Guntersville Bassmaster

Today was brutal on me and I'm just glad I didn't blank. I caught two bass for 4-14. It was that tough for me. I stayed local again today and caught one keeper on a suspending jerkbait and the other on a 4" green-pumpkin Senko. I caught several other healthy bass but they were short.

Well, I missed the check mark today, but at least I might get some decent points heading into next week's event on Clarks Hill reservoir in Georgia. Tomorrow I'll be working for Triton, Yamaha and Lowrance at the sponsor expo, then off to Georgia late Sunday night. Better luck next time.

Today was extremely tough for me and my partner. I caught three fish for 12-12. I feel lucky to have caught the three that I had. The bass were buried in the grass and I caught them today on lipless cranks fished on a 7' St. Croix Avid series cranking rod and 50-pound Power Pro braid.

The bites were hard and they would take the rod out of your hands if you were not careful. I'm actually scared about tomorrow because I burned my water up pretty bad today. My non-boater caught two keepers on jerkbaits and together we worked solid as a team. In the last 1/2 hour of the day I pulled up to one dock and caught four nice bass on jigs, but again they were only 14 inches.

There has been a lot of local talk about the gillnetting going on here at Lake Guntersville. Gillnets are nets placed in the water around migration routes for the fish to get caught up in. They look like they are made of heavy fishing line and the way they're set up it's easy for the fish to get tangled up.

I saw first hand how horrible these nets can be to the fish population. Today my trolling motor got stuck in one of those clear nets that were not marked and as I was untangling my prop, I counted seven bass from 4 to 7 pounds that were left for dead. The only thing that remained alive was one giant catfish. I was disgusted with what I saw.

Guntersville is such an awesome lake and to see people not take care of it really saddens me. The state of Alabama does a wonderful job with its fisheries, but needs to get out of primitive times with gillnetting. All these beautiful bass were left for dead.

I caught two keepers the first day – both about 5 or 6 pounds and I just caught one on Tuesday. I had about six bites today, and a couple were about 5 pounds.

In terms of my strategy, I have one area with where I caught a 5 and a 3 back-to-back, so I have to go there. It's not like last year for me, and I haven't really fished the stuff I fished last year. The water's up a lot more and it's coming in like chocolate milk. It's weird, it's a lot different.

I've pretty much just been chunking and winding hardbaits, and the grass looks pretty putrid compared to last year. Whether that's from The water level or not, I don't know, but the weeds aren't nearly as lush as last year. I don't know what's causing that.

The water's anywhere from 49 degrees all the way to 58 in the backs of the creeks. And we have cold nights just like last year. It'll be interesting. Somebody will whack 'em. If you get them here, they're 5-pounders.

Hello BassFans. It's been a very long few weeks for Becca and I. Most Tour anglers went home to visit with the families, but we stayed on the road working sport, boat and travel shows for all of our sponsors. We also had the chance to catch up on some writing. For the past 4 years I've been trying to build my writing skills by writing for four national publications. It's worked great for us and our sponsors, but at times it can be overwhelming when trying to travel and focus on competitive fishing.

After the Harris Chain, where I ended up a disappointing 103rd, we drove down to the Triton plant in Nashville, Tenn. to pick up our second 2005 boat, then off to Lake Norman for one quick day of prefish and scouting. While on the water, I received a horrible phone call from Randy Howell.

Randy notified me that a mutual friend at Lowrance had been killed. Our friend Catherine Tudor worked in the marketing department at Lowrance Electronics. She was a genuine, sweet lady who truly was an asset to Lowrance and the fishing industry. Rest in Peace Catherine, you will be missed by all.

Sunday I finished a boat show for my sponsors in Tuscaloosa, Ala. and Becca and I arrived here at Guntersville a few hours ago to be greeted by heavy winds and rain. It will rain and the wind will be blowing throughout the event and should make for some interesting but good fishing on this big pond.

Last year I had a decent event here and placed 56th and won a few bucks throwing a variety of lipless cranks. I hear the lake has changed a lot though. With heavy rains the lake has risen and the water is unusually clear. Tomorrow will be a pain fighting through the rain, but I'm still looking forward to fishing. Guntersville is an amazing lake but at times can fish so small. I'll keep you posted.

Monday Practice: Limit around 22-24 pounds: Today was a love-hate day. I loved it because I caught a great limit, but I hated it because it was too good of a day. You know the one miracle day that always happens during prefish? Yeah, it was one of those days.

I caught a pretty solid limit with about a 9- to 10-pounder that just about swallowed my jerkbait. I also caught some other solid fish. I'm happy I caught fish today, but I'm doing just about what everyone else is doing – which is throwing reaction baits over the grass. It's fun to catch fish, but then again it's prefish, so every fish you catch will not bite again for you this week.

However, it's important to chunk and wind and cover water, so sticking fish is going to happen. Today I caught fish on a Luhr-Jensen Sugar Shad, a suspending jerkbait, a 1/2-ounce jig/craw and a dropshot. I know dropshotting sounds odd and all, but I'm trying to find a backup pattern and I caught quite a few bass doing it today – just not enough keepers to keep me going. Many boats are fishing around each other and most of us are fishing the same patterns, so it's tough to know what you have.

It's raining hard now with over a 1/2 inch coming down tonight, so that might change the water color from being clear of course to mud. Time will tell.

Tuesday: Time did tell and man what a 100% turn around from yesterday. I fished hard today for 11 hours to come up with no keeper bites. I did catch some shorts on cranks and a dropshot, but nothing to talk about. The weather was much different today with sunny skies and no wind. I believe this caused the bite to turn off.

Last night it rained half an inch and muddied up a lot of the lake, which also caused the water to rise an additional 2 feet overnight. My confidence is low right now and mentally I'm taking a beating. This business has many highs and lows and now I know why I didn't let myself get excited about yesterday. Tomorrow will be another short day for early registration, but I will keep grinding away trying to figure 'em out.

Wednesday: Yesterday was as tough as the day before for me. I had one keeper bite on a Luhr-Jensen Speed Trap crankbait but it came off. I also had three little short ones to go with it. This place is such a great fishery with lots of giant bass, but things have to go just right to catch the consistently.

Today my plan is stay local and get as much fishing time as possible. I'll concentrate on fishing the suspending jerkbait around the rocks for large suspended bites, and will also throw the Sugar Shad over and around the grass clumps. I'm scared right now, I don't want to blank. It's sad when you can catch them and they weigh about 2 1/2 pounds, but you have to throw them back.

The 15-inch size limit will be tough on me. Stay tuned BassFans, because these anglers are going to catch them big. Thanks for letting me share my prefish with you.