Fishing Report for Guntersville 2/29/2020

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Boy, do I have a story for yall. If you've been keeping up, Josh and I finished 16th in the Alabama Bass Trail event on Guntersville and Brad and I were set to fish a club tournament this past weekend. Normally, we would get out in Brad's boat and prefish a bit. But, as life (and weather, mostly) would have it, there was no way to get out and fish. You can read the report on that by clicking the link below.

Alabama Bass Trail Event on Guntersville

Anyways, the weather was set up almost identical to the previous weekend. That is, from overcast and rainy to post-frontal with a slight warming trend. Josh and I had run a pattern the Friday before of fishing points with shakey heads (now that we are done on this lake for awhile, I can talk about it more). On Saturday, the fish were off those points and while we could get a bite occasionally, we couldn't hang into them. We eventually found the fish had moved shallow onto docks, probably because of the lack of clouds and bright sun. 

In other words, in 24 hours, the fishing had flip-flopped, but at least we were NEAR the fish.  So, Brad and I planned on doing the exact same thing, since the conditions were so similar. We put in at Waterfront and waited until it was time to make the run up river to Roseberry. But when Brad put it on the floor, the boat wouldn't get up on plane.

So, he tried and tried to get the boat on plane, meanwhile I'm sure we looked like newbs that didn't know how to trim down. It was about the time that I could hear all the laughter from the pros that were prefishing for the Bassmaster Classic that I looked back to see that the rear of the boat was under water. 

I'd seen this before and after hastily getting it on the trailer, we discovered that a livewell inlet had been sheared off. After wrapping some plastic worms in electrical tape, shoving it into the inlet, and then taping it some more, we were ready to go. Unfortunately, we had lost an hour of fishing. 

About the time we passed Goosepond, we noticed that the net was gone from the front deck. Where it went, we still do not know. So not only did we lose an hour of fishing, we had lost our net, too. I wasn't too worried because I didn't have a ton of faith that we would need it, but I digress.

We started out on one of the points in Roseberry. After getting two or three very tentative bites, it was obvious that the fishing was indeed going to be the exact same as last week. So, I headed to the one dock we had caught fish on the previous week.

We were rewarded fairly quickly with the fish pictured above on a square bill. After an hour of fruitless fishing, we began to move around to other points Josh and I had caught fish on. A bite or two aside, we put nothing in the boat and returned back to the magic dock. I produced another solid keeper on a chatterbait. 

We repeated this process, but managed to run into just one more keeper in other areas before we spent the remainder of our day on this one boat dock. By this time, the sun was very high in the sky and the water had warmed to around 52 degrees from the 48 degrees we saw earlier that morning. 

About that time, we discovered that there were a pile of decent sized males on the end of the dock and for the last hour, we consistently caught fish. By the day's end, we had caught just five keepers with a host of non-keepers. I had also broken off two fish, for reasons I don't know. We also missed a ton of bites as they just didn't want the shakey head, but wouldn't eat ANYTHING else. 

It took 16 pounds to win, 15 for second, and we checked in at 3rd with 13.5 pounds. There were few limits and the big fish of the tournament was just over five pounds. The ramps were covered up with pros and there was a lot of traffic on the lake, though about the same amount as there usually is. 

Anyways, it was the first time in YEARS that I had caught five keepers on the G in February and while we have caught some TOADS this time of year, you gotta have five. Water clarity was still an issue and the continued rain is going to cause the fish to be in disarray for the time being. So, if you find an area that produces more than two boats, hunker down. 

Alabama Bass Trail Event on Guntersville

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When we signed up to fish our last tournament on Wheeler, we had some concern that we were misusing our time. The first event for the Alabama Bass Trail was on Guntersville and neither Josh and I had fished the Big G in in months and months. Some of that is because the winter on Wheeler can be special and some of it is because I just don't like Guntersville. Here are a couple of those stories:

Fishing Report for Wheeler/Dry Creek Marina Open 12/7/19

Fishing Report for Wheeler Lake Late December/January 1st

Fishing Report for Wheeler (Late January 2019)

The thought was, we were on fish on Wheeler and we were consistently cashing checks each and every tournament, which is a far cry from what we expected on Guntersville. Truly, it wasn't just that we struggle on Guntersville this time of year, we also struck out on Smith for the first tournament of the year last year with the ABT as well. You can click on the links below and read those sad stories.

Fishing Report for Smith Lake 2/16/19

Fishing Report for Guntersville/Alabama Bass Trail

In the ABT, you can have bad tournaments, but you cannot afford to strike out in the first one of the year if you hope to fish in the ABT Championship. That's exactly what we had done both the last two years and we came up short last season simply because we didn't weight a fish in the first tournament of the year. Literally, a limit of fish on Smith would have put us in the Championship.

Enough about the past. Let's talk about this tournament and the practices leading up to it. 

As all of you know, the weather has been beyond pitiful for fishing so far. I am willing to fish bad weather. Cold weather. Wind. Whatever. But one thing you can't fish is flooding conditions that keep you from getting the boat in the water. With that said, we fished the few days that we could. 

The first trip was Martin Luther King Day. It was 15 degrees and windy when we put in at Alred's and we moved into Brown's Creek. Hours and hours of fishing yielded two bites and one fish, a barely legal keeper caught on a chatterbait. Josh added a second trip on a decent Sunday afternoon where he found some deeper fish on points on the upper end of the river as well as some fish that were pulled up in flooded brush and trees. Of course, the latter wasn't a stable pattern with the water levels constantly fluctuating. 

On President's day , Josh found that the deeper fish were still in the same place and he had a consistent day, but there were no size among the fish. Still, it was consistent and it was better than anything else we had found. 

Just to recap, thus far: In two trips, I had caught two fish. Josh had fished two more trips and had at least caught a limit each trip, but nothing to get excited about.

From here, the discussion wasn't about winning or even cashing a check, but how to get five fish to keep us in the middle of the standings. Based on the prefishing, we decided that the week of the event, we would focus on Roseberry creek, only. Not that there seemed to be anything magical about it, but that we simply hadn't had any luck outside of the creek and we hoped it might get ignored. We knew that Brown's Creek and Spring Creek were where most of the Guntersville sticks would fish, based upon the results from the Waterfront Wildcat Two-day, the Rattletrap Tournament, and just dock talk. In addition, word was that even among these guys, the spots holding these fish were extremely small and it was a boat race to them. Since we didn't know our boat number, we couldn't bet on that, even if we found it. 

Thursday rolled around and we were boat 11. For us, this wasn't a good thing because it meant we would be dead last for Wheeler in June and we weren't on any fish to make that early number pay.

Friday, our prefishing wasn't great, but it was consistent. The fish were extremely finicky and refused to hit moving baits, but they were locked into the edge of grasslines. At the pretournament meeting, we found that we had more success than most people we talked to and mentioning that we had caught around 10 fish and had 30 bites was miles better than most people had experienced. So, even though we were sold on where we were going and what we were going to do, we suddenly felt like we had a chance to make some noise.

Of course, the issue was that we had been catching only buck bass and while they were all keepers, we had no indication that there were big fish around them. So, we speculated a little. It had warmed some on Friday and Saturday was primed to see fish move up, especially the females. If we were catching the bucks, the females were behind, somewhere. Saturday would be a good day for them to move up from the first drop. 

The run from State Park was long, mostly because it was cold. We settled into our pattern and were surprised that the only boats that went into Roseberry were headed to the very back. It wasn't a bad plan and we had planned to do just that, considering the numbers of big fish we've caught back there, including a nine-pounder two years ago. However, we wanted a limit first.

That limit was harder to come by than we thought. None of the deeper fish wanted to play. We might get bites, but they weren't committed. An hour went by with only short fish, so we began venturing off our spots. Despite not having been bitten on a moving bait on Friday, I picked up a crankbait. I quickly caught a short fish and a few yards later, the rod loaded up. Josh asked if I needed the net, but I was convinced that the fish was foul hooked. I told Josh not to bother with the net.

That was a mistake, but Josh had seen the fish and knew it was a good one. I went from thinking I had a short fish to boating a six. 

Josh added a keeper about an hour later, but we fished until noon, recycling our spots, without boating another keeper. Truly, I was a lot of the problem. I could not get the fish to hook up on soft plastics. I don't know how big they were, but I couldn't get them in the boat to find out. 

At noon, we returned to the exact spot the six came from. Two casts from me and one from Josh later, we had a limit that included a four and a couple of two-and-halfers. Again, we moved around and again, the pattern broke down. 

An hour later, we returned to the spot and I had another good one pull off, but Josh caught another couple that culled us up. We had a solid bag, but time was running out.

We made one stop on the way back to weigh-in and fished channel swings in Seibold where Josh culled us about half a pound. 

We were probably the 15th boat to weigh in and the first ten or so bags were all around 20 pounds and it seemed pretty obvious at the time that 18.50 wasn't going to be enough. In fact, we loaded up and started to leave when my wife texted me that half the field had weighed in and we were still sitting in 13th. 

The way the fish had begun to bite when the sun came up, we figured the afternoon crowd would smash them. Still, the boats kept coming through and we stayed in the same place on the leaderboard. At the end of it, we finished in 16th, which surprised us to no end. 

We caught around 10 fish and had around 20 bites. There were some things to feel good about. We did make adjustments. We had a feeling the fish were around. The issue is that most of it felt like luck. 

But, hey, we are headed in the right direction. 

As always, the ABT shines. There is a reason that teams from across the country come here to fish and it isn't just because the fishing in Alabama is THAT good. Of course, that certainly helps.

Kay, Clay, Robbie, and the ABT crew do a phenomenal job on each and every event and make it fun and almost effortless, despite having 225 boats to compete against. 

Fishing Report for Wheeler (Late January 2019)

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As all of you are probably well aware, the Alabama weather is doing what the Alabama weather seems to do each year. Lots of rain followed by some brutal cold for a day or so and then when you finally get good weather, it's on a Wednesday and you can't go fishing. 

The current and water color seems to run a lot of people away at the thought of fishing, especially the upper end of Wheeler. Can't say I blame them, sometimes. If you don't have the experience and equipment, it can be down-right frustrating. The last three trips have been like that, even for people who fish Wheeler a lot. 

Last Sunday, I took my daughter out for a few hours. It was windy but the sun was shining a bit, which is really the key ingredient to getting on a good bite. I had a couple of places that have been solid over the last month. Nothing special to them, just wood along the shoreline where current is pushing and we could get consistently bit on a spinnerbait. We caught a few but we had to cover hundreds of yards to get bit. This doesn't produce any big fish, but it can be fairly mindless and you can forget about fighting the current or working a bait really hard. 

We tried a few other current breaks where the fish get stacked up, but couldn't get bit. Eventually, we headed up river to fish the mouths of some major creeks and did find one that was holding fish. Unfortunately, we had some crappie fishermen that were sitting right on top of the bass, so we were forced to fish the edges of the school. It produced some fish, but it was fairly tough.

This past weekend, I was able to get out for a short afternoon trip and found much of the same conditions. After fishing several high probability spots without a bite, we begun running the mouths of these creeks again. Eventually, we found a school.

After not getting a single bite, I was able to connect on five straight casts that resulted in some magnum spots and the largemouth pictured above. Working a bait in that kind of current, especially when they want it sitting right on the bottom and at the end of really long casts can be frustrating. Each cast would take several minutes and the fish would bite the bait several times before finally committing. But, if we worked it all the way to the boat, they would eat it, some of them directly under the boat.

We caught around 20 fish, but they were very very picky on the baits we threw and it was very obvious that while they would eat a crank or a jig, they really wanted a swimbait. We had around 16 pounds in our best five fairly quick and continued to catch them consistently for about 30 minutes before we tried to find some smallies. 

Unfortunately, we never caught another fish off of the one spot and once we idled back to it, we couldn't get the fish to fire back up. Still, it was hard to be upset with the numbers and quality. There were several four pound spots in the mix along with that big largemouth.

On our way back down river, we stopped at a very small creek and while I haven't caught them good on that spot in a month, it is one of the few spots that largemouth frequent in the current. After throwing a swimbait and losing about the tenth of the day, I decided that I was done with that bait and picked up a jig. 

Again, I had to work this thing dead slow but a fish absolutely slammed it on my first cast. It didn't fight like a spot and I didn't think there were any largemouth that big on this point. So, when the fish rolled to the surface and wasn't a drum, as I expected, I tried to boat flip it.

The problem with that was, it was a five pounder on a 7-foot medium rod and it wasn't going to happen. I ended up lipping aboard a beautiful largemouth that was covered in spots. I really wish I would have taken pictures of it. Our best five were a little over 20 pounds with the two five pound largemouths anchoring it and three big spots. 

This will likely be my last winter report for Wheeler as the ABT is on the horizon. 

Fishing Report for Wheeler Lake Late December/January 1st

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Boy, has it been an interesting few weeks out on Wheeler! Last time I checked in, Josh and I had just won the Dry Creek Open with over 21 pounds of smallies. You can read about that week of prefishing and a recount of the tournament by clicking the link below.

Fishing Report for Wheeler/Dry Creek Marina Open 12/7/19

The next Saturday, we decided to fish an open tournament out of First Creek, not because we thought we could win, but because I'd never really fished that end of the lake during the winter and wanted to see if some of the same techniques might transition. I knew of a lot of points and pockets that typically hold smallmouth in the early spring, so it was a reasonable assumption that we could find some. Also, the tournament weights on that end were really low and I thought that we could come up with 12-14 pounds, which is what it takes to win.

Wrong. 

I had ZERO bites all day. Josh had two bites and while it was a nice largemouth that went over four pounds and another dink, it wasn't enough to win. However, it was dangerously close to second place, which was just seven pounds in two fish. 

Over the next two weeks, I fished a good bit due to the holidays. As you may know, the weather has gone in a very interesting cycle. We will get a lot of rain, then a cold post front, then a few days of stability with several days reaching into the 60s. 

As it happened, that third day (sometimes second, depending on how much rain) post-frontal could be knockout fishing. Of course, the issue is that you can't always choose when you want to fish, which meant that I fished several days that weren't optimal. 

Those days were brutal. Some days, we would catch between five and seven fish, all day. Some days we wouldn't catch but one or two. Typically, when it was only one or two, they would always be really good spots, like the one below.

What was really interesting is that the only consistent spot we could get bit was on a stretch of wood around Ditto landing and they would only hit a spinnerbait. It wasn't fast and furious, but it was consistent. We'd drift 50 yards and we would catch a couple. However, they were all spotted bass and pretty small. Still, consistency is key. 

Josh and I got out last Saturday and wacked them, though it took fishing three or four spots. All we were doing was fishing main creek points but for some reason, only one was holding fish. By holding fish, I mean we caught 20-30 in an hour. It was a lot of fun and we didn't catch anything huge, though we did pile up a solid 12-13 pound bag of spots. What was interesting is that they wouldn't bite anything but moving baits and only certain moving baits at that. 

Since there was a New Year's Day tournament out of Ingalls, I decided that Wyatt and I would do a little prefishing. I knew what I was going to do if I went up river and I knew that if things broke right, in terms of weather and water color, we would do excellent. But in the event that the weather and water didn't stabilize, I wanted a backup plan. While most people assume that we've caught all our fish upriver, for most every tournament, our bigger fish have come from around Decatur, so I wanted to check those spots.

The water was muddy and try as we might, we caught exactly ONE bass all morning, so I was a bit nervous about fishing the tournament, especially over the prospect of using so much gas. It takes about 32 gallons to run to Guntersville dam and back. Not to mention that Wyatt and I got beat to death by the wind and waves and I wasn't signing up for that.

It was a bit over freezing when we blasted off from Ingalls and we turned right. Luckily, there was no real wind all day and it was smooth sailing as we headed up river, as did most of the boats that were fishing, which was really interesting. By the time we made it to Ditto Landing, both of us needed to warm up, so we decided to start fishing there. Once again, the mouth of Ditto and Aldridge Creek didn't yield any fish, which it continues to do during tournament days. 

After almost two hours of fruitless fishing, I suggested we try the little stretch of bank that Wyatt and I had caught them on last week. We covered the spot and didn't get bit, but about the time we decided to leave, Josh caught a nice spot on a shakey head. Weird, but ok. Then we boated one on a spinnerbait. Every large tree seemed to have one spot on it and we fairly quickly boated a limit. However, both of us were well aware that we were using a lot of time and covering a lot of water for limited fish.

About that time, we drifted to a tree that was holding a PILE of fish. We ended up catching 15 or so off this one lay down, but the size was obviously not going the right direction, though we were up around 11 pounds. 

We decided to leave this spot and start running our typical pattern. What we found was that the water clarity was better the further up the river you went. We stopped on a high spot and I boated a really nice spot that culled, but that was the only fish it produced. Next few spots had boats on them. We finally settled into fishing current seams and found an area that was really holding fish.

Over the next two hours, we caught around 20-25 fish while sitting in the same place. We culled up by ounces time and time again but eventually got to the point at around 13-14 pounds that we didn't think we could get any more weight from catching spots so we changed it up a bit and went looking for smallies. We ended up boating two smallies with one of them being a really, really good one that I felt confident would take big fish. Aside from one fish I caught on a jig and one or two that Josh caught on a worm, all the fish came off of moving baits. 

We ended up in second with 18.25 pounds, getting edged out by about half a pound. The real shocker was that my 5.90 smallie wasn't the big fish, which went to another smallmouth that was over SIX pounds. 

It was a great start to a new year!