"Combine their long life with the food resource bluebacks provide, and I think you'll find the lake is a really good candidate to produce trophy spots, and there's probably a lot of them," the biologist said. "I'm not at all surprised that a fish like Holland's record-book spot was caught at Lake Burton."

But Raburn is among those fisheries biologists who find that bluebacks are contributing to the decline of largemouth bass at Burton and other North Georgia impoundments. Contrary to what many anglers believe, Raburn says, largemouths spawn ahead of the spotted bass, when the water temperature is in the low- to mid-60s. Spots prefer to spawn in water around 72 degrees, some two to three weeks after largemouth bass. Blueback herrings are in the shallows by the thousands spawning at the same time largemouth fry hatch. Because of the coincidence of the timing of their spawning periods, the herrings feed on largemouth bass fry. Within a week or so, the bluebacks react to warming water temperatures and move offshore into open water near the surface, foraging on plankton before they eventually move into the area of the thermocline.

"Bluebacks simply don't prey on Burton's spotted bass fry," Raburn said. "Spots spawn a little later than bluebacks, and they spawn a little deeper. It's a matter of a week or two and 10 feet of water."

That's one reason spotted bass feed on bluebacks. Spots have always keyed on open-water baitfish species, explained WRD fisheries biologist Reggie Weaver, who monitors Lake Lanier's fishery, which is also heavy on herring and spotted bass. "Spawned-out bluebacks are abundant in 4- to 6-inch lengths in open water where spots are still staging for the spawn, and their slender profile makes them easy for a spotted bass to eat in sizes relatively larger than other baitfish, such as sunfish."

That's why the majority of Holland's lure choices for Burton's big spots are matched to the herrings. Slab-sided like all members of the herring family, the blueback is noticeably more slender than its cousins. Its body is silvery in appearance and coarsely scaled, and it sports a black spot just to the back of the gill plate. Large jerkbaits -- both hard and soft -- imitate the bluebacks well and account for many of Holland's springtime trophy spots at Burton. Four- to 6-inch flukes are among his jerkbait arsenal in colors such as white, pearl and Tennessee Shad. Deep-diving crankbaits and hard suspending jerkbaits in chartreuse-and-blue, chartreuse-and-white and blue-and-white combinations, as well as pearl, bone and something Holland calls "albino shad," are other choices.

Holland rips or jumps his lures, whether he's chosen a fluke or a hard lure.

"Somewhere along the water column, I'm likely to find the suspended fish, and they usually hit the bait when it stops," he said.

The angler also slow-rolls spinnerbaits. These may be as heavy as 1/2 ounce in springtime, fished in water as deep as 30 feet, but he also uses them in shallow water where spots eventually spawn.

When the lakes' surface waters warm to near 58 degrees, spots are very active, he points out. That's when a steady retrieve with a blue-and-chartreuse spinnerbait on long points of gravel and alongside boat docks in 3 to 8 feet of water can fool big spots that are cruising between shallow and deep water.

Holland's record-book spotted bass has shined a spotlight upon Lake Burton, but the Rabun County reservoir does not stand alone among Georgia reservoirs where spotted bass are prospering. Other North Georgia reservoirs that hold populations of large spotted bass include Carters, Lanier, Russell, Rabun, Hartwell, Chatuge and Nottely.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see a world-record spot caught in a Georgia lake in 2006," Holland said.

He might be someone to listen to with regard to big spots. Last year, Holland also caught the largest spotted bass recorded at Lake Chatuge. He boated that 7-pound, 1-ounce trophy just one week after his Burton brute!