Record Catch At Lanier H.D. Marine Tournament

As far as H.D. Marine bass-fishing tournaments go, a record was broken on Sunday, April 14, 2002. The team of Claude Sims and Clinton Elkins, both from Dawsonville, weighed five Lanier bass that went 27.58 pounds. That shatters the old record by nearly 5 pounds.

“They had four largemouths and one spot,” said tournament director Larry Lewis. “They were up toward Toto Creek throwing a spinnerbait. They found the fish in practice and saw that they would school every morning real early. After 9:00 you couldn’t catch your hat in there. They made five casts and caught three fish that weighed 17 pounds, two over six and one over five. They caught 17 keepers from there hitting docks and pitching worms. The largemouths they caught were already spawned out. It was muddy up there, and the fish were schooling on shad or bluebacks.”

Claude and Clinton aren’t strangers to big Lanier weights. Last year on Lanier they won the Jerry Rhine and H.D. Marine tournaments. For taking the victory this year, they won a new Skeeter SX 190 with 150 HP Yamaha motor and trailer.

Larry said most of the fish caught were spots, and they were caught bedding in two feet of water in the coves. In practice, spots were caught on jerkbaits. However, when the tournament was held the day was cloudy and the fish wouldn’t respond to the jerkbait.

“They maybe caught one on a jerkbait, but they had to resort to worms,” said Larry. “The biggest spot we weighed was a 5.76-pounder.”