Fishing Report for Guntersville 2/11/13

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First off...let me tell you how disappointed I am that I will not be able to put a video for this report. It sure deserved it...and I had videos...but because of a series of zach-isms....I only have 1 thing of footage. Cause number 1: I was borrowing the GoPro and I had to return it. Number 2: I haven't bought my own GoPro because I am broke. Number 3: I cracked the screen on my Flip video, so while we thought we were videoing our 5+ pound catches, we weren't. We only videoed ourselves putting the Flip back up.

No worries. I have the one video. It's a humorous and entertaining 30 seconds, but it doesn't have anything to do with the 20+ pound sack that Jon and I put up today. Le Sigh.

But, we did without videos for 3 years. So, life will go on.

I was itching to get back on Guntersville after last weeks adventures with Jim. Ironic since I have had such atrocious luck on Guntersville over the last year. I guess fishermen have to possess short memories. According to my wife...I do possess one of said short memories.

I had a good bit of comp time to burn after my last work trip. Jon is going to be going on a lengthy travel trip next week, so he wanted to get a trip in while he could. The weather was going to be.....not terrible. According to the weathermen.....

Anyway. Jon hadn't gone out of Goose Pond. Since I really like the area, I convinced him to meet me there. We were on the water by 730 and headed toward the North Sauty causeway. I wanted to show him some areas before the causeway that I had luck with. Specifically, big chunk rocks next to the creek channel. We found them and made a few casts on the submerged rocks. No luck. The wind blew us off of the rocks and we immediately came across a TON of bait with game fish of some sort on them. Well, if you have read the last posts, I put the new Zach Fishing Plan into effect. I picked up the spoon and started casting it around. Within a few casts, I had bagged 2 shad and NICE crappie.

We drifted over the ball of bait and Jon noticed an interesting area on the sidescan. Essentially, it was a slight contour change, rocks on the end of it, with 4-5 larger fish sitting on the bottom. He threw his spinnerbait out, let it fall to the bottom, drug it over the contour change, bumped the rocks, and something slammed it. Judging by the previous fish I had just caught, I assumed that it was a stripe, given the depth and the location in the creek channel. (I did video this anyway, alas the footage was lost...and it's too bad, because I was genuinely surprised to see the 4.5lb greenback).

Without finding much luck afterwards, we decided to fish out the rest of the pocket with lipless cranks. No dice.

Well, after the luck I had last week down in South Sauty, we packed up and made the run. Now, until this point, the weather had been bearable. But once we started running...WHEW! Boy, was it cold! I suddenly wished I hadn't left my coveralls in Jim's boat. But I survived.

We pulled up on the causeway, and low and behold, there wasn't a line to fish it! Aside from a few crappie fishermen and 1 bass boat, we were alone and had our pick.

Now, just a few days ago, that wasn't the case. Josh was out crappie fishing with his Grandad and watched Jim fish the BFL. Josh said there was a boat every 20 yards on both sides, front and back of the causeway. I guess that's to be expected. It's the stereotypical "Load the Boat with Bama Rigs during the Pre-Spawn Staging area". We idled around looking for the fish. They weren't where the had been. But we started seeing a lot of baitfish with sport fish on top of them further down the causeway.

I wanted to cover a lot of water quickly, so I was throwing a Strike Kind 6XD in Chartreuse Sexy Shad on a Duckett Cranking stick.

Man, I love this bait. It runs true out of the package and is easy to crank. And, that rod is so sensitive, you can tell exactly what kind of cover you are hitting. It took a while, but after a good many casts, a few retrieves with the Jewl Bait Hound, I hung into one. (again, I had some KILLER FOOTAGE! ARGH!). I didn't bother with pictures of this nice 5.5lb fish, since I THOUGHT I had it on video. But it was a NICE fish.

A few minutes later, I hung into another fish. I knew it was a stripe. You can always tell. I swung him aboard, knocked him off, and went back to casting. Or so I thought. Apparently, I had wrapped the line around the tip. And to the moon the bait went. We never found it. $7.29 down the drain.

Without having anymore luck, we moved to the other side of the causeway. The bait was plentiful, but the contour was...not right. You know, the kind that you don't get excited about. But, as we trolled around, we found a slight depression that dropped from 12-15 feet, and we found the bait in that 3 foot hole. Next to the hole,  like in North Sauty, was 4-5 larger fish. Jon made a cast to the spot, let it fall down to the bottom, and WHAM! Big 'un. Nice 5 pounder.

Again, it got slow, so we ran to a few spots Jon knew about in the back of South Sauty. We tossed around lipless cranks. We threw square bills. But eventually we gave up. Back to where we had success.

As we pulled back up to the causeway, we noticed this guy yanking out stripe after stripe. He was sitting about 100 yards off the causeway. I told Jon that I would rather catch stripe or white than catch nothing at all. So I tied the spoon back on and started chunking it. We didn't invade his spot and instead found our own bunch of suspended fish. But they wouldn't touch it. Surprising, because it seems only bass can say no to the spoon. Turned out, that was the case. I started chunking a Reaction Innovation Skinny dipper in Bad Shad

It didn't take long before I was nearly yanked in the water. Considering the location we weer in, with the stripe in the area, I just assumed I had gotten bit by one of those big ole stripe. Even the fight was serious. But, much to my surprise, I lipped in this chunk of a 5.5 pounder. (again, had a great video)

And, to top the day off, I ended on catching this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncHDVoIWL9I

Well, anyway, it was a slow day. But you know what they say about fishing this time of year: you won't get many bites, but when you do, they will be PIGS! That was deffinitely the case today. Despite the lack of bites, we still put up 20+ pounds! I'm not complaining. I went a whole year without catching a 5 pounder and now I have 4 in 2 trips. Sure, that's not going to set the world on fire, but it's fine by me. I never claimed to be any good, but I do try to improve. With the help of some good fishermen, I am progressing!