Fishing Report for Guntersville

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It was a quick turnaround from Friday evening when we fished Ditto from 5-9. Brad and I both were one tournament short of qualifying for the Cargo Club Classic, so we both had to fish this event. However, neither of us were able to get out there and prefish and we both knew it was going to be really tough. At one point, we were content to fishing the morning just for fun and then eating the entry fee and heading home.

My daughter had a softball tournament. My son had a football game. Brad had plenty of things going on and both of us really wanted to watch football as well. But, we made a deal just to go fishing and see what happens. 

The water temps inside of Roseberry were right at 78 degree but there was no current being generated at Nickajack and Guntersville dam was dropping water. Not a great recipe for success.

We started the morning fishing a spot Brad had caught some fish this time last year on topwater. We actually caught several fish on Pop-Rs at this little flat outside South Sauty in less than six feet of water. The grass was scattered and wasn't topped out anywhere in this area. The fish were all small and we quickly abandoned this because it was obvious there was tons of small fish. While Brad caught a bunch more than me, I tried to get them to bite several other baits including spinnerbaits and chatterbaits, but nothing was biting.

From here we hit a couple of other similar spots but couldn't get a single bite. Because there were no clouds, we figured we would start looking deep. We checked several places where we've found schools of fish this time of year. One in particular had a few fish but they were scattered due to the lack of current and we couldn't get them to bite. I had one pull a worm off my hook, but that was it. 

We combed these areas with jigs, worms, and cranks. 

We went back to a shallow water spot or two. No popping and no action. 

On a whim, we scanned the bends entering south Sauty and found a school of fish on a stumpfield. On my first cast, I caught a keeper on a jig. Brad boated a short on the next cast. We were REALLY excited at this point thinking we might be on to something. But we weren't. Those were the only bites we had.

At this point, it was 11AM and we had one keeper and it was getting hot. We decided that we would fish from 11-12 in the back of Roseberry frogging. First few mats we hit, no popping and no bites. I was about to give up but we decided to hit one more.

Immediately, I had two blow ups and they were fairly weak hits. Third was a great hit and the fish came completely out of the water. It was a really good fish and it took me what felt like five minutes to get the fish in the boat. It was a six pound head and and a five pound body, but it was a start.

Few casts later, another blow up from another four pounder, but she didn't get it. I boated a short on the frog and had about two other blowups. Then it quit. 

We ran the rest of the stretch, came back and tried it again, but never got another bite. At that point, we gave up and dumped the fish. That might have been a mistake as it took 13.61 to win, 12.67 to get second and just 6.61 to get third. Big fish was 3.61 and the fish I had caught would have beaten that.

However, I was glad to get off the water when we did. In all we caught around 10 fish with top water being the only thing we caught multiple fish on. 

Reckon we will stick to fishing Wheeler in the evenings. We plan to fish again this Friday 5-8 out of Ditto. Message me for details. 

Fishing Report for Wheeler 9/20/19

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As many of you know, Josh and I started hosting a little Friday evening wildcat out of Ditto. We really, really, hoped that the weather would cool and the bite would turn on. The first week we hosted it, which you can read about here, it seemed to look that way. Everyone seemed to catch fish and there were some good bags weighed in. 

The next week, well, it came back to earth. Only two limits were weighed in and they weren't great. We probably caught seven fish all night.

The hot weather remained, but on Friday it had dipped from the mid-90s to the upper 80s and TVA was pulling 45,000 CFS. It's too bad water temps were still around 83. We had a good turnout of boats and I expected good bags and a fair amount of fish to get caught.

Josh and I started where we have been starting: just outside of Ditto. We've been catching fish pretty quick on cranks here, but they weren't having it. I swapped to a worm, dumped a 2.5 pounder at the boat but we both put in a decent keeper. We didn't get bit again so we moved down river a bit. Only had one bite, but it was a keeper and it came on topwater, or first of the fall.

Three fish in the tank, we hopped around and we both caught a keeper on a spinnerbait on wood on back to back casts. We thought we might be on to something, but we didn't get touched afterwards. But, hey, we had five. 

We ran up to the point of Hobbs where we've caught our bigger fish. The first week we caught a ton of fish including several over three. Last week, only one but it was a 4.5 pound smallie. Not today. Not a sniff. 

The sun was down and while we caught a couple of shorts around Ditto, we were going to spend the rest of the evening inside Ditto throwing a spinnerbait. Josh caught the big fish of the tournament while tossing the spinnerbait around boat docks.

We didn't have much and while that three pounder helped, we thought surely someone would have even more. 

Unfortunately for everyone else, finding five fish was just as hard for them but we managed to find one good one. 

We took a win with almost 9 pounds. It was far from stellar. 

Eventually the weather is going to turn and it's going to get good, but not yet. We caught most fish on a spinnerbait, but really, that was only two or three. 

Fishing Report for Wheeler/Ditto Landing 8/30

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First, let me start off telling yall that I am trying to host a nearly weekly wildcat out of Ditto on Friday nights. We started running some wildcats during they winter and I had so many people ask me to keep a running tournament during the fall and winter, so I am doing my best. Message me through my Facebook Page for info. We are fishing this coming Friday, the 6th from 5-9 for $25. 

Anyways, so we had the Ditto Classic, which is a two day event. We were on board the struggle bus, once again. We've never done well in the Classic, but this year in its entirety was just brutal. We just never found fish. 

So, we sulked about it for a few weeks and I started having people ask me if we would be willing to start hosting a Friday tournament. We gave it a shot this past week, even though we didn't have a whole lot of time to advertise it, we still had enough to fish. 

Josh and I decided to change things up. All year we went to the dam and all year we struggled. It's crazy how you can get bit prefishing and then strike out on tournament day, but it kept happening. So, we just went fishing. We decided to just junk fish around and see what happens. 

We started near the mouth of Ditto because we saw some schooling fish and the current was around 45,000 CFS which should be more than enough to turn them on, even though the water temps were around 88 degrees. I lost a two pounder on a crank, caught a keeper on the very next cast, then nothing. We had a few worm bites, but nothing that would take the worm. 

We decided to move down towards the bridge and I got swiped at with my crank a few times. I think Josh caught a keeper. I put down the crank and picked up a spinnerbait. I don't know why. The conditions don't seem to be very spinnerbait friendly, but my buddy Wyatt swears by it and it seems to work for him. Sure enough, first cast on a spinnerbait, I catch a four-pounder. We find that isolated wood seemed to hold fish, but getting them in the boat was tough as they were pulling the tails off my trailor. Josh did manage to boat a bunch of short fish, but for the most part, we didn't catch anything worth talking about.

As the sun went down, we decided to fish some current breaks up river. It was like a light switch went on and we caught around 10 fish on consecutive casts including smallmouth, which were mixed in.

I had boated a few keeper spots and then one loaded up. All the fish feel big on my custom crank rod, and when it got in the current, it felt like all the other fish as it swam towards me. Then it decided it didn't want to get in the boat and I realized it was a much bigger fish than I had thought. The fish short lined me, made some nasty turns, evaded the net, but eventually we boated a near 4-pound smallie. A few casts later and I boated a 2-pounder smallie. Josh caught fish as well, but none helped up. 

Then the light switch went off and we didn't get bit again from 7:30-9. Luckily, we had 11.5 pounds and the 4.30 big fish, which was enough for the win. 

The story from upriver was that the fish were biting just as good, with some big ones showing up, but Wyatt was fishing alone and couldn't get all of his in the boat. He had enough to beat us, had he been able to boat them. 

The topwater bite is non-existant and the worm bite is just as bad, seems like. That will change when the temps go down, I think. 

Looking forward to this Friday. Hope yall come!