Ryan Coleman, a Lake Lanier full time guide gives his journal on his September, 2006 win of the Bassmaster Southern Tour on his home lake. 

Man, I don’t even know where to start. My last two weeks have been crazy. Going into this event, I never even thought I would have a chance to win. My week of practice was not good and I was pretty much off the big fish. I had to scramble just to catch a limit each day and they would not weigh much.

I usually fish on the south end of Lanier. Period!!! I don’t like fishing up north or even in the Chestatee when it comes to tournaments. My confidence is below Gainesville in the hooch to the damn. Once the south end of the lake had the algae bloom, I figured my chance was gone. I really put Mathew Wilbanks on the win. Trent and I both rely on the big water and it looked like crap and in no big hurry to clear. I knew David Nichols and figured he had a great chance with the water messed up as he has killed us in years past during September. Like I suspected, he was the day one leader with 16.5 pounds of pig spots.

During practice, I had concentrated up the lake just to catch some fish. I was only catching 14” fish and at times, got excited when I saw a 2 pounder. I was mostly worked shallow water early with a buzzbait then switching to a dropshot and crankbait later in the day. I really had an awful practice. I was afraid to run down south and “show” too much to the other guys practicing the few days before the event. I was surprised to see some of the local guys out there who were not fishing the event, beating brush during the three official practice days. A lot of guys were hurt by this. It’s hard to explain the amount of work that some guys did to prepare for this event.

The first day of the event, I ran down lake and worked shallow banks with a buzz bait early for one keeper and a few short fish. I did however have one nice fish blow up on my buzz bait but just didn’t get it. Around 9:00, I started running brush piles on the south end and caught a few very small keepers on the Spotsticker hand pour that Donnie Sims had made for me. It is a new color that we worked on for a few weeks.
In the middle of the day, I only had three fish and finally tried a deep-water place out on the main lake. After a few minutes, I caught a 4-pound toad spot in 45 feet of water. I could see more of them down there but could not get them to bite. I eventually left there and filled my limit with a fish taken off a bridge pier with a drop shot. I ended up 18th after the first day and my co angler had two nice fish. One keeper and one 4-pound largemouth that he caught on the last cast out of 35 feet of water.

At the blast off for the second day, I was still debating what to do. I knew I had to change things if I wanted a chance to win. I could have kept on doing what I was and maybe get a top 15 but I really wanted to give myself a chance to win. I finally decided at the last minuet to change my morning from shallow to deep. I had a feeling with the full moon, some of those big pigs would bite early deep. I ran down the lake where I had caught the 4 pounder the first day and started to idle in. I only had three boats following me on the second day so it was pretty quiet. As I was easing in to the hump, I kept an eye on my X-25 and started to see some big hooks in the timber around the 50-foot mark. I swung us around and dropped trolling motor. My partner and I got ready and dropped the drop shot baits down to the fish in 40-45 feet and immediately started catching fish. My first fish was a huge 5-6 pound spotted bass that just pulled off right at the boat. I had a second fish pull off then we both hooked up with 4.5 pounders each. After 10 minutes or so, I had three 4 pounders and my co-angler had two four pounders and a three pounder. He had his limit and stopped fishing. I can’t express how big of a gesture that was for him. The fish pretty much had shut down on us after an hour or so. I had lost those two big fish and he had broken off a big one. I eventually left and ran some brush piles to catch another 3 pound fish. Around 2:00, I hit a brush pile that I had for a few years. I dropped down with the Spotsticker worm and caught a fish that looked familiar. I swear to this day, I have caught that fish at least 5 times off that same brush pile on guide trips. LOL. It had a big hump back and an oddly bent tail. He was skinny but weighed around 2 pounds and filled my limit. I know I had caught that fish a few weeks back on a drop shot and two other times on a fish head spin. One of my clients had caught him two months back on live bait. LOL. Anyway, he was going to weigh in with 4 toads. On the way in, I stopped on a deep channel ledge and worked a crankbait a few casts. On the second cast, the rod got heavy and low and behold, I had a 4.5-pound spotted bass hooked in the belly. LOL. I never thought I would get that guy in but I did. Just meant to be I guess. I culled my pet fish and headed to weigh in knowing I had made up some ground but had no idea I would take the lead. I had 18-6 that day for a total of 28-5 and an 11 ounce lead over Trent who had a nice 16.5 pound bag on Friday.

On the last day, I only had one place that I could win on and that was the deep hole. I knew that Trent was right behind me and usually can catch 12 pounds in his sleep. I figured 14 might be what I needed. The only way I could have gotten that kind of weight was to get them early so I headed down to the deep hole. I had three other places like that same one and I actually thought of trying one of them first but I just couldn’t tear myself away from that one place. I knew I would have a few boats follow me on the last day but I had no idea what I was in for. I was first to blast off and ran the 10 minutes down lake to the deep timber. After I sat down and started to ease in, I could not believe the amount of boats with me. At least 30 if not 40 from what I could see. I got set up and started to drop. In the first 10 minutes, I had a huge one on. I saw him on the bottom at 47 feet. I knew it had to be a big one with the size of the hook at that depth. I saw him drop down on the bait and he loaded me up. I got him up to 10 feet below the trolling motor then he made a huge run down and wrapped me up in the timber. Nothing I can do about it with 6-pound test. After that, they just shut down. I started to ease up on the hump as I had a brush pile in the shallow part of the hump around 28 feet. I caught two just keepers off the brush and one fat catfish. Knowing that the fishing was going to be tough on Saturday I made a decision to run off the hump around 9:00 and fish a few brush piles that I had saved for the final day. I did and caught three fish off two piles on the drop shot worm. I spent the rest of the day running and gunning places only to cull one fish with a 2.5 pounder and pretty much conceded that I was not going to win but felt good about 3rd or 4th. My good friends Chris Dunn and Tim Farley were with me all day and pushed me hard every 10 minutes. I kept at it hard as I could and probably fished 45 places during the day to only cull once. LOL.

When we were all in line, I could not believe that Trent did not have but two fish and David only had one. I knew it was tough but these guys can catch them everyday. Mathew came in with a great 12.5 pound catch but would have had to have 16 or so to beat me so I was 75% sure I had it. I was trying my best not to throw up in the holding tank. My wife, dad and friends were buzzing around looking like expecting fathers and it was tearing me up. Once I weighed in and Learch announced I won, I lost it. My wife, kids, parents and tons of friends and clients were there and it was one of the best feelings I have ever had. I just hope that each and every person on earth gets to feel that good at least once in their lifetime.

Somehow, it was just my time. I don’t think I should have ever won with those guys on my tail and me only having 8.5 pounds on the last day. It was just meant to be I guess. The guys that followed me all day did a great job keeping their distance and keeping the noise down. I appreciate that more than I can say. It was overwhelming to have that many people with me out there.

My basic rig all week was a 6-3 MXF St Croix Avid spinning rod lined with 6-pound Silver Thread Fluorocarbon line. I had a #4 owner mosquito hook and ¼ ounce Xcalibur tungsten drop shot weight. I was using a new color 5.5” hand poured worm for the guys at Spotsticker Baits they are calling, “Watermelon RC Pearl”. That is about as basic as it gets for me. Their worm is a little larger than most drop shot baits and I believe makes it easier to see in that deep water when it’s cloudy. I never switched to a smaller bait all week. The only other people who had some of those worms was Lee Hartley. Not sure if Lee used the worms at all but he did an awesome job in the event and finished 6th. Very impressive with his crazy schedule.

I really have to give two guys a lot of credit for this. My good friend, Chris Dunn, worked with me all this summer preparing for this event. No way I could have ever won without his help. Also Tim Farley. Tim worked with me on a few things and did an incredible job directing traffic for me on Saturday. They both were out there verbally keeping me going on Saturday when it really made a difference. I can’t thank these two guys enough for all they did.