After three days of hard fishing in places that would have the capacity to produce nine of the ten bass in the Georgia Bass Slam I caught four qualifying bass and learned a lot of lessons. My friend and I collectively caught six unique bass species but neither of us obtained five eight inch long specimens of the required fish.
Species obtained between the two of us: Tallapoosa, Bartram's, Largemouth, Spotted, Smallmouth (too small), Shadow Bass (not part of the slam).
Lessons learned:
1. Georgia creeks and rivers can hold a lot of water but are generally flat and fast moving and wide for their size. It is difficult to find pockets containing fish of size. We were wade fishing in every place and some obviously required a watercraft of some sort for longer navigation to find the fish.
2. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources black bass species map is not a good guide. Some of the places on that map were way too shallow at the spots indicated to have fish near the locations. An example of this is the Murder Creek spot for Altamaha bass. Where indicated on the map, this spot is basically a drainage ditch cesspool and a significant hike downstream would be required to find clean and fishable waters.
3. Completing this slam in three days was perhaps an unreasonable goal. However, it was a really fun experience and exposed me to some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen such as the Watkins Mill Bridge which was built in 1885, the gorgeous Mossy Creek area and the Dub Denman Canoe Trail launch sites.
Largemouth bass on the Oconee (no Altamaha’s caught).
The most beautiful sunfish I’ve ever seen caught on Little River.
Bartram’s bass. Note the gorgeous orange tips on the fins. Truly a majestic fish.
My friend’s Bartram’s bass. Beautiful tiger stripes.
