Read about all of my Fishing Adventures!
Follow my Fish of 2018
After taking a week off of our little wildcat to fish the last stop (or first, which was moved) of the Alabama Bass Trail on Pickwick, Josh and I were both....hungry......to get back on the water as soon as possible. The ABT on Pickwick was brutal, and not just for us, but painful enough that we needed to get back to catching fish.
If you recall, we had won back to back weeks on the upper end of Wheeler lake. We had done it without really catching a good bag. It's been super tough due to high water temps. You can read about the two trips by clicking the links below.
With that said, the two wins came two completely different ways. The first tournament was easy to catch fish and it was a question of finding the better fish. We had about three spots around Ditto that we were catching good numbers. We weren't doing anything special, just junk fishing around. It was a question of which spots held the better fish.
But the very next week, we couldn't buy a bite at any spot within two or three miles of Ditto and eventually decided to run all the way to Guntersville dam. Once there, we had about two hours to find five fish, which we did. It wasn't pretty and essentially it only took a limit to win.
With that knowledge, we still debated what to do considering the high water and high current we would be fishing. We had thought that surely the fishing down river around Ditto would be good and considering the amount of trash floating in the water, a trip back from the dam in the dark wasn't appealing. The water temp wasn't as low as we thought it would be. It was still in the 80s, but at least TVA was pushing 100K CFS through Guntersville.
At 7PM, we hadn't had a single bite. Not one. We had covered a lot of water and thrown a lot of different baits but it didn't matter if it was a rock pile, a point, or the back of a pocket, the fish weren't biting. So began the discussion. Was the risk of hitting logs worth a piddly $20 bill? Catching fish and winning is fun, but we both knew the risk.
So, we decided that would go to the dam, but pay special attention to where the trash was and take extra time getting back in the dark.
By the time we got to the dam, it was almost completely dark and the current and waves due to the flood gates being opened was kinda scary. But, we went to work.
Based upon our experience, we knew there is about a 50 yard stretch that would hold a lot of fish, but never seemed to hold quality. But that this point, we figured just having five would get us a win and if we could get a few above average bites, it would likely seal the deal.
So, we went to work with a PowerTeam Lures 7" tickler and the bites began. The only issue we had was that this spot is extremely sticky and I was averaging about a fish per shaky head. Eventually I just sat two packs of heads and the bag of worms on the deck. In about an hour, we caught around 15 fish. Surprisingly, only two didn't measure and we began to cull. It wasn't big culls, but ounces would matter.
During the flurry, I set the hook on a fish and when asked if I needed the net, I told Josh that it wasn't any bigger than any of the rest of the fish we were catching. About the time I boat flipped it, I realized it was actually a really good river fish.
The funniest part of the day was when Josh boated a fish on the jig. When it hit the carpet, it threw the jig and went to flopping. Josh tried a kick-save it but it just sent the fish back in the drink. It was a solid two pounder and it hurt to lose, but we couldn't help but laugh.
We made a slow steady run back to the ramp to find that no one had caught anything. The big fish I caught ( a little over three pounds) weighed more than all the other fish combined. We took home a win with just under 10 pounds, which was shocking considering we went the majority of the evening without a single bite.
A lot of people will read this and scoff about winning a little buddy tournament. I get it. This isn't about bragging. This is about staying sharp and focused on fishing, especially after getting your rear end handed to you all season by the best fishermen in the southeast. Sometimes you need a little confidence booster, and this was certainly that.
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