Back from Guntersville (Report)

[mkmsports41]

Just returned from my three day trip at Guntersville. Last weeks rain brought the lake up 2' and dropped the water temp to 50d. Turned it from heavily stained to extremely muddy. They dropped the lake 1.5' Thursday Night. Friday we were only able to manage 4 keepers. One of the fish was lost at the boat while attempting to land it since we left the net at the campground to save some room since we were tourney prepping. We estimate it at 6.5-7lbs. If that fish was landed we would have had 4 that would have been in the 16lb range.
Saturday the water was even more stained and muddier since they were pulling it so hard. The lake dropped another 6". We were able to catch a limit but it only weighed 12.01. Several teams in the 12lb range but one team managed 18lbs. Water temp had risen to 52 by the end of the day.
Sunday the water was now just heavily stained to slighly stained and was at normal pool. The water temp rose to 54 by the end of the day. We were able to catch 9 keepers with our best five weighing 19.75 with a 7.05lb kicker!!!!! It was not enought to win the tourney but enough to get us 2nd place and big fish!!!
This fishing is now starting to pick back up. The pattern we used for the whole weekend was ripping 3/4ounce Rattle traps in gold sexy shad. We were fishing submurged grass mats on banks with rip rap. This pattern was more active once the sun came up. Early in the moring we T-Rigged Brush hogs on the outside of the grass. Then ripped the traps throught the grass after the sun came up. After the bite would stop with the trap we backed out and would fish the outside of the submurged mat with a brush hog. Out of the 10 keepers we weighed, 8 came on a trap. I had a great time for my first time there. Started slow but ended GREAT!!!

[stripernut]

congrats on the 2nd place finish, sounds like you guys made the best of poor conditions.

[cooter 33]

Going down Thursday, how was the boat traffic?

[offdtop]

Nice

[Owskiwoski]

Thanks for the report. Heading down saturday for 4 days. Did you find any in tha backs of creeks yet?

[mkmsports41]

The boat traffic was absolutely horrible Friday and Saturday. Was not as bad Sunday. Large amounts of debris floating!

We did not find any in the backs of the creeks. Saw several people fishing them. We did not concentrate really hard on that. We were fishing post cold front and found our fish in the first 1/4 way back into the creek. I beleive our fish were heading towards the back. It was a little spot that seemed to keep replinishing with fish.

[cooter 33]

Owski I'll be down saturday. Staying at days inn. Im from crestwood also. Thanks for the reporting. Sounds like the mouths of the creeks are a good starting point. Are they holding near the vegetation?

[mkmsports41]

Well I will put it this way. If your trap did not come back with gobs of grass hanging on it, you were not in it enough. I was ripping the trap through it extremely hard. As if you were setting the hook with a c-rig. Then I would throw the slack back at it and let it fall. Real up the slack and rip again. When you would rip it, you would actually set the hook. They would hit it on the fall.

Finding the right grass was a huge key for us. It had to be "green." Almost as green as your lawn gets in the spring. Finding the "snottgrass" or the "stalks" did not work for us. Use your graph and look for grass. Then fish it and see what it is.

That being said, I am sure there are other patters as well. I do know alot of the guys that did not catch fish this weekend were not throwing traps.

[00SKEETER]

Going down Thursday, how was the boat traffic?

I was there last Wednesday through Saturday and the boat traffic is rediculous on Saturday. I would strongly urge you to go on the weekdays. I will never go to g-ville on a weekend again. We switched locations on Saturday and since the water was really rough from the wind we trailered the boat to another ramp. When we get there we cant even find a parking spot. We did that twice just looking for a parking spot.

[fireman21]

I just got back from there myself Monday evening. It was my 4th time in the last 5 years. We had a tough day on Saturday. We took two boats and were just fun fishing. We only scratched 3 fish all day on Sat. Sunday was a different story, we started shallow in the creeks and caught a 8 fish our biggest was 4-11. The shallow bite stopped so went out on the main river and absolutly hammered them. From 2pm to 7pm we caught over 60 bass on traps, we had a couple of 4's and some 3' but most of the fish we caught were between 2-3 lbs. Went back out Monday morn and caught over 70 bass in the same spot unbelievable, we got tired of netting fish so we were boat swinging 2-3lbs. If you made 2 or 3 casts and didn't catch one you felt cheated. What a great trip we had. My buddy is still there and he caught a 10lb 3oz yesterday morning

[00SKEETER]

I just got back from there myself Monday evening. It was my 4th time in the last 5 years. We had a tough day on Saturday. We took two boats and were just fun fishing. We only scratched 3 fish all day on Sat. Sunday was a different story, we started shallow in the creeks and caught a 8 fish our biggest was 4-11. The shallow bite stopped so went out on the main river and absolutly hammered them. From 2pm to 7pm we caught over 60 bass on traps, we had a couple of 4's and some 3' but most of the fish we caught were between 2-3 lbs. Went back out Monday morn and caught over 70 bass in the same spot unbelievable, we got tired of netting fish so we were boat swinging 2-3lbs. If you made 2 or 3 casts and didn't catch one you felt cheated. What a great trip we had. My buddy is still there and he caught a 10lb 3oz yesterday morning

What areas were you fishing on the Main lake? River Ledges?