Watchin Aaron Martins WHINE at Guntersville.........

[Tim_T]

The biggest difference is if you found that spot, or did you do what some of these local fools do and follow an angler around, watch him catch fish, and then purposefully go out and beat him to that spot in the morning. Huge difference and most of the time, it is one idiot local trying to go out and "beat the pro" See what happened to Jeremy Stark last year.

[Duayne]

The biggest difference is if you found that spot, or did you do what some of these local fools do and follow an angler around, watch him catch fish, and then purposefully go out and beat him to that spot in the morning. Huge difference and most of the time, it is one idiot local trying to go out and "beat the pro" See what happened to Jeremy Stark last year.

I think this is the key here. I'll equate it to the guides on Cumberland. Those guys really are putting food on the table by fishing day in and day out. No sponsors to speak of (that I know of) in a very competitve business. I'm not saying the pro tourney fishermen do not earn a living, but the guides make much less and there is less room for error.

I haven't seen it in a while but it used to be very common for weekend warriors to wait at the edge of the no wake zone so they could follow the guides to their spots. I am SURE it still happens but I haven't seen it of late. I've always respected their craft and what they are doing and I don't bug them. I do talk to a few, but I never even ask for a report and they rarely give any info without solicitation. I may ask how the bait catching is, or such, but otherwise I leave them to do that that it is that they do.. LOL

BUT If I go though my logs, and put what I know into my own plan, and that plan means I end up fishing the same waters as a guide, then so be it. If its too tight and they are there first, I'll go to plan B. If I am there, and its too tight, I'm not gonna give up a spot and I've never had a guide ask me to. They don't "own" the spot and neither do I.

The only exception to this was when I hired Lance Sasser for a day. My father-in-law, God rest his soul, wanted to striper fish and I had not been on the water in a few months. I wanted to make sure he got a quality experience and I was afraid to take a chance on blanking like I normally would. Anyway, Lance took us to a spot I would have NEVER dreamed of for that time of year and my now deceased F-I-L proceeded to have a ball. I figured it might be his last trip and it turned out that it was. The next day we went out on my boat and I went to a totally different spot because I didn't think it was right to go to the spot Lance was fishing since I would not have found it on my own.