun got up above the trees and started warming the water. The sunrise that morning was amazing!!! We picked up a few more here and there but nothing too serious and we broke for lunch. When we got to the dock to tie the boat up there was Ole Rhettro and Mike Dubnik also known as “Dobbie”…also known as “Rolling on Dubs”…….also know as “Dubs” standing there with a big ole smile on their faces. Dubnik had busted a pretty good one and he needed the official scale that was on our boat. He pulled this green bellied beast out of the livewell and it looked like a solid Day 1 leader. She pulled the scale down to 5lbs. 15ozs. So basically it was a 6-pounder and that is about as solid as a Garlic Milkshake for a Day 1 leader. We all knew know that it would take at least a 6-pound bass to win this thang and that is STRONG! We took some pics and got some Gopro footage of the bass and then released her on her way. He caught her off a Carolina-Rigged Sweet Beaver. We went up the lodge to eat and get a little rest for the afternoon fish.
Really not a whole lot changed for the afternoon fish as far as the main lake goes, though we did get on a pretty good swimbait bite that was pretty cool to figure out. They seemed to like the paddle tail ones and the hollow body ones the best. Also…..the color gold seemed to work the best and that was a plan I wanted to stick to as I felt like the gold color looks the best in the dark water of the main lake. Catching them on a swimbait is always fun but you never seem to catch a lot of them on a swimbait. This was different though……..they were slamming these suckers and it was a great bite while it lasted. As soon as the wind stopped…..so did the swimbait bite. I caught a slab of a crappie on the swimbait too so that was fun. We did have some guys that went over to the smaller trophy pond that is known as Tranquility and catch some quality fish. Several 3 and 4-pound fish were caught so even though Day 1 started out with ice on the boat and folks dressed more for winter than Spring……it ended with the group as a whole catching some quality fish and Mike Dubnik being the Day 1 leader with a 5lb 15oz largemouth. The sun set on Day 1 and we ate like kings for dinner (the first of 3 days of heavy eating).
DAY 2
Friday morning came with some clouds and one heck of a storm bearing down for Big Sandy Plantation. It was just spitting rain and as the morning went on the rain got heavier and heavier. I was fishing with the leader himself for this morning fishing session. The fishing was pretty slow but I did manage to catch a few with one of them being a little over 3-pounds. It was funny this year, I caught a lot of fish but a lot of them were either monster crappie or those dang pickerel that were just shredding my little gold swimbait that I only had 6 of. The bass I caught though were all chunky……….I didn’t catch any big ones, but I didn’t catch any dinks either so I had that going for me…..which was nice.
The biggest news to come out of Day 2 was that we had a new leader. My buddy Thomas started bringing a friend of his last year and his name is JT. He’s a great guy that fit right in to the whole group. He has a favorite topwater lure that looked to me to be like a gunfish or a spook-like bait and it’s white and it looks so dang sexy swimming across a top of the water and I’ll be dang if some fat bellied bass that weighed 6lbs. 3ozs. Didn’t jump all over that thing. When a big fish hits topwater like that it makes for quite a story. While we didn’t see this catch take place, we did hear them hollering from across the lake. We broke for lunch again around high noon and started watching the radar to see how bad it was about to get on us.
While the thunder and lighting that we thought we were going to get sailed past us……the heavy rain did not. It poured on us and while there were a few brave soldiers that made it out on the water there were quite a few of us that either stayed inside the lodge or outside under an easy-up tent and just watched the rain fall. We started changing things up a little bit last year during Spring Fling in that we fish HARD on Thurs. and then we kind of relax on Friday…..we call it “Friday Funday” and then we go back hard at it on Championship Saturday. It actually breaks up the fishing and the weekend well and for me and my body…..it works! The afternoon fish was pretty much a wash and while everything was pretty much soaked by late afternoon we were still able to have a good bonfire at night so that was nice. We ate the world famous Gary Brown’s cooking once again and filled our bellies with pulled pork……bruniswick stew…..black-eyed peas and collard greens. It was delicious!!! Some stayed up late and some went to bed early but we all knew what the next day was bringing……..CHAMPIONSHIP DAY!!! And oh yeah……..it was also bringing more rain…..just great!!!!
DAY 3 (CHAMPIONSHIP DAY)
So Championship morning came rolling in and with it came some thick clouds. It wasn’t raining when we first started fishing but it didn’t take long for some light rain to fall. However……that big bright burning circle in the sky could not be defeated and finally it burned its way through the clouds and we had some sunshine coming down on us. I was fishing with JT at this time as his partner needed some much needed rest after howling at the moon the night before. I had never fished with JT before and I really enjoyed it. I try to fish with as many folks as I can during Spring Fling as you get to really know somebody when you get to fish with them. The fishing was pretty slow as the front moved through. There was one area of the main lake that I wanted to fish and so far, I hadn’t seen anybody fish it yet. It was the thick pads that was sitting to the left lof Devil’s Island and it’s the same area where my winning fish came from the year before. That 7lb. 8oz monster of a girl was sitting out there in those pads last year and maybe she was there again……and maybe this year she was 3 pounds heavier…..maybe??? Me and JT fished every square inch of those pads with flukes and worms and frogs and it just wasn’t happening. JT did however have a solid blow-up on his frog but it’s real tough to get a good hookset on these fish that live back in the jungle. He had her on for about 5 seconds but then she came un-buttoned. It was getting close to lunch time and Mr. Gary Brown had some shrimp po-boys made up that we needed to attack. That was a good call Mr. Brown! So as we approach the dock I see “Dubs” standing there looking like a Greek God. I gave him that look, as to say………… “What you got in the box?” and he just started shaking his head in a YES fashion. Now keep in mind now that I was in the boat with the current leader Mr. JT and I was heading to the dock where the Day 1 leader was standing and I could just tell that something was about to happen.
We get tied up to the dock and “Dubs” said I got one in the box that Wojo has already weighed on the scale 3 times so it has an official weight. I looked at JT and I think he knew…….
Cletus : Well…….how much does it weigh?
Dubs : 7lbs. 14ozs.
Cletus : That’s an all-time Spring Fling Record
Dubs : I know
He then pulls this joker out for me to take some pictures and get some Gopro footage of her and she just keep coming and coming out of that livewell. She was a brute!!!! She had such pretty coloring her and her eyeballs were as big as could be. I was so happy for Dubnik…..here is a guy that had the lead on Day 1…..then had it taken away from him on Day 2 by a mere 4 ounces and then came back on Championship Day and took the title back…….that fires me up. Here’s another thing that is so dang impressive. Dub has been with us for 10-years and he’s never won one. He’s always in the running and he is always a favorite to take home the title but for whatever reason he’s never sealed the deal…….until now!!! It was his time…..plain and simple! I felt bad for JT but he handled it with class. That afternoon brought another round of storms and while there were quite a few folks fishing, the winning bass had already been caught as nobody would catch one bigger than 7-14. That storm that pushed through brought a couple breath-taking rainbows with it too and just wait until you see the pictures……..it will blow your mind!!!!
7 pounds and 14 ounces is the new all-time Spring Fling record and I couldn’t be happier that Mr. Mike Dubnik set that record. He’s always the first guy on the water and usually the last to get off. He fishes hard year after year. We all like to let our hair down during this trip and howl at the moon a little bit but Dubnik doesn’t howl at the moon and he doesn’t have long hair to let down. He’s there to fish and he’s there to stick the biggest bass in the lake and in 2014…….he did just that!!!
It was another excellent Spring Fling where another round of awesome memories were made. We crowned a first-time Champion who earned every bit of it by hard fishing and total commitment! We had a young gun come of age in JT who almost won the dang thing in only his 2nd year. We have some good fishermen in our group so the competition is stiff but when it’s your time…..it’s your time and this year, Mr. Mike Dubnik rose above the competition and snatched that Spring Fling Big Bass Championship out from all of us. Even Mother Nature couldn’t keep him from winning this year. On Banquet night this year Dubnik took that trophy and raised it high above his head. We followed that up with a most excellent firework display over the waters of the Main Lake. Thank you Dew, for being our guy that likes to blow things up. You helped take this event to the next level. Thank you Rhettro for driving all the way from Wisc. To get your Southern Fried fix. We miss you and hope that you move back to Ga. one day soon. I’ll never forget you looking like a wizard on Friday afternoon with that white sky in the background and you waving your fishing pole back and forth like you were Gandoff from Lord of the Rings. He has a beard and a lot of hair and you are pretty bald so that might not be a good comparison???
I’d like to thank Big Sandy Planation again for opening up her doors to me and 29 of my craziest friends. A wise man once told me that “You be good to Big Sandy and she’ll be good to you” and I truly believe that statement and she was once again, very good to us.
Hope yall enjoyed the story and be on the lookout for the Gopro video to follow but for now please enjoy these pics and Stay Bassy My Friends!
Cletus
DAY 1
Thursday started out with a few clouds in the sky but the air temp had dropped on us considerably. There was a freeze warning for Wed. night into Thursday morning. There was ice all over the boat and I actually almost fell in at one point when I went to take a pee-pee off the side of the boat. It was slick folks. The water temp was 58 degrees on Wed. afternoon and by the time we got on the water Thursday morning it was 48 degrees. Those bass got STUNG with the coldness on Wed. night. As always, I fish with my good buddy Wojo on the first day and even though it was cold I started the day off with how I usually start off all bass fishing this time of year…….throwing topwater! I was chunking a buzzbait and I didn’t have the first swell on it. I still thought it was worth 30 mins of seeing what might happen? Wojo was hitting them with a Senko off the front of the boat but the morning was starting off pretty slow. Like I said…….they got STUNG the night before with the cold temps. I finally got a couple to bite a fluke that I was throwing and the bite seemed to turn on a little better once the sun got up above the trees and started warming the water. The sunrise that morning was amazing!!! We picked up a few more here and there but nothing too serious and we broke for lunch. When we got to the dock to tie the boat up there was Ole Rhettro and Mike Dubnik also known as “Dobbie”…also known as “Rolling on Dubs”…….also know as “Dubs” standing there with a big ole smile on their faces. Dubnik had busted a pretty good one and he needed the official scale that was on our boat. He pulled this green bellied beast out of the livewell and it looked like a solid Day 1 leader. She pulled the scale down to 5lbs. 15ozs. So basically it was a 6-pounder and that is about as solid as a Garlic Milkshake for a Day 1 leader. We all knew know that it would take at least a 6-pound bass to win this thang and that is STRONG! We took some pics and got some Gopro footage of the bass and then released her on her way. He caught her off a Carolina-Rigged Sweet Beaver. We went up the lodge to eat and get a little rest for the afternoon fish.
Really not a whole lot changed for the afternoon fish as far as the main lake goes, though we did get on a pretty good swimbait bite that was pretty cool to figure out. They seemed to like the paddle tail ones and the hollow body ones the best. Also…..the color gold seemed to work the best and that was a plan I wanted to stick to as I felt like the gold color looks the best in the dark water of the main lake. Catching them on a swimbait is always fun but you never seem to catch a lot of them on a swimbait. This was different though……..they were slamming these suckers and it was a great bite while it lasted. As soon as the wind stopped…..so did the swimbait bite. I caught a slab of a crappie on the swimbait too so that was fun. We did have some guys that went over to the smaller trophy pond that is known as Tranquility and catch some quality fish. Several 3 and 4-pound fish were caught so even though Day 1 started out with ice on the boat and folks dressed more for winter than Spring……it ended with the group as a whole catching some quality fish and Mike Dubnik being the Day 1 leader with a 5lb 15oz largemouth. The sun set on Day 1 and we ate like kings for dinner (the first of 3 days of heavy eating).
DAY 2
Friday morning came with some clouds and one heck of a storm bearing down for Big Sandy Plantation. It was just spitting rain and as the morning went on the rain got heavier and heavier. I was fishing with the leader himself for this morning fishing session. The fishing was pretty slow but I did manage to catch a few with one of them being a little over 3-pounds. It was funny this year, I caught a lot of fish but a lot of them were either monster crappie or those dang pickerel that were just shredding my little gold swimbait that I only had 6 of. The bass I caught though were all chunky……….I didn’t catch any big ones, but I didn’t catch any dinks either so I had that going for me…..which was nice.
The biggest news to come out of Day 2 was that we had a new leader. My buddy Thomas started bringing a friend of his last year and his name is JT. He’s a great guy that fit right in to the whole group. He has a favorite topwater lure that looked to me to be like a gunfish or a spook-like bait and it’s white and it looks so dang sexy swimming across a top of the water and I’ll be dang if some fat bellied bass that weighed 6lbs. 3ozs. Didn’t jump all over that thing. When a big fish hits topwater like that it makes for quite a story. While we didn’t see this catch take place, we did hear them hollering from across the lake. We broke for lunch again around high noon and started watching the radar to see how bad it was about to get on us.
While the thunder and lighting that we thought we were going to get sailed past us……the heavy rain did not. It poured on us and while there were a few brave soldiers that made it out on the water there were quite a few of us that either stayed inside the lodge or outside under an easy-up tent and just watched the rain fall. We started changing things up a little bit last year during Spring Fling in that we fish HARD on Thurs. and then we kind of relax on Friday…..we call it “Friday Funday” and then we go back hard at it on Championship Saturday. It actually breaks up the fishing and the weekend well and for me and my body…..it works! The afternoon fish was pretty much a wash and while everything was pretty much soaked by late afternoon we were still able to have a good bonfire at night so that was nice. We ate the world famous Gary Brown’s cooking once again and filled our bellies with pulled pork……bruniswick stew…..black-eyed peas and collard greens. It was delicious!!! Some stayed up late and some went to bed early but we all knew what the next day was bringing……..CHAMPIONSHIP DAY!!! And oh yeah……..it was also bringing more rain…..just great!!!!
DAY 3 (CHAMPIONSHIP DAY)
So Championship morning came rolling in and with it came some thick clouds. It wasn’t raining when we first started fishing but it didn’t take long for some light rain to fall. However……that big bright burning circle in the sky could not be defeated and finally it burned its way through the clouds and we had some sunshine coming down on us. I was fishing with JT at this time as his partner needed some much needed rest after howling at the moon the night before. I had never fished with JT before and I really enjoyed it. I try to fish with as many folks as I can during Spring Fling as you get to really know somebody when you get to fish with them. The fishing was pretty slow as the front moved through. There was one area of the main lake that I wanted to fish and so far, I hadn’t seen anybody fish it yet. It was the thick pads that was sitting to the left lof Devil’s Island and it’s the same area where my winning fish came from the year before. That 7lb. 8oz monster of a girl was sitting out there in those pads last year and maybe she was there again……and maybe this year she was 3 pounds heavier…..maybe??? Me and JT fished every square inch of those pads with flukes and worms and frogs and it just wasn’t happening. JT did however have a solid blow-up on his frog but it’s real tough to get a good hookset on these fish that live back in the jungle. He had her on for about 5 seconds but then she came un-buttoned. It was getting close to lunch time and Mr. Gary Brown had some shrimp po-boys made up that we needed to attack. That was a good call Mr. Brown! So as we approach the dock I see “Dubs” standing there looking like a Greek God. I gave him that look, as to say………… “What you got in the box?” and he just started shaking his head in a YES fashion. Now keep in mind now that I was in the boat with the current leader Mr. JT and I was heading to the dock where the Day 1 leader was standing and I could just tell that something was about to happen.
We get tied up to the dock and “Dubs” said I got one in the box that Wojo has already weighed on the scale 3 times so it has an official weight. I looked at JT and I think he knew…….
Cletus : Well…….how much does it weigh?
Dubs : 7lbs. 14ozs.
Cletus : That’s an all-time Spring Fling Record
Dubs : I know
He then pulls this joker out for me to take some pictures and get some Gopro footage of her and she just keep coming and coming out of that livewell. She was a brute!!!! She had such pretty coloring her and her eyeballs were as big as could be. I was so happy for Dubnik…..here is a guy that had the lead on Day 1…..then had it taken away from him on Day 2 by a mere 4 ounces and then came back on Championship Day and took the title back…….that fires me up. Here’s another thing that is so dang impressive. Dub has been with us for 10-years and he’s never won one. He’s always in the running and he is always a favorite to take home the title but for whatever reason he’s never sealed the deal…….until now!!! It was his time…..plain and simple! I felt bad for JT but he handled it with class. That afternoon brought another round of storms and while there were quite a few folks fishing, the winning bass had already been caught as nobody would catch one bigger than 7-14. That storm that pushed through brought a couple breath-taking rainbows with it too and just wait until you see the pictures……..it will blow your mind!!!!
7 pounds and 14 ounces is the new all-time Spring Fling record and I couldn’t be happier that Mr. Mike Dubnik set that record. He’s always the first guy on the water and usually the last to get off. He fishes hard year after year. We all like to let our hair down during this trip and howl at the moon a little bit but Dubnik doesn’t howl at the moon and he doesn’t have long hair to let down. He’s there to fish and he’s there to stick the biggest bass in the lake and in 2014…….he did just that!!!
It was another excellent Spring Fling where another round of awesome memories were made. We crowned a first-time Champion who earned every bit of it by hard fishing and total commitment! We had a young gun come of age in JT who almost won the dang thing in only his 2nd year. We have some good fishermen in our group so the competition is stiff but when it’s your time…..it’s your time and this year, Mr. Mike Dubnik rose above the competition and snatched that Spring Fling Big Bass Championship out from all of us. Even Mother Nature couldn’t keep him from winning this year. On Banquet night this year Dubnik took that trophy and raised it high above his head. We followed that up with a most excellent firework display over the waters of the Main Lake. Thank you Dew, for being our guy that likes to blow things up. You helped take this event to the next level. Thank you Rhettro for driving all the way from Wisc. To get your Southern Fried fix. We miss you and hope that you move back to Ga. one day soon. I’ll never forget you looking like a wizard on Friday afternoon with that white sky in the background and you waving your fishing pole back and forth like you were Gandoff from Lord of the Rings. He has a beard and a lot of hair and you are pretty bald so that might not be a good comparison???
I’d like to thank Big Sandy Planation again for opening up her doors to me and 29 of my craziest friends. A wise man once told me that “You be good to Big Sandy and she’ll be good to you” and I truly believe that statement and she was once again, very good to us.
Hope yall enjoyed the story and be on the lookout for the Gopro video to follow but for now please enjoy these pics and Stay Bassy My Friends!
Cletus
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