Read about all of my Fishing Adventures!
Follow my Fish of 2017
During the summer, my sister takes the kids for a few days. Now, here's the catch: first, she can't take all three of them. Second: she lives in Chattanooga. Neither are a problem because the solution works out in my favor. To meet her or my brother in law halfway means somewhere along Guntersville twice in the same week.
They wanted to meet in South Pittsburgh (which is quite a bit further than halfway, but since I've only fished that section once, I was willing to give it a try). Of course, that trip was in January of 2015. But there were smallies involved....so of course I was down. You can read about it by clicking the link below.
Fishing Report for Guntersville 1/17/15
So, after a two hour ride, we dumped the boys off my my brother in law and dunked the Bullet. Now, there were some surprises, here. First, the water was high. So high the dock was completely under water. Ok, that isn't the worst thing in the world. Also, the current was RIPPING. According the the TVA App, it was 60,000 CFS from Nickajack. Of course, with the lake being so narrow at that point, 60K is stout.
So, we headed up river and fished behind an island that would allow us to have a fighting chance at the current. Throwing a PTL 7" Tickler, we were able to catch some very small spots. That was good for my wife and daughter, the latter of which is really trying to learn to fish.
Alas, I grew really tired of standing on the trolling motor.
So, we ran down river in search of other current breaks. Unfortunately, there are almost none. I tried to hide behind several cuts and islands, but the current was so strong that the typically slack water areas were actually back flow eddies. They weren't any easier to navigate so we continued to move down river.
We fished several rip-rap banks and I was surprised to find grass along the 8 foot line, even that far up river. My wife and daughter weren't very comfortable fishing the grass and I was devoting equal parts of my time running the trolling motor, getting people unstuck and dodging my daughters hooks.
Eventually we made it to the first turn in the river, just downriver from a set of powerlines. Against this bank, the current was reduced and I was actually able to position the boat.
We were able to consistently get bit on shaky heads, but all of the fish were very small. The lone bit of good action came on a Strike King popping bait. I had a solid hit and hooked up with the fish. A second two pounder attacked the lure and I had both of them on for a few seconds before one shook loose. Either the same fish or a different one followed the bait all the way to the boat and I was able to figure out the lure right by the boat and get multiple strikes from another fish.
By the time I had unhooked the fish, we had been blown down river a 100 yards and I couldn't figure out exactly where I was.
We only spent about an hour on the water and I saw enough to know that I won't be going back any time soon. I'll just meet my sister in Scottsboro.
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