Good news for Bainbridge and Decatur County. We hear threw the grapevine that F.L.W. and B.A.S.S. will be here next April and May. That means a ton of bizness for the town and county, also Wingate’s mite pick up a dollar or two.

Now, for some bad news, we saw in The Wall Street Journal that things were really slowing down in Chicago, the mafia has laid off five judges.

These thoughts belong to Memorial Day, since 1941 nearly 85,000 men and women have been declared “Missing in Action.”

Now that all the services are combined in one effort out of the Pentagon, they are working on 700 cases. They are solving about seven cases per month. When a remains is found, they are shipped to Hawaii where the best laboratory is in the world. They tie up loose ends of families that are still wondering.

The Orange Apple Snail is eating Hydrilla at a hi rate of speed here in Seminole. Some wonder if it can eat it all up?  Then we have seen the Oscars bedding in some parts of the lake. This fish eats small minnow-type fish. We will have to see how he turns out.

The Weekly Jack Wingate Thursday Night Big Fish Tournament held out of Wingate’s was won by B.J. Johns and Reed Heard with a 6.83-pounder, second place went to Clint Brown and Wade Rudd with a 6.48-pounder.

The Backwoods Outdoors Tournament took place with 68 boats fishing. Went like this: First place went to Stevens and Johnson with 27.92 pounds of bass, second place went to Brian Key and Jim Merritt with 24.64 pounds, third place went to Steve Bushore and Craig Taylor with 24.22 pounds, Steven and Johnson had Big Fish with a 7.39-pounder.

The Talquin Hookers Bassin’ Gals of Tallahassee fished Saterday, also with the winner being No. 1 Sheila Brust with 8.40, No. 2 Linda Chelette with 8.07, No. 3 Toni Scott with 6.63 and Big Fish went to Sarah Dunn with a 3.65-pounder.

The way bass has went all week long, we thought there would be  a lot more fish taken Saterday. It has got to be where a 4-pound, five-fish limit will not get you in the money now.  We hope it keeps it up twill be good for bizness around the lake.

The biggest hatch of willow flies “May” are out and bream are on every tree from Faceville Landing to the dam. We swept up a 10-quart water bucket full off the front door Saterday morning at 5 a.m.  Fly rod time is now!

Bream are bedding in many places, lots of folks are culling and bringing in the big ones only. Many bed have been found, the reason lots of folks don’t find beds is they only fish when they are bedding.

Nic Jeter won the Hydrilla Gnats two-day tournament on Lake Eufalla out of Bagby State Park with 23.54 pounds of Fine Bass.

The Jack Wingate Thursday Night Big Fish tournament held last Thursday was won by Jake Jeter and Mike Prindle. Second place went to Nic Jeter.

The 38th Annual Memorial Day Tournament was put on by the Bainbridge Bass Club out of Wingate’s Lodge.  The No. 1 place went to Tindell and Tindell with 26.93 pounds, No. 2 place went to Ross and Taylor with 23.72 pounds, No. 3 place went to Brown and Brown with  22.41 pounds and the youngest fisherman in the 40 boats was Hunter Neel, who took big fish on a rattle trap, a whopping 7.7-pound big bass.

Now I want you to look at the weights of the fish as they came to the scales, 26.93, 23.72, 22.46, 21.26, 20.94, 20.04, 19.88, 19.14, 18.47.  There was 11 bass over 5 pounds that hit the scales. They left in the rain with about as much lightning as you’ll ever see in one day. Over 2 inches of rain before and during the weigh-in. It was one great, but wet, tournament.

Bream and shellcracker did good for those that found the beds. Some folks just could not get on a bed. Crickets and wigglers will do for bait.

Wingate’s Fishing Report

May 31, 2009

Lake Surface Temp: 74Lake Level: Near fullFlint: Muddy and risenChattahoochee: Cloudy and fastSpring Creek: Cloudy to clearReport provided by: Jack Wingate