Yes, yes. I know it was Sunday. And believe me, I felt real bad about not going to church. But, I don't get a lot calls to ask me to go fishing.
Josh and I decided to have a little fish off with Bertus and Jim. Recall last time that this happened, they stuck it to us. I also had had terrible luck so far this year. In fact, the most fish I caught in one day was during the NATA open, and that wasn't many. Sure, we caught 19 pounds for a solid (and non-winning) weight....but we didn't tear them up. The other days, I had blanked. That's right. I had 3 straight trips to the G with either 1 or none caught. Terrible. I was discouraged. Heck, I still am!
We put in at Goose Pond and immediately fished the back of goose Pond, which had some decently clear and warm water. No luck. And that was the order of the day, really. Josh did catch some of the shortest bass I have seen on Guntersville. I didn't have a bite.
We ran as far upriver as Jones Creek, finding some awesome looking areas, but nothing. The wind was howling like crazy, so we couldn't slow down to fish with finesse baits.
On the way out of Jones Creek, we decided to try one more area, about 3 feet deep with hard bottom and lilly pads. We had found great success in the past by fishing super shallow with the Alabama Rig.
It wasn't the first cast...maybe the second, and Josh hung one. Before the words were out of his mouth, I had one SMASH mine. We horsed them in. Solid chunks. At least we had 2 measuring fish. I believe Josh had caught 4 dinks before that. Double your pleasure. Double your fun.
We made another cast after we threw them in the live well, but we immediately noticed that while we were in the same depth water, there were no pads. We pulled up and motored further up the stretch. We fished about 100 yards of that stretch without a hit, but as soon as we got back to that area, I snagged another one. Very next cast, pulled in another fish. Both measured. Now we had 4. the wind pushed us past the area, so we motored back up. Again, the same upriver stretch didn't produce, but as soon as we entered the right spot, both of us snagged one.....at the same time. Neither measured.
One more trip down the same spot, but not a hit. It was odd. We knew they were there...you don't have two doubles and back-to-backers in the same 20 yard stretch.
"Ah, I think we are too shallow". Josh said. Apparently, he was watching the GPS and noticed that the track we were currently on was too shallow as compared to the track we had been taking. We motored back out, pushed deeper, and were immediately rewarded. His fish measured and mine didn't. But we had 5. Which was infinitely better than where we were an hour ago. All the fish caught were in a 20 yard circle that was slightly different visually than the surrounding area. What was different? Don't know. But we do know they were all buck bass. They sure like something about that area.
Best five went 13.2. Not a banner day. Not even close. Bertus reported a similar weight as well. We caught 13 or so (8 for Josh and 5 for me, I believe). All but one were one the Bama rig. My Bama rig was rigged with one Money Minnow and 4 of my custom swimbaits, as found here:
http://best5zach.blogspot.com/p/zachs-custom-swim-baits.html
And Money Minnow:
The fish alternated between the Money Minnow and the custom baits.
My last cast of the day, however, I slung off my Bama Rig. Yup. 15 dollar lure. 5 dollars in hooks. 20 dollars in baits. Gone. So, word of advice, retie your line...even braid...every once in awhile. Ugg....
Maybe I learned something. I don't know. It's tough to judge. We didn't do anything terribly different than what we had been doing the rest of the day. I guess you could say that, if it ain't working, don't force it. Go looking somewhere else. And even if they aren't biting at one small spot, it doesn't mean they aren't 20 yards away, all bunched up and hungry.
Still waiting for that multiple fish hook-up on the Bama rig. I don't think it exists....
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