Jun-16-09

Decided since the girls were gone to summer camp, and that I had two days off I would partake in a little fishing. Monday I didn't get to start fishing till lunch time and it was HOT...not a lot of action were I started off either. I fished some old spots and they didnt have any fish at all in them. Places that used to have hydrilla matted up now has lily pads and the fish were not in them at all. Moved to some shady areas and found some shad being chased so I started throwing a spinnerbait and caught 3 keepers. Moved around some more and found some hydrilla but it was not like it has been in the past. Only caught two more keepers in there; there was some black clouds moving in so I decided to pack it in for the day.

This morning I decided to put in down river some as per some suggestions to me from one of my friends. It turned out to be a good decision and the fish numbers were up. Although I didn't catch any big fish, I can't complain on the consistancy of the bite. I got to mark a good area and all of the underlying structure is now on my GPS. Here are a few pics:



It is always good to get Bass THUMB!!!!



IT WAS HOT on the water today...

New Blog...

In an attempt to draw in some tournament funds then finance my new web site I have started a blog advertising my apparel and vehicles available as billboards. I'll let you know how it goes; http://lookingforadvertisingspace.blogspot.com/

fishing report 6-1-09

A buddy met me at the house about 5 am this morning and we headed to Scottsboro to do some fishing. Decided to leave the ultralights at home and they sure would have paid of today. Bluebird skies and HOT, i dont know what I'm going to do when it gets muggy and really hot lol.

We put in at BB Comer a lil later that what we planned and hit our first spot. Fished a combo of topwaters and T-rigged plastics. No takers so we headed down river. Stopped at a rip rap bank that was busting with shad and I caught the first keeper off a spinnerbait. Fished some more topwater but never got another bite in the area. Moved once again to one of my old haunts in Chisenal Springs, found some grass that is about 6-8 inches below the water surface and the shad were getting CRUSHED in there. BUddy had the classic "toilet flush" sound and it missed his topwater but it was a hard hit.

Fished some more in this area but there was so much bait in there they wouldnt hit anything. Tried spinnerbaits, topwater, cranks and t-rigs. Moved on in to Chisenal and found some grass were the frog should have produced some bites but it didnt pan out, water was exceptionally clear in this area, had about 3-4ft clarity compared to less than 1ft. in the main body of Chisenal.

Decided to fish some river ledges and went to the opposite side of the river and found the ledge. We were throwing jigs (DJW for me) on the river ledge; BassERT caught a nice keeper with his jig on the ledge in about 16 ft of water. Fished on down the ledge with no other takers, lots of nibbles though. Moved once again and stopped at a slough on the way and Buddy connected with another fish on a lipless crank but no other takers. Fired up the big motor and headed to Goosepond. The water in North Sauty had about 3 ft clairty with zero stain. There wasnt any water moving either which made it hard to get the fish to bite. There was baitfish being busted every were we stopped, more action in North Sauty than anywhere else.

Decided to head to the ramp and was running up river when we hit another old spot. No action in there except for some shorts and a flying senko, I was knelt down on the deck lookingfor a senko when I saw my buddy set the hook and fight the fish when I heard DUNK!!!! The senko he was using zoomed about 3 inches past my right ear.

Water temps varied with depth and water color did find some 81 deg water....most of the spots were in the upper 70's water temps. We fished every thing from stained to super clear.

5-17-09 Late report

Decided to go fishing last Sunday for a little while. Thats it, it was a little while and it was unproductive. I fished out of Coon Creek found some good spots but couldn't put any in the boat. Decided to run up the creek that feeds Coon which is Flat Rock creek. I trolled most of the way up and fished but the water was at least 8-9 deg cooler than the river. Lots of bait in there but no takers. This will be a good spot when the days get hot and the fish are looking for cooler water.

Fishing Report for 5-5-09

Decided I was going to try and fish all day long today after I dropped my girls at school but one of them forgot her backpack. This sort of put a wrinkle in my plan but I decided to head to a different spot on the lake. Got to Comer Bridge and it was covered up for a Tuesday morning. Looked out to where I wanted to fish and the back water had some white caps. Headed over to Jackson County park to put in there. They are still cleaning up but it was some kind of bad over there.

Put in and idled thru the no wake zone and had no idea where to start. I wanted to fish the main river but it was rough and very muddy. Surprisingly Roseberry was lot clearer than the river was, except in the shallow water it had a slight stain, just enough to where you couldnt see the bottom in 2-3 ft of water. The wind was blowing across the creek so I went riding around looking for a spot to fish. There were a couple Pros in there with wrapped boats so I tried to steer clear of them.

Pulled in to a small cove if you even want to call it that, with all the rain we have had the water was up into some trees and further out. First fish came out of about 4ft of water in scattered grass. She hit the Booyah spinnerbait hard when I wasnt paying attention. Good solid 3.5, 4 lb fish. Fished the same streach of the cove chasing shad around. Boated 9 more keepers in the lil cove (when the water goes down there won't be but one way in).

Moved around the creek all after noon hitting spots here and there. Ended up moving out to some deeper water when the sun came out but couldnt fish long so I couldnt get on the deep bite. Even in the deeper water shad were being busted but it looked like white bass.

Water temps varied from 72-74 and that varied with depth. Stained to dingy water in places. I threw a spinnerbait most of the day and all the fish came on the spinnerbait. Caught 15 in all with the biggest one in the pic. Rest of them were all small keepers, never could get the big bite. The first spot this morning must have been a small school cause I was catching them just about every cast with the spinnerbait. Only got to fish 3.5 hours so I will take a day like that rather than sitting at home. Had to take the pic with my phone.

The Daily Sentinel

I just read an article from an apparantly misinformed person about the spraying of Roseberry creek. The "Roseberry Rescue Group" a manaical group of Greed stricken landowners around Jackson County Park would like to eradicate the grass which makes Lake Guntersville so famous. Jackson County Commission, please do not allow the idiots of the Roseberry group to destroy OUR LAKE...

4-14-09 Fishing on the Tennessee River

I know this is about a week old, but like I said in my previous post, I just plain forgot... So where was I fishing? Upper river area around the steam plant.


I ran from the Stevenson bridge to Long Island Creek and fished it. No takers so I went back down to the Steam Plant and looked for some White Bass, well I found em in the discharge at the steam plant.



It was a little cool that after noon

Creek Fishing on Sand Mt. in North Alabama

This happended several weeks ago but I forgot to post about it. I watned to go fishing for a little while and hit one of the larger creeks in the area. I only took one rod and one lure, a black and blue finesse jig with a small craw trailer.

I was thinking that the smaller profile would be perfect for the stream, wish I would have brought along a small crankbait or some finesse worms. I fished for about an hour and got no bites what so ever. I fished the pool beside the waterfall thinking that some smallmouth or spots would be hanging out there but if they were they didnt want to bite. They rebuilt the bridge over the creek about 5 years ago and all the peices of concrete you see is the old bridge. Here are some pics of the creek.

No fishing today either...

Wind is just too rough. Plus I dont have a sitter so it makes it hard to fish with out a sitter. Oh well good day to get caught up on some house work and boat work then.

Great Reel...A product review of sorts.

Recently I picked up three Bass Pro Tournament LTD reels. At first look they have a sleek, low profile appearance. Solid black graphite frame with 10, yes 10 bearings. The reel includes a swept handle with big comfortable grips. A soft touch finish is on the reel and beleive me it helps.

Now when you look at the price of this reel, the first thing you think of is "Cheap reels dont last" This reel is available for under 40.00 and is WELL WORTH it. Matter of fact I have ordered two more along with some new rods to go with them. The 6.3:1 ratio is perfect. I have used these reels for 9-10 hour fishing days and they are the most comfortable reels I have used. Here are some pics of the reels:

Finally got the boat out...

Got to go fishing in my boat this past Sunday. I had about 2-3 hours to fish and the weather was moving in real quick. I decided to fish the Crow Creek area of the river. The area I targeted would be shielded from the predicted 15-20 mph winds from the south. Nevertheless the water resembled creamed coffee rather than river water. I decided to fish it any way. Found an area that had 4-5ft water bordered by 2ft all the way around. My strategy was to catch spawning fish in the flats using the deeper water as a highway.

Didnt have any takers off a XR50, Jig and a t-rigged lizard. Moved to the back of the creek in shallow water but it was too muddy to fish, did find some nice green grass growing back there so I marked the area with my GPS. I will be making a return trip there in the summer.

I decided to hit some hunny holes in the past, turns out that the southern winds made it impossible to fish the area so I moved to some super shallow water. Caught some good size keepers in less than 2 ft of water with the best about 2lbs then I dropped my camera and killed it I guess so I only got one fish pic. Water temps 57-61 deg

Thought I could go...

Fishing that is. I have three days off: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I thought I would have some time to go fishing this week but today I didnt feel good and didnt want to get out in the cold. Tomorrow I got a whole list of things to do so fishing is Doubtful on Monday. Tuesday is questionable...but hey at least I can LOOK at the river twice tomorrow, once in Chattanooga and Scottsboro.

I cant wait till I get to wet a line, I have been practicing my long range targeting and pitching skills in the yard so it wont be like I am starting off from scratch, it has been almost a year and a half since I have fished.

Congrats to Skeet Reese on the Classic win...

Parasite Weights

If you are looking for a great way to save your plastics and get longer life out of them, then look no further. Parasite Weights have a great selection of products to fit your needs. There are several products that can help you and I will talk about them often.


I will be discussing the Original Parasite Clip and the Weight and Clip system in the future so stay tuned for those posts.




http://parasiteweights.com/index.html

The rattle bait...

This weekend was the conclusion of the FLW Chevy Open. As seen in my earlier post I covered the event for ultimate bass and the recurring theme was Rattling Bait or Lip less crank baits. They are many types of rattling baits out there, the classic Rat-L-Trap to the tear drop XR-50's. In between you have the Diamond Shads, Cotton Cordell Super Spots, Berkley's Aruku shads, Lucky Crafts and others. I think everyone makes a rattling bait nowadays. Heck If I had a lure company I would make one...

They are a great search bait and can be fished different ways.

Rippin the grass...

On Lake Guntersville the main technique is "rippin" the grass. With this technique you make long casts to hydrilla/milfoil beds and burn the lure across the bed. Once you snag some grass (and you will) you rip the rattling bait loose from the grass. The majority of the hits will come when the lure breaks free from the grass. I have caught some big pre spawn bass this way.

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Yo-Yoing...

The title says it all, this works as well as ripping or sometimes even better. I think it is the flutter of the bait when it comes back down. The only bad thing about Yo-Yoing is that you have to be good about setting the hook with slack line. A lot of times the strike will come on slack line. Some people have different techniques for yo-yoing but I prefer this method. Make a long cast and keep your rod at a 45 degree angle, that way you can set the hook even with slack line. While you are retrieving your lure stop and let the lure flutter down, don't move the rod instead make ten or so handle turns and repeat. That way when you stop reeling the lure will flutter down and come back up with the retrieve.

Both are great methods of fishing w ater with vegetation, if you know there is vegetation deeper down in the water column you can yo-yo and find the depth of the grass and rip it out on each retrieve. That way you can incorporate each tactic in one cast.

Open water search bait...

A rattle bait is a good open water search bait too. Burning a trap with fan casts in a open area is a good way to find fish.

One other thing I wanted to mention, One tip that I would offer is to keep a weightless super fluke or other shad imitator soft plastic on hand. If you ever have a day where the fish are short st ricking a rattle bait just throw that soft plastic presentation in the area you had your strike. A small soft plastic swim bait like the El Grande Lures 5" swim bait would be a good choice.

Good Read on the Chevy Open

http://www.ultimatebass.com/content/view/1101/1/



I attended the 2009 FLW Chevy Open on Lake Guntersville on Sunday. While there I covered the weigh in for Ultimate Bass. If you would like to read one of my articles on the even please click on the above link.



After you read the article check out the forums, this is the best bass fishing site on the 'net.

2009 Chevy Open at Lake Guntersville

Just got back from the final day weigh in and it was a blast. Got to talk to several anglers and had a front row seat for the weigh in. Will post some pics tomorrow, too tired tonight