Posts by Brad Bailey
GON’s 2006 Deer Special: Lowest Deer Harvest In 18 years
Hunters are becoming an endangered species. During the 2005-06 hunting season there were fewer hunters in the Georgia woods than since the 1972-73 hunting season 33 years ago. Over just the past five years, the number of hunters in Georgia — licensed resident, non-resident and honorary license-holders — has dropped from 292,209 to 238,383, a…
Read MoreLive Bait Linesides At Lake Nottely
There’s no mistaking it when a hybrid bass or striper hits a live bait. We caught several spotted bass on the live bluebacks we were fishing on downlines and freelines, and the spots seem to like to play with their food. The rod tip might bounce a few times before the indecisive spot really eats.…
Read MoreBass Are KILLIN’ KERMIT Up The River At Eufaula
Bass fisherman Dennis Smith has decided that there is something to all the hype around bass fishing with a frog. “I swore I wouldn’t use it,” he said. “But people were bringing in big bags of fish caught on the frog. “My friend John Brady and I were fishing together and he was catching fish…
Read MoreSpotted Bass Torpedoing Topwater At Lake Chatuge
At 6:20 a.m. Sean Capes and I were on a long point halfway back in Woods Creek on Lake Chatuge throwing topwater. Sean was giving a Sammy 100 a workout, and I was walking the dog with a Super Spook. When the bait was halfway back to the boat, the water erupted around Sean’s Sammy…
Read MoreCalling Hayfield Coyotes
Mike saw the coyote while bowhunting last September between some planted pines and a hayfield. The coyote, slipping along the edge of the field, never came into bow range. The next day, Mike was back in the stand, but he had traded his bow for his .223 and a fawn-bleat call. Twenty minutes later he…
Read MoreFluke A Must-Have Lure For Big Lazer Creek Bass
Sam Taylor, of Box Springs, knows something about catching bass and big bass in particular. GON keeps records of the biggest Georgia largemouth bass of all time. To even make it onto GON’s Georgia’s Biggest Bass of All Time list, a bass must have a certified weight of 14 pounds. Sam Taylor’s name is on that…
Read MoreSummer Spooning On Lake Allatoona
For about 18 years, Pat Ratanajantra has fished Lake Allatoona. These days, his reputation on the lake is for being an excellent jigging-spoon fisherman for linesides — white bass, hybrids and stripers. And unlike most fishermen, a jigging spoon is Pat’s go-to bait year round. “Most people associate jigging spoons with wintertime and vertical jigging…
Read MoreFollow The Flying Fish-Finders To Lake Weiss Winter Stripers
To find some of the best wintertime striper fishing on Lake Weiss, George Eubanks depends on the birds. George, who lives just outside of Leesburg, Ala., is a third-generation cotton farmer and works more than 600 acres of cotton fields near Lake Weiss. In the late fall, when the cotton has been harvested, he has…
Read MoreClarks Hill Crappie In The Trees
Few people have the reputation for their ability to catch fish that William Sasser has for catching crappie on Clarks Hill. Year round, William can catch fish. You may have seen him recently on the UPN fishing show, “Fishing with Ralph Barbee.” The trip took place on Valentines Day, when William says the fishing hadn’t…
Read MoreThe Hottest Cove On Sinclair For February Crappie
It is likely the No. 1 cove on all of Lake Sinclair for catching a cooler-full of crappie in February: Beaverdam Creek. The reason the fishing is hot, and fires up early in February, is the hot-water discharge from Georgia Power Co.’s Plant Harlee Branch, a coal-fired electric-generating facility, which is located near the upper…
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