Wired2Fish on Location - Guntersville Day Three
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3/24/2010 9:26:36 PM |
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Day Three Fishing Gets Good Again
We learned from day two that the bigger fish weren't roaming around the shallows just yet. We decided to go back to what we did on Monday, targetting channel swing banks in the big bays. When we launched this morning the fog was so thick you couldn't see 10 feet. So we decided to hit the first deep channel swing near the ramp. We idled over and pulled the football jigs from the locker again.
After about 10 casts we had our first keeper of the morning, a chunky 3-pounder. A few casts later and Terry hooked a good fish. It barrelled to the surface, rolled and jumped and the jig came loose. It was a 5- or 6-pounder judging by the fish we've caught so far this week. We worked the point swing hard for another 2 hours and managed one more keeper around 3 pounds.
On our next move, we decided to hit a roadbed and some staging flats. We hit another 3-pounder out of a brush pile near the roadbed on a Carolina-rigged Hag's Tornado. We ran the flat zig-zagging over the roadbed for a couple hours. After a while we decided the fish weren't out deep on that flat or roadbed. We didn't want to go shallow, so we headed back to some deeper points.
Within minutes, we hit a 5-pounder. Then I hit a 7-pounder, and Terry hit a 5-pounder. Then Terry hit a 4-pounder. All the fish came on jigs in shallow water near a deep water edge. The fish were pretty aggressive for about 45 minutes and then the action slowed dramatically. Working the jig is nothing but a slow drag, making a point to feel every rock. If we get snagged on a bigger rock, we try to just pop it over and keep it close. A lot of the bites came as we pulled the jig over a big object and it fell for just a second.
It's a painfully slow process fishing like this. We had thoughts driving down that we'd be ripping traps in the grass and snatching jerkbaits over clear water. But the fish showed they didn't want to chase in the areas we found them. So we've been grinding it out.
Today we joked that we might not have even found the pattern that's working had the weather not been so brutal on Monday that we actually went looking for some wind protected areas to get out of the sleet in the face. We went looking for the deeper water and knew we were going to catch them when we got to the first channel. Since then that's been the most productive pattern for us.
Our Wired2Fish buddies Mike Blake and Doug Francis from Illinois travelled down with us and caught a lot of short fish shallow on Carolina rigs and jigs. Then late in the day they went shallow in the back of a pocket and caught a 4 1/2 pounder and a 7-pounder on a Carolina rig.
The water temp got near 60 degrees today. Tomorrow it might hit 60 degrees in the shallow. I think by next week these fish are going to be headed to the beds. Basically we're looking for where they will spawn and then going to the deepest water near that.
We ran into Guntersville Guide and great angler Chris Jackson of Fins and Grins Fishing Adventures. He said he caught a 5-pounder shallow and some fish to 3 pounds after that. According to Chris, the lake is four weeks behind. Judging by his fishing logs, he should be sight fishing this week in the grass but the bass are just starting to move shallow. He felt, however, the bass are going to the beds quickly.
We were happy with another limit weighing more than 24 pounds (7,5,5,4,3). Tomorrow the forecast calls for rain and severe thunderstorms with wind gusts to 30 mph. Stay tuned to see how the fish react and how we react to the changing conditions and mood of the fish.
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