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Part . 2 Qp 2
Have fun catching the big bass at Lake
Blackshear with these proven tips
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Thi»
is the second of a two
part series about fishing
at Lake Blackshear.)
After the sun has
burned off the haze, the
bass retreat deeper into
the cypress root maze. The
best way to entice them is
to drop in a lightly weight
ed Texas rigged worm. On
cold mornings, hit the
sunny side first, but if it's a
warm day or the sun is
high in the sky, pitch to
the shady side of the tree.
Where the cypress trees
are bunched up, single out
the trees, or a single tree
which might lie closest to
the creek channel. It’s like
ly to have a bass or two
within its’ root system.
Where you find lots of
cypress trees mixed with
Lily pads, like in Parker’s
Slough on the upper end of
the lake, a floating rapala
worked quietly in the open
ings can be veiy produc
tive.
After you pull a few bass
out of the open pockets,
don’t forget to get out a
trick worm or floating frog
and slowly ease it across
the Lily pads. The strikes
will be explosive, and it’s a
challenge to draw the bass
out of the thick mat of veg
etation; but it sure is fun!
On many Georgia reser
voirs, casting to docks is a
productive strategy; but on
Blackshear there are just
more docks than the aver-
Stratford, Athens Christian
claim GISA track titles
Westfield Hornets take 400-meter relay
By PHIL CLARK
Home Journal Sports
ALBANY The Westfield
Hornets didn’t have a
chance to take the Georgia
Independent School
Association track champi
onship.
They couldn’t compete
with the superior numbers
of schools like Stratford,
Tattnall, First Presbyterian
and Southland.
The Hornet 400-meter
relay team put on an awe
some display in taking the
state championship in that
event as Jared Shell. Gary
Virden, Jacob Walker and
Tate Parker dusted the
field with a time of 43.93,
their best time of the year
in this event.
Stratford had won the
state qualifier a week earli
er after the Hornets had
captured the region lAAA
top spot in the event.
But the Hornets scored
points in just three other
events as Stratford took the
state championship with
82 points.
Brentwood finished sec
ond and First Presbyterian
won the final event of the
Alltel surges to
Junior League lead
By CARY BAXTER
Special to the Home Journal
Alltel has jumped to a 2-
0 start in the second half of
the Perry Junior League
Major League standings for
11-12-year-old boys.
The winner of the second
half of the season race will
face Tolleson, winner of the
first half, in a three-game
championship series dur
ing June.
To date, the best pitch
ing record belongs to Josh
O’Neal of Alltel. He is 4- 1 .
Kiwanis pitcher Shane
Ashley leads the league in
strike outs with 54 in 27
innings pitched.
Jordy Stokes of Alltel,
Ashley and Brandon Doles
of Baxter CPA, are tied for
the home run title with
four each.
Stephen James of Alltel
leads the league in batting
average with a .545. Daniel
Peake of MMM CPA, is sec
ond with a .500 average.
In close pursuit for the
See LEAGUE, Page 8A
John
Trussed
Home
Journal
Outdoors
age lake. There are an esti
mated 1,100 residences
around the lake. Most have
docks, or have lake access.
That’s a lot of dock chunk
ing to do in a day’s time.
Realistically, the best
course of action is just to
pick an arm of the lake
and cast to the docks until
you can figure out which
ones hold the bass.
They may all look simi
lar. but certain docks, usu
ally those near creek chan
nels or structure, will rou
tinely produce bass while
others are a waste of time.
Normally it takes a peri
od of several fishing trips
to figure out the puzzle,
but it’s worth the effort.
Then you can concentrate
just on the good docks and
skip the rest.
Many docks have been
“sweetened” with limbs,
Christmas trees and other
debris around their
perimeter, which can really
improve the bass drawing
potential of a dock. Bass
around docks tend to be
spooky so a quiet approach
day, the mile relay, to
break a three-team tie for
third place. The Vikings
picked up the 10 points for
first place to finish third
overall with 52 points, with
Southland edging Tattnall
for fourth with a fourth
place finish in the final
event. The Tattnall team
gave up after the second
leg, and their final runner
never got to the finish line.
The Trojans finished fifth.
Southland scored 46
points, Tattnall 42. The
Hornets finished with 18
team points, 10 of them in
the relay race.
Tate Parker had picked
up four in the field events
with a fourth place finish in
the long jump while Shell
got two points for his fifth
place finish in the 100-
meter dash and Will Sexton
also picked up two by fin
ishing fifth in the 300-
meter intermediate hur
dles.
The girls’ title went to
Athens Christian, also with
82 points. Stratford fin
ished second ahead of John
Milledge, First Presbyterian
and Southland.
Trinity Christian won
both the girls’ and boys’
state titles, with the boys
scoring 91 points and the
girls team picked up a
whopping 123 points.
High point trophies went
to Daniel Heldreth with 30
1/4 points in AAA boys.
Lindsey Daniel with 28 1/2
in AAA girls, Jarrett Perry
of Robert Toombs 29 3/4 in
AA boys and Lisa
Bloodworth of Trinity with
30 in AA girls.
The meet was held at
Hugh Mills Stadium and
hosted by Deerfield-
Windsor Academy.
Clark
Continued from page 6A
sport performers, but Todd
will be especially hard to
replace as a student leader
and supporter. He has
been dubbed “super fan*
by those who recognize
what he means to the
school.
From the tennis team,
Janice OToole will have to
replace Brent Roper and
Chad Bailey, who also ran
track.
and bait presentation is
usually desired.
When the bass are
aggressively feeding at the
crack of dawn a spinner
bait just below the surface
or a small buzz bait on top
can get attacked with
gusto.
If the fish are finicky or
it’s later in the day so that
the bass have retreated to
the inner security of the
dock, then a lightly weight
ed Texas-rigged worm is the
ticket.
Upon approaching a
dock, make parallel casts
down each side, then slow
ly work the deepest water in
front of the dock. This
might produce a bass or
two, however many times
the most productive water
lies far up under the dock
and then a little finesse
casting comes into play.
The best anglers usually
try an underhand cast to
skip the worm back under
the dock as far as possible.
Then they let it slowly settle
to the bottom. This is where
the big boys hide out and it
takes good equipment and
often a little luck to be able
to pull bass from this
fortress of debris, posts and
supporting timbers.
For anglers desiring to
fish the main lake, remem
ber that the upper portion,
north of the U.S. 280
bridge, is filled with
stumps, logs and aban
doned live cypress trees for
you to explore. In 1973 the
lake was lowered and most
of the dead timber was
removed from most of the
lake south of the U.S. 280
bridge.
Upstream of this point,
only a navigational channel
was cleared and it’s marked
with buoys.
In the main lake also try
fishing the western shore
where the 280 bridge cross
es- Many loads of rubble
were dumped in this aVea
when the lake was down.
According to Loska, bass
is the number one sought
after fish on Blackshear,
closely followed by crappie,
then bream. With the popu
larity of pan fishing on Lake
Blackshear, it’s fair to sav
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that the bass may not be
pressured as much on this
lake as they are on many
other Georgia reservoirs.
Nearly all the bass on
Blackshear are largemouth
with a few shoal bass being
taken from the moving river
section north of the Ga. 27
bridge.
Earlier it was noted that
the average largemouth in
Blackshear ran about a
pound, but the percentage
of 2 - 4 pound bass is grow
ing every year and the lake
still has some wall hangers
in it.
During August 1995 a
young fisherman. Scott
Schmitt of Albany, pulled in
a 10-pounder right after the
lake was refilled.
Undoubtedly some tro
phy fish came in from feed
er streams or remained in
the river channel when the
lake was down.
Don’t forget that in
February 1997 the WRD
changed the minimum size
for largemouth bass on
Blackshear to 14 inches.
The limit for shoal bass
remained at 12 inches.
Also keep in mind that
the three-striper springs
(marked with buoys) are
closed to all fishing from
May 1 to Oct. 30 of each
year.
Anglers heading to
Blackshear won’t have to
search for a boat ramp,
with 14 paved public boat
ramps available as well as
five privately owned mari
nas.
Probably the two most
heavily used access points
are located on Gum Creek
(at the U.S. 280 crossing)
and Swift Creek. The Gum
Creek site has Georgia
Veteran's State Park and
three of the marinas (one
on Gum Creek on the east
side and two on the west
side of the lake ).
A marina and public boat
ramps are also located
along Ga. 300 at Smoak
Bridge over Swift Creek at
the southern end of the
lake.
For additional informa
tion contact the WRD
Fisheries Office at (912)
430-4256.
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