Bass shattered my rod, but I’d do it again
May 12th 2008adminFishing & Lake Burton & N. Georgia
I should have known it was going to be one of those days. Tough conditions on Lake Burton, combined with poor preparation on my part lended the expected result, but not in the way I should have imagined. It’s mother’s day, 2008, and strong cold front has dumped over 1.5 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. 
The wind was stiff, about 15 miles an hour out of the Northwest with heavy cloud cover and air temperatures dipping to an unseasonably chilly 50 degrees.
Knowing that the majority of my lake time would be dedicated to mom, and not fishing, I only brought one rod and a couple of bait options. We slipped out at 8:30, and started drift fishing along the North shore of Murray Cove near the South end of the lake. I tied on a six inch Zoom trick worm (watermelon seed color) with a 1/0 worm hook and 3/8 oz. split shot running about 16″ up the six pound flourescent blue line. A slow jigging presentation paid off almost immediately, with this guy on board in just a couple minutes.
After releasing this fat little fish, we were drifting within range of the first of three points before entering the main body of the lake. Heavily covered with downed trees, I put the worm on the leeward side of the point and immediately felt something pounce. Hook set, fish turned me, and as I lifted to rod up high to pull him out of the cover - BAM! - rod pieces were flying all over the place. Not only that, but the preceediong explosion made short work of my line and a lucky day for this particular bass.
To say I was bummed, is a pretty fair understatement. With no other rod up there, and the fish biting, I had nothing to do but head home and reflect on my fortune and disfortune on an ugly May morning. My question, now, is this:
Do I:
- A.) Trash the rod maker publically on this blog (it was only two months old, and under it’s recomended line class)
- B.) Write an open letter regarding the rod, and see what kind of remediation may be available.
- or C.) Skip it, go buy another rod, and spend that time on the water instead of making a big stink?
My favorite paddling shop, 
Put off from late October due to low water levels, The Beetle Battle Paddle is going on tomorrow, March the 29th. It’s a benefit aimed at fighting Hemlock Woolly Adelgid - an invasive and destructive, parasitic beetle that is 
Hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae, was accidentally introduced to North America and is currently a great threat to eastern hemlocks. Native to Asia, the first North American reports were in British Columbia, Canada in 1922 and in Oregon in 1924. Hemlock woolly adelgid was found near Richmond, Virginia in 1951. The insect is now found from northern Georgia to southern Maine, and from northern California to southeast Alaska.
For everybody else, it wasn’t dangerous, it’s just a waste of time. See, fish hunker down when that “wall” of water comes flowing through the water shed, and won’t bite anything. So, just a friendly reminder that you can check the Buford Dam release schedule by calling before your next outing, and if you see a couple of knuckleheads out on the water at exactly the wrong time, well that may be yours truely.
In the hot summer months, I try to stick to the river trails so that a quick dip can be a quick fix for our infamous heat and humidity. In winter, it seems that Georgia mountain trails take on a whole new identity once the orange and yellow trees succumb to their winter hibernation. Bluffs once enclosed by canopy, now offer stunning views of the valley floors below. I can’t help but wonder if the Blue Ridge were named this time of year, with endless ridge after ridge rolling off into the horizon like waves at sea.
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