Guntersville 10-30-09 Report

Well while looking at the weather last night they said high winds anthey were not kidding! I put the boat in the water in the mid-lake section and wanted to fish some open stuff in the nasty wind for one reason, practice making fish bite in bad conditions. The morning started off kinda slow with water temps still in the low 60's and the water levels at about normal for this time of year. I also noticed the current was smoke'n. I hit some high spots on the mid section with several colors of JAckall Muscle 15+ cranks with Firetiger being the best and Chart/Purple pulling a close 2nd. I then noticed the bite got lighter as the day got longer. I switched gears a little and started working a 1oz spinnerbait(white/chart) off the edges of the humps. I fished it a little strange though, I would toss the bait out then after it hit the bottom slow roll it while picking up the rod tip. After the rod reached about 11 o'clock I would drop the tip and kill the bait. The would knock slack in the line everytime they hit it. As the winds got worse and the water conditions went with it and became stained on the shallow tops I made a move.
While fishing the blade I got to thinking about the days I spent on Lake Champlain and how I learned to fish plastics in the wind there. Well I didnt really care about the bite but wanted to practice more than anything and gaining feel in the winds so I hit the deeper ledges and sections of submerged grass I had found while riding the other day. I knew the shallow bite would be off due to the water color so I thought about how the winds didnt effect the deeper water. I moved to the grass sections(which are still super green and still growing) and pulled out the small jigs and dropshot. I would position the boat on the flat so I could drift, tossed out a drift sock to slow everything down and did the ol' "Yankee drag". Yes I made that term up from hearing about draging tubes up north with this tactic.LOL Well my gut paid off bigtime. I would make a pass catching about 2-4 fish every time then crank up go back to the top and start again. Ended up with great numbers on both baits on 4 different sections of grass before calling it a day.
Guess my best 5 would have been a solid sack of about 23 lbs give or take. For the conditions I was very glad to have that and it was not expected. I did learn one thing from today that I learned at Lake Champlain. This bite is funny and if you dont do it much you will loose alot of fish until you get tuned into the hang of it. That being said if you are going to try this expect to loose some before you get good at it and once you get the feel do it about twice a week reguardless if you plan on catching fish or not to stay on top of it.
Hope everyone is going to have a great and safe Halloween weekend and remember to dress warm. They are calling for some cold days ahead. See you on the water.
God Bless
Phil.4:13