For veteran bass angler Kim Carver of Milledgeville, Ga., fishing on Lake Seminole is either feast or famine.

“There is not an in between for me on Lake Seminole,” he said. “It’s either good or bad.”

His history on the lake bears him out. He has finished as high as 2nd in the 2010 BFL Regional and 7th in the 2005 Bassmaster Series on the lake – and he has finished well out of the money on many other occasions.

Carver is hoping Saturday will be one of the good ones for him on Lake Seminole in the Walmart Bass Fishing League Bulldog Division’s second tournament of the season. He finished 5^th in the season opener on Lake Lanier last month, winning $996 plus a $300 Evinrude bonus with a five-fish limit that weighed 15 pounds, 6 ounces.

“We will be on a new moon this weekend, so I think there will be a lot of spawning fish. The advantage for me will be that the lake is muddy and nobody can see them.”

Carver said recent heavy rains have muddied the lake, but the bass will still move up on the sandbars in the mouths of major creeks like Spring Creek to begin spawning.

“You should be able to catch a lot of fish on spinnerbaits,” he said. “Two years ago they were blind fishing in the Bassmaster Classic on the Louisiana Delta. When one would hit it they would have to make multiple casts before he would hit it again. That is probably what will be going on this week on Seminole.”

Carver said he did not practice on Seminole over the weekend because the weather is changing and the fish will change with the weather.

“When the water warms the fish can change drastically. I felt like going down there over the weekend would have been a waste of time because the fish are going to be moving so much with this warm weather.”

Carver, who has been fishing tournaments on a regular basis for more than three decades, predicted it will probably take over 25 pounds to win the BFL on Lake Seminole Saturday.

“It will probably take 15 pounds just to make a check. Fishing is going to be that good.”

Carver burst onto the B.A.S.S. scene with top 10 finishes on Lake Okeechobee and Lake Eufaula in 1980 and 1982, won the 1984 St. John’s Invitational on the St. John’s River and qualified for the 1985 Bassmaster Classic on the Arkansas River where he earned a very respectable 11^th place finish for a Classic rookie.

Since then he has fished B.A.S.S. and FLW tournaments and spent a lot of time locally in BFL tournaments.

“I got to where I had to go to work for a living,” said Carver who owns multiple businesses.”When you get children you kind of change your attitude about what you can go. I’ve taken the money I won over the years and invested it, trying to make something for my children.

He claims a granddaughter and nephew as his own and said his own two sons will be with him at Lake Seminole this weekend, one fishing as a boater and one as a no-boater.

“Fishing kept me out of trouble growing up , so I had to keep them out of trouble too,” he said with a chuckle. “My daddy always kept us in the woods no matter what. If we were not running dogs we were at the lake fishing.”

Walmart Bass Fishing League – Bulldog Division

Sat, Mar 16, 2013

Lake Seminole

Bainbridge Boat Basin

www.flwoutdoors.com