#river bass – Fishing on Foot

Qualifying Shoal Bass

I recently blogged about getting my Georgia Bass Slam started for 2026 with a Bartrams bass and ended the blog wondering what species would be next.

The answer came a couple of days ago in the form of a chunky shoal bass. That was an extra good one to notch from my standpoint because of the statewide minimum size for the species. Bass must be of legal size, if a minimum size exists, for bass slam qualification, and the minimum size for shoal bass is 15 inches. That’s not a giant, but it’s a quality fish and not always simple to come by.

My qualifying shoal bass was 16 inches long and probably weighed around 2 1/2 pounds. I also caught a smaller one of maybe 13 inches from the same area. I was fishing a creek in the Upper Chattahoochee River watershed and actually thought I might find a Chattahoochee bass.

Interestingly, I caught the first shoal bass on a tiny crappie jig. I was still rigged up from an earlier crappie trip when I arrived and had a tandem rig of a Bobby Garland Mayfly and Itty Bit Mayfly. The fish hit the Itty Bit version, which is only 1.25 inches long.

Ironically, the smaller shoal bass was on the same rig, but it hit the larger of the two jigs!

Watch for a short video from that afternoon on Fishing on Foot YouTube!

New Ultra-Finesse Jig from Rebel Lures

New jigs are a great fit for multi-species creek fishing.

My most recent post focused on a few recent catches, but I failed to note that I caught the Bartrams bass, redbreast and shoal bass on the same kind of jig — the new Ultra-Finesse Jig from Rebel Lures.

The purpose of both short afternoon fishing trips was to get photos of the new jigs for my job. Of course I had to try them out, though, and I was impressed by the results of my short test runs — not just because I caught fish, either. I fished a few versions and was super impressed with how they looked and moved in the water.

The Ultra-Finesse Jig is built with a Keg Head Jig with a small collar added to help secure a silicone finesse skirt, and comes pre-rigged with a LIVEflex soft plastic body.

The buoyant trailers, when combined with the Keg Head design, really stand up nicely, helping fish find the bait. The same buoyancy slows the jig’s sink rate, adding an extra measure of finesse.

The jigs come in “Snack Packs,” with two jigs rigged with different LIVEflex baits and a spare of each of the soft plastics. All include one jig rigged with a Creek Craw. The second is either a Cata Crawler, which is a small Ned-style worm, or a Shore Shiner, which is a small, narrow swimbait.

I’ve been fishing with LIVEflex baits since the first samples came out, and they play an important role in my creek game. The Ultra-Finesse Jig is a natural progression for me, and having fished them just a tiny bit now, I’m eager to do a lot more!

Bartrams bass on Rebel Ultra-Finesse Jig

Start of 2026 Georgia Bass Slam

Species No 1 for this year’s Georgia Bass Slam was a Bartrams bass.

This afternoon I caught my first fish of this year that will qualify toward the Georgia Bass Slam: a 10 1/2-inch Bartrams bass. Of course, I caught it Fishing on Foot.

Last year I set a goal on New Year’s Day to achieve the Slam — all Fishing on Foot and on public land. The minimum number of species for achieving the Georgia Bass Slam is five, and I ended up catching seven in 2025.

I hadn’t stated that goal this year, and I still might not plan fishing trips around Slam needs as much this time around. I probably knew I’d end up seeking it, though, and I am pretty excited to have one species notched.

The Bartrams is admittedly among the easiest for me. I pursue them and catch some pretty much every year without any thought of the Bass Slam. It’s still fun to get this year’s effort underway.

Looking at all species caught — not just Georgia Bass Slam qualifying fish, today’s Bartrams bass was species seven for me, and a redbreast sunfish was number eight. I’ve actually caught largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass this years, but they came from Alabama and Tennessee, so I still need all of those for the Slam.

What bass species will come next?