After the Bassmasters Classic on Lay Lake Last weekend I came home to pre-fish for the Bassmasters Weekend Series by American Bass Anglers on Lake Guntersville. The weather left alot to be desired but in tournament Bass fishing anglers have no choice to to get out there and make things happen. Our forcast for the week was brutal calling for high winds and snow on atleast one day of practice with the end of the week having a full moon and more high winds. Temps started off everyday in the mid to upper 20's with highs only reaching mid 40's by the weekend.
On Monday I started off pre-fishing like I would any other lake I have been on before, checking places I knew fish should be and hitting areas I have had done well in on past trips. I found fish in the mid-lake area on creek channels working into large spawning flats to me the most productive pattern. The best baits for me seemed to be the Jackall TN70 lipless crankbait and Greenpumpkin Jig. I did notice the bite was strong and fish seemed to hit the baits aggressive on every place I had found.
On Tuesday I hit the lake fishing the lower section looking to duplicate the bite from Monday and build on what I had found. I fished several steep drops with the jig and only had two bites for the day. The Lipless crankbait was seeming to be the most consistant bite on the lower end with most of my fish coming on it. I had several solid keepers and was feeling good about the pattern.
Wed. I hit the water to find snow and blowing winds. I stayed on the lower end again wanting to get some idea of how the weather would effect the fish I had found the day before and it did. The areas I fished seemed to be very slow and crushed my confidence to make the run down river to those areas. The few bites I got all day were very light and fish just seemed to be loading up on the bait and not striking near as hard as the other days. I knew the weather would effect the bite and high winds would blast the areas I needed to fish with a jig making boat position hard to deal with when fishing with a co-angler.
Last Thursday I made the choice to run up river and see if the bite was any better. I also wanted to fish areas I had not seen(which is hard to do being I grew up fishing here). I moved above the Hwy 35 bridge looking for places I knew would not get alot of boat presure and had steep drops. I found a submerged pond in a cut that was surrounded by spawning flats and lots of wood cover. The edge of the pond had alot of green grass(which was key to holding fish). I fished the jig with very few bites but the Lippless crankbait was producing several 4+ pound fish. I also noticed it was more protected from high winds which were going to blow on tournament day. I had alot of confidence in that area and made the decission this was going to be the first stop of the tournament.
Friday I fished the mid-lake area again looking for some type of back up plan in case the area didnt pan out that I had found on Thrusday. I found 3 areass that held solid keeper fish and knew I could get atleast 15-18 pounds from all 3 of them. I felt confident I could get a limit and knew with 2 or more good bites to go along with it I had a shot at a top 5 finish.
On the morning of the event we had to wait to launch due to the ramp having a sheet of ice on it and it delayed the 6 am. blast off an hour. My co-angler and I made the run upriver to my first stop finding the water temps had dropped a few degrees but we were alone as far as boats go. We fished about an hour before I put the first keeper in the boat. A few cast later he landed a keeper fish and we were both on the board. about an hour later I got slammed and had a solid fish miss the bait. 2 cast later I lost a solid fish due to line breaking from the cold temps and being frozen and brittle. After about another hour I noticed my front sonar shut off. Those of you that fish know theis means I have a charging problem. I cranked the motor to find the voltage regulator was not charging the cranking battery and my tournament was about to get alot harder than I planned. during this time my co-angler boated a solid 6+ pound fish. I made the choice to stay in that area a little longer but knew I couldnt stay long having to run the livewells and now couldnt go to the mid-lake areas I had my most consistant bite. I could have made it to those areas but knew that there was no way to have enough cranking power to get back to the ramp for check in. If you have a chance at making some points and your co-angler has a chance at a check with his fish it was too big a risk to take to make a run and not be sure I could get back. I made the choice to run closer to the ramp and fish there in case I had to use the trolling motor to get back to check in.
I ended up only boating one more fish on after getting near the ramp on the TN70 and him and I missing only a couple of more bites. This put him and I both with 2 fish at weigh in time. He ended up in the top 15 and I got some points to go to the next event. In tournament fishing when you are fishing the entire series every point is important to make it to the goal of getting to Nationals.
There were alot of solid anglers in the event and over 30 boats without a fish and only 23 limits brought to the scales out of 127 boats.
It was a great job by the anglers that finished well and now looking forward to the getting the boat fixed and my next event coming up. Hope everyone had a great weekend and stays warm. The coming week I will be home working on guide trips and getting ready for next weekends appearances at Bass Pro Shops. Thanks to everyone for all the support and well wishes. See you on the water
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