In fishing, as in all of life, it’s always good to have a “Plan B” - a second option should the first option fall on its face.
The veracity of that philosophy was displayed vividly over the past two weekends, displayed in a pair of tournaments I fished on Lake Chatuge.
My fishing partner and I had spent the Thursdays and Fridays prior to each of the Saturday tournaments locating largemouth bass that had moved onto their spawning beds. Both Friday nights we went to sleep “knowing” we would have vulnerable, big spawning largemouth bass waiting for us the next morning.
It was a foregone conclusion that victory was ours for the taking…however, no one bothered to tell the bass.
An hour after the tournament started the first Saturday morning, we began to wonder if we were on the same lake we had pre-fished the days before. What had happened to those huge largemouth bass? Where were the large, romantic, bass- twosomes that dotted the shoreline just 12-hours earlier?
At the second tournament, as we arrived at our initial stop, again pumped-up with the knowledge we had seen mammoth bass in the shallows the evening before, Ricky and I joked that surely lightning wouldn’t strike twice in the same place; we felt the bass owned us a huge presence because they had so badly disappointed us at the first tournament.
Lightning struck twice; the spawning areas were as empty as a politician’s promise. It was time for “Plan B”.
“Plan B” for bass fishermen on Chatuge…and Burton…and Lanier is to abandon the largemouth bass assault and pursue the spotted bass.
Like many old-timers on Lanier, I once considered spotted bass below my dignity. Back in the early 1980’s you could catch five spotted bass and they would weigh less than one respectable largemouth. Why waste your time?
But around 1990 came the introduction of herring as a forage base into most of our area lakes and everything began to change. The “spots” feasted on the protein rich bait fish and within a few years began to grow to eye-popping sizes. Before 1990 the biggest spot I ever saw from Lanier was just over two pounds. Today that is a fish you probably will cull before the day is over.
And they are different in their behavior that largemouth bass. Thriving in deeper water and less affected by weather fronts and boat traffic, spots are always a great “Plan B”.
So “Plan B” it was, both Saturdays. Ricky and I went out to some main lake flats that had hard bottoms (Important fact: spots prefer spawning in 10-15 feet of water on hard bottoms). There we fan cast shakeyhead finesse worms and drop shots whenever seeing a fish on the sonar.
Both Saturdays our move to Plan B proved profitable: 18.45 pounds and 17.36 pounds are great weights when you consider that we didn’t make the change until we were a third of the way into our tournament time.
This old-timer is no longer embarrassed to say he enjoys seeing “spots” before my eyes.
