I didn't fish much this week due mostly to 35mph winds almost every day and the fact I was still frustrated after having the best practice ever last week and bombing in the tournament. I fished about three hours Tuesday and had 3 bites. My old buddy Aaron Meritt came down Wednesday and he wanted to catch some fish. We tried the pattern that failed me last weekend and it was going strong. We had over 20lbs in an hour and ended the day with about 24lbs.
I decided to just go fishing in the BFL and make my decisions on the fly. My first stop was exactly where I fished last Saturday and by 9am I had 24lbs. The wind got pretty bad and muddied everything up and the bite slowed considerably. I did catch several more keepers during the day but none would cull. I finished 3rd and missed out on my 7 grand Triton Gold money by 12 oz. which was a little hard to stomach. I was a little shocked that it only took 24-11 to win since it's taken 30+ the past two weekends but I guess even the Alabama rig isn't fool proof which was refreshing to see.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
GUNTERSVILLE BWS
Well, I knew it was to good to be true. My 6 miles of river ledge that have been loaded with 3 to 8lbers became 20 yards of river ledge with a few 2 to 3lbers. There were so many fish out there in practice I just couldn't make myself abandon my pattern and when it was said and done I had 15.19lbs and no time to try anything different. 30 plus won it and I finished 39th. I have a BFL this coming weekend and I guess I have to start my search all over but I'm not looking forward to it.
Friday, February 17, 2012
PATTERN'S HOLDING
I hit Gville yesterday for a half day and spent two hours trying to fine tune my pattern from Wednesday. During that two hours between my partner and I, we put 24lbs in the boat. After yesterday I knew it was a legitimate pattern and not just a fluke so I spent about five hours today looking for more areas to run it. I found several places that were working but more importantly I eliminated a ton of water. It took me a little over a day to figure it out but there are three major ingredients to what a place needs and when I find it, I catch 'em. The size was down on average today but I did have about 23lbs hooked. I lost a 5lber while I was trying to drop a waypoint that would've probably made it in the boat in a tournament and I hit one place and hooked one about 4 or 5lbs and an 8-2 on the same cast. I of course didn't have a net out during practice and the little one came unbuttoned while I was trying to lip the biggun'! Worse part about that is, of all the places I'm catching these fish, those two came off of the only place that gets hammered by other fishermen. I'm not going to race anybody trying to get there, but if I drive by and it's open, it will get thrown on.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
WHAT IS IT WITH WEDNESDAYS?
For some reason I've got Wednesdays dialed in down here at Gville. Last week I had about 24lbs on Wednesday and today was even better. I fished all day yesterday and had five bites that weighed about 16lbs and tried something today I haven't tried in a long time and had about 75 bites with the best five going around 28lbs. I'm not sure whether to be pumped up for this weekend after today or not. It just seemed too easy to be able to duplicate it and it was more of a pattern than a spot, area or school. I did find a few schools running the pattern but they were all smaller fish. I'm definitely going to try and expand on it tomorrow and see just how strong it is, but until I weigh in a giant bag Saturday, I'm not going to hold my breath, it was a fun day for sure though. Oh yea, this 40lb class flathead put an exclamation point on the day!
Saturday, February 11, 2012
CHOO CHOO BFL
WOW! I have fished in some miserable weather but today moved into my top five most brutal conditions list. Air temps dropped into the low 30's, it snowed/sleeted most of the day (which usually makes for a killer bite on Gville and it did), but most importantly there were 21mph sustained NNW winds with gusts to 35mph. I'm not sure what the deal was, but I had serious equipment malfunctions for most of the day due to ice forming on my rods, reels and line.
First stop this morning, I catch one pushing 3lbs on a jig on my third cast and then my reel freezes and I lost my anti-reverse. Since I couldn't feel my hands to retie to another rod and if I did I would've been blown 200 yards off of my spot, I decided to hit an Arig hole. I catch a 16"er pretty quick which I threw back because I knew it would be worthless and then my reel iced over so bad that the level wind gear stripped! I grabbed a crankbait, made five casts, rod guides froze, line broke! I grab a jerkbait, five casts, ice, break! It was ridiculous! Seriously frustrated, I had one more school to check another six miles up the lake so I was praying it would be semi protected from the elements......but it wasn't. The water was chocolate milk and it had 4 footers rolling across it. I made a few casts with the jig and pulled the plug.
It was 9:30 and I was already beaten down mentally and physically. I decided to check a river bank on the NW side that was protected, more so to get a rest from fighting the wind and to warm up a little before I headed back down lake. My co popped a small keeper on the Arig off the river bank and after about 30 minutes we were a little rejuvenated but I was still running out of ideas on what to fish because most everything I found in practice or have fished in the past was getting hammered by the wind.
I had one small stretch of grass in the back of a creek where I'd caught two 4lbers on Monday that I knew would be somewhat protected. I made my way back into the creek expecting to see thirty boats stacked in the area but saw only one and they weren't on my stretch. I dragged my Redeye shad rods out of the rod locker and started down the bank. I'm not sure what it is about this little stretch but I have a waypoint from two years ago and every time I go back there in Feb. I catch a 3 or 4lber within a couple casts of that waypoint. This time was no different. As soon as I reached my waypoint my rod loaded up and I called for the net. Before my co could even get to the front deck, the fish made a surge and pulled off. I didn't get a good look at the fish, but it looked and felt like a 5lb class fish. I fired another cast out and bowed up again but it was only a 16"er. I've never caught more than two off of this stretch but I usually fish it really fast. Since I didn't really have anything else to fish, I decided to drop my Power Poles, fish it thoroughly and hope to coax a few more bites out of there. Long story short, after two hours I'd made 5 passes up and down this stretch and caught two fish every time I reached my waypoint. I had a pair of 4lbers and a 5lber and the others were just 16"ers. I left there at 1:30 with about 18lbs.
The sun popped out and the wind seemed to have calmed a little so I ran back down lake and hit my three schools one more time. I caught a short off of one and my co caught a 3lber off another but they were loner's. I made it to my last school spot where I had started the day at 2:30 and had about 45minutes to fish it. We doubled on 16"ers on our first casts and I thought it was about to be on, but those were the only two bites we had. I decided to just finish out the day there dragging my jig around and hope to get a good bite. Five minutes before we had to head in, I felt a tic and set the hook on a 4.5lber. That culled a 16"er and gave me 20lbs 9oz for the day. That was only good enough for 16th place and a $500 check but after the way the day started, I was proud to have what I had.
Catching those fish two at a time off of my little grass patch made me do some thinking. I have so many little stretches like that on Gville where I'll catch one or two every time I get close to a certain spot but I'm always in such a hurry just trying to cover water and hit as many productive stretches as possible. It just makes me wonder what would happen if I just dropped the Power Poles more often and caught what was available in an area instead of trying to target the more aggressive fish in multiple areas. I like to have as many fish located before a tournament as possible but today that one little stretch being the only fishable place I had, definitely salvaged my day.
First stop this morning, I catch one pushing 3lbs on a jig on my third cast and then my reel freezes and I lost my anti-reverse. Since I couldn't feel my hands to retie to another rod and if I did I would've been blown 200 yards off of my spot, I decided to hit an Arig hole. I catch a 16"er pretty quick which I threw back because I knew it would be worthless and then my reel iced over so bad that the level wind gear stripped! I grabbed a crankbait, made five casts, rod guides froze, line broke! I grab a jerkbait, five casts, ice, break! It was ridiculous! Seriously frustrated, I had one more school to check another six miles up the lake so I was praying it would be semi protected from the elements......but it wasn't. The water was chocolate milk and it had 4 footers rolling across it. I made a few casts with the jig and pulled the plug.
It was 9:30 and I was already beaten down mentally and physically. I decided to check a river bank on the NW side that was protected, more so to get a rest from fighting the wind and to warm up a little before I headed back down lake. My co popped a small keeper on the Arig off the river bank and after about 30 minutes we were a little rejuvenated but I was still running out of ideas on what to fish because most everything I found in practice or have fished in the past was getting hammered by the wind.
I had one small stretch of grass in the back of a creek where I'd caught two 4lbers on Monday that I knew would be somewhat protected. I made my way back into the creek expecting to see thirty boats stacked in the area but saw only one and they weren't on my stretch. I dragged my Redeye shad rods out of the rod locker and started down the bank. I'm not sure what it is about this little stretch but I have a waypoint from two years ago and every time I go back there in Feb. I catch a 3 or 4lber within a couple casts of that waypoint. This time was no different. As soon as I reached my waypoint my rod loaded up and I called for the net. Before my co could even get to the front deck, the fish made a surge and pulled off. I didn't get a good look at the fish, but it looked and felt like a 5lb class fish. I fired another cast out and bowed up again but it was only a 16"er. I've never caught more than two off of this stretch but I usually fish it really fast. Since I didn't really have anything else to fish, I decided to drop my Power Poles, fish it thoroughly and hope to coax a few more bites out of there. Long story short, after two hours I'd made 5 passes up and down this stretch and caught two fish every time I reached my waypoint. I had a pair of 4lbers and a 5lber and the others were just 16"ers. I left there at 1:30 with about 18lbs.
The sun popped out and the wind seemed to have calmed a little so I ran back down lake and hit my three schools one more time. I caught a short off of one and my co caught a 3lber off another but they were loner's. I made it to my last school spot where I had started the day at 2:30 and had about 45minutes to fish it. We doubled on 16"ers on our first casts and I thought it was about to be on, but those were the only two bites we had. I decided to just finish out the day there dragging my jig around and hope to get a good bite. Five minutes before we had to head in, I felt a tic and set the hook on a 4.5lber. That culled a 16"er and gave me 20lbs 9oz for the day. That was only good enough for 16th place and a $500 check but after the way the day started, I was proud to have what I had.
Catching those fish two at a time off of my little grass patch made me do some thinking. I have so many little stretches like that on Gville where I'll catch one or two every time I get close to a certain spot but I'm always in such a hurry just trying to cover water and hit as many productive stretches as possible. It just makes me wonder what would happen if I just dropped the Power Poles more often and caught what was available in an area instead of trying to target the more aggressive fish in multiple areas. I like to have as many fish located before a tournament as possible but today that one little stretch being the only fishable place I had, definitely salvaged my day.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Another rough day on Gville
I don't even have anything worth talking about from today. I did a ton of SIing and never saw anything worth fishing for. I did find a boat laying on the bottom which was pretty cool. I've found two boats on the bottom of Gville with SI and they're within two miles of each other. It's weird because I've spent 1000 hours SIing KY Lake and never found a boat but only about 20 hours SIing Gville and already found two.
I went all the way to the dam searching for schools and it didn't happen. I didn't fish very much today but I fished enough that I should've caught more than two bass which is what I caught. One was about a 3lber and one weighed 7lbs 4oz. I'd sure like to have that one Saturday.
A lot of my bigger fish are loner's and even though they aren't on identical places, the places do have some similarities, mostly the depth and where the fish are positioned on the structure. The bad thing is, I may fish 20 of these places before I catch one. The places aren't very big but it's a pretty specific cast that seems to get them to bite which makes it time consuming because I have to fish them thoroughly. Throw in the 25mph wind that's predicted for Saturday and it's going to be even tougher to hold on these spots and make the perfect cast. I think instead of going out sore mouthing loner's tomorrow, I'm gonna pick about 100 places on the map, out of the wind, that could possibly hold a loner. Once I run through my three or four schools Saturday I'm just going to Arig as many of those 100 places as time will allow and hope for the best.
I went all the way to the dam searching for schools and it didn't happen. I didn't fish very much today but I fished enough that I should've caught more than two bass which is what I caught. One was about a 3lber and one weighed 7lbs 4oz. I'd sure like to have that one Saturday.
A lot of my bigger fish are loner's and even though they aren't on identical places, the places do have some similarities, mostly the depth and where the fish are positioned on the structure. The bad thing is, I may fish 20 of these places before I catch one. The places aren't very big but it's a pretty specific cast that seems to get them to bite which makes it time consuming because I have to fish them thoroughly. Throw in the 25mph wind that's predicted for Saturday and it's going to be even tougher to hold on these spots and make the perfect cast. I think instead of going out sore mouthing loner's tomorrow, I'm gonna pick about 100 places on the map, out of the wind, that could possibly hold a loner. Once I run through my three or four schools Saturday I'm just going to Arig as many of those 100 places as time will allow and hope for the best.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
GVILLE DAY 3- A LITTLE BETTER
I finally gotta full day on the water and I finally broke down and heaved the Arig 99% of the day loaded down with big 'ol Shadalicious swimbaits. It's amazing, but it seemed to make a big difference in my cast to catch ratio.
The third stretch I fished today had two sweet spots. One of the little key spots had a very small patch of bright green coontail and I caught a 4lber, a wad of coontail and a 4.5lber on three casts and I moved on. I fished several hundred yards and hit another patch of coontail and a giant patch of fish. I caught a 3.5lb largemouth and magnum white bass on several casts in a row and even caught one of each on the same cast a couple of times before I decided to pull off of 'em and save a few for Saturday. It'll take a lot more than 3.5lbers to do any damage but I'll gladly start the day with 17 or 18lbs on ten casts in any tournament and there were enough there to do just that if they'll be as cooperative as they were today.
I made my way down the lake side imaging and fishing points, deep banks and anything that looked half decent. I picked up a 4lber and a 5lber along the way but they were loners.
The only bites I got on anything other than an Arig today were on a place that's been really good to me in the fall. It's always been a jig spot but of course the Arig hasn't been an option before. I decided to start with the jig for old times sake and a 3.5lber ate it up on my first cast. My next cast I caught a 2.5lber and my third cast, I shook a bite off. I couldn't wait to throw my little school of Shadalicious' through there but to my surprise, they wouldn't touch it! Apparently, this spot is loaded with crawfish because I have never had a bite on anything but a jig on this place and it hasn't been from lack of trying other baits. I was about to leave and I started thinking about the past and I've never caught anything much over 3lbs off this place in the spring. So, if there were only 3lb class fish using it, it may not even be worth the time Saturday. I decided to make one more cast and hook whatever bit......it was a 5lber. That was kind of a double edged sword because I hated to hook that fish before a tournament, but I may not of even fished there if I hadn't caught that fish and I may start there now, so I guess we'll have to wait and see how important of a piece of the puzzle that fish was.
I worked my way down the lake a little more and didn't really find anything promising. I did catch another 5lber but it was hooked in the back and so random that I could never duplicate it, so it shouldn't even count.
I don't know if it was the changing of areas or chunking the Arig all day but overall it was a much better day. I had around 23lbs on my best five and I think I caught 20 or so keepers with most of them being over 3lbs. From what I'm hearing, 23lbs isn't going to be that strong but after the past two days, I'd be tickled to have that come Saturday. I'm still not seeing many boats on the lake. This is usually the most crowded, frustrating place to fish that I've ever been. You usually have to wait in line to fish anything but I've had the main lake to myself for three days. These guys must be piled up on all the community bridges and rocks way down lake. They're probably crushin' 'em on that stuff but I still refuse to join the crowd.
The third stretch I fished today had two sweet spots. One of the little key spots had a very small patch of bright green coontail and I caught a 4lber, a wad of coontail and a 4.5lber on three casts and I moved on. I fished several hundred yards and hit another patch of coontail and a giant patch of fish. I caught a 3.5lb largemouth and magnum white bass on several casts in a row and even caught one of each on the same cast a couple of times before I decided to pull off of 'em and save a few for Saturday. It'll take a lot more than 3.5lbers to do any damage but I'll gladly start the day with 17 or 18lbs on ten casts in any tournament and there were enough there to do just that if they'll be as cooperative as they were today.
I made my way down the lake side imaging and fishing points, deep banks and anything that looked half decent. I picked up a 4lber and a 5lber along the way but they were loners.
The only bites I got on anything other than an Arig today were on a place that's been really good to me in the fall. It's always been a jig spot but of course the Arig hasn't been an option before. I decided to start with the jig for old times sake and a 3.5lber ate it up on my first cast. My next cast I caught a 2.5lber and my third cast, I shook a bite off. I couldn't wait to throw my little school of Shadalicious' through there but to my surprise, they wouldn't touch it! Apparently, this spot is loaded with crawfish because I have never had a bite on anything but a jig on this place and it hasn't been from lack of trying other baits. I was about to leave and I started thinking about the past and I've never caught anything much over 3lbs off this place in the spring. So, if there were only 3lb class fish using it, it may not even be worth the time Saturday. I decided to make one more cast and hook whatever bit......it was a 5lber. That was kind of a double edged sword because I hated to hook that fish before a tournament, but I may not of even fished there if I hadn't caught that fish and I may start there now, so I guess we'll have to wait and see how important of a piece of the puzzle that fish was.
I worked my way down the lake a little more and didn't really find anything promising. I did catch another 5lber but it was hooked in the back and so random that I could never duplicate it, so it shouldn't even count.
I don't know if it was the changing of areas or chunking the Arig all day but overall it was a much better day. I had around 23lbs on my best five and I think I caught 20 or so keepers with most of them being over 3lbs. From what I'm hearing, 23lbs isn't going to be that strong but after the past two days, I'd be tickled to have that come Saturday. I'm still not seeing many boats on the lake. This is usually the most crowded, frustrating place to fish that I've ever been. You usually have to wait in line to fish anything but I've had the main lake to myself for three days. These guys must be piled up on all the community bridges and rocks way down lake. They're probably crushin' 'em on that stuff but I still refuse to join the crowd.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
GVILLE 1/2 DAY 2
I helped out a friend who had some boat trouble this morning so I didn't get on the lake until 11am. I decided to give the old conventional tactics another try so I headed to Roseberry Creek and flipped, square billed, trapped, jigged and medium cranked everything in sight. I hit one little community spot with a Strike King series 5 and popped a couple 16"ers and a 5.5lber but I tore the thing apart just to get those 3 bites. I never drew a strike with the 1.5 on shallow stumps or flipping docks. I finally threw a Redeye shad down a mile long stretch of milfoil and hit one little stretch that was crammed full of 13"-15" fish but NO big ones. On my way back to the ramp I finally got enough time on my Mercury to do some idling so I side imaged a few river ledges. I've gained a ton of confidence in my ability to I.D. bass on side imaging to the point that I'll guarantee an electronics course client their money back if we don't catch bass when I see bass that are catchable and we don't catch 'em. Well, somebody would've gotten a free trip today because I was 110% sure I spotted a load of largemouth on a river ledge that were in a feeding mood and I caught 6 white bass out of the "school"! I'm not sure what the deal was but whites don't look anything like largemouth on SI and all I can figure is that when my big swim bait spread swam through there they scattered. Either that or white bass group different on Gville than every other lake I've been to and I think we all know that's not the case. Oh well, it was a little disappointing because I just knew it was about to be a beat down. I ended the day with 8 keepers and 14lbs or so on my best 5. Lot of work left to do if I plan on drawing a check this weekend.
Monday, February 6, 2012
GUNTERSVILLE DAY 1
I finally made it to Guntersville at 11am this morning for my first day of a month long stay. I launched at Comer bridge at noon and noticed immediately that the water was way low compared to what I'm used to. I'm still breaking my new Merc in so I decided to just ease down lake and check a few places as I went. The first place I came to was a spot I found in the Arig coming out tournament that Paul Elias won. I never caught a fish there in that tournament but I lost 2 big ones. I started out with a jig and caught a 2lber on my 2nd cast. A few minutes later I bowed up on one and thought for a second it was what I'd come for. After about a three minute fight, a 15lb drum rolled out from under my boat. I hit a little sweet spot in the area and caught a 3lb largemouth and then missed bites on two consecutive casts. My next cast it felt like a lightning bolt hit my rod and I pulled back on something big! I realized pretty quickly it wasn't a bass and five minutes later I pulled a 25lb flat head over the side of my Triton! I got several more bites that I missed and eventually caught a couple more 2.5lb largemouth. I'm hoping that since there's grown ups of every other species hangin out there that I'll luck up and pop a grown largemouth there in the BFL.
I hit my next little offshore spot that was slammed full of 4lbers in 2011 and after 30 minutes of hauling water I finally side imaged it only to find it void of any life whatsoever. That was a big let down because last year I could catch 16-20lbs off of it in no time.
I decided to try some old grass lines that have been good to me in the past with a redeye shad and that proved to be a waste of time as well. The hydrilla was thick but clumped up and I tend to do better on these places when there's a well defined grass line.
Next I broke down and hit a bank with the Arig and quickly caught a short and a 2.5lber but then went 500 yards without a bite.
Finally, I ran to the back of a creek and caught two 4lbers on a Redeye shad in Chili Craw but they were scattered and I picked up another small keeper on a jig under the only bridge that wasn't under siege by Arig chunkers!
I ended up with 7 keepers and around 15lbs in a half day of fishing with my motorguide wide open. I may be able to slow down in some of those areas and get a few more bites but for now, I'm lookin for the mother lode and I didn't find it today. I've had worse days on Guntersville, but I hit some really good stuff today that I had high hopes for and it wasn't happenin. The water is 51-58 degrees and I seem to do better in the 43-48 degree range on the deeper stuff I like to fish. I was amazed at how few boats, yes I said few, were fishing the "old" type stuff we usually fish down here. Everyone was on a bank or a bridge chunkin the Arig and I basically had the entire main lake to myself, unfortunately there didn't seem to be any biggun's hangin around out there with me, at least where I fished today. As I idled under the North Sauty bridge I saw a guy dropping a chunky 3lber in his cooler that had just fallen victim to his Arig. I really hope those bridge fish wise up to that thing before the meat hunters get too many of 'em. As usual, I will go down with a zero before I battle for position around one of the bridges, causeways or riprap banks that I know the BFL will be won off of this weekend. That's probably not very smart but I just can't make myself get in there and bump boats with everybody on the community holes. I'm not sayin I'm not gonna throw the Arig but if I catch 'em on it its not gonna be in a crowd. I have four more days to find something so we'll see what happens.
I hit my next little offshore spot that was slammed full of 4lbers in 2011 and after 30 minutes of hauling water I finally side imaged it only to find it void of any life whatsoever. That was a big let down because last year I could catch 16-20lbs off of it in no time.
I decided to try some old grass lines that have been good to me in the past with a redeye shad and that proved to be a waste of time as well. The hydrilla was thick but clumped up and I tend to do better on these places when there's a well defined grass line.
Next I broke down and hit a bank with the Arig and quickly caught a short and a 2.5lber but then went 500 yards without a bite.
Finally, I ran to the back of a creek and caught two 4lbers on a Redeye shad in Chili Craw but they were scattered and I picked up another small keeper on a jig under the only bridge that wasn't under siege by Arig chunkers!
I ended up with 7 keepers and around 15lbs in a half day of fishing with my motorguide wide open. I may be able to slow down in some of those areas and get a few more bites but for now, I'm lookin for the mother lode and I didn't find it today. I've had worse days on Guntersville, but I hit some really good stuff today that I had high hopes for and it wasn't happenin. The water is 51-58 degrees and I seem to do better in the 43-48 degree range on the deeper stuff I like to fish. I was amazed at how few boats, yes I said few, were fishing the "old" type stuff we usually fish down here. Everyone was on a bank or a bridge chunkin the Arig and I basically had the entire main lake to myself, unfortunately there didn't seem to be any biggun's hangin around out there with me, at least where I fished today. As I idled under the North Sauty bridge I saw a guy dropping a chunky 3lber in his cooler that had just fallen victim to his Arig. I really hope those bridge fish wise up to that thing before the meat hunters get too many of 'em. As usual, I will go down with a zero before I battle for position around one of the bridges, causeways or riprap banks that I know the BFL will be won off of this weekend. That's probably not very smart but I just can't make myself get in there and bump boats with everybody on the community holes. I'm not sayin I'm not gonna throw the Arig but if I catch 'em on it its not gonna be in a crowd. I have four more days to find something so we'll see what happens.
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