Every year I look forward to going and fishing on beautiful Lake Guntersville in north east Alabama. The Orthopedic Center and the Huntsville Hospital host a tournament every year in June in which I am invited to participate in. The fishing is always great and the people that attend are always friendly. This year my wife Heidi and I went down a day early to do a little pre fishing. The grass was starting to grow nicely along the edge of the river channel but most of it had not topped off at the surface. My bait of choice was a Strike King Rage Tail 10 inch Thumper worm thrown on seventeen pound Vicious Fluorocarbon. On the fifth cast of the morning I caught a four pound fish. At home I would normally be excited but down here it was just an average fish. A few casts later and I caught another nice keeper bass. I told Heidi that it was time to move and go and look for bigger fish. We fished the rest of the day trying out deep catching several small keepers on football jigs and crankbaits but no big ones. The next morning was about the same catching some nice keepers but still nothing big. I decided to switch from the 10 inch worm to a Strike King Shadilicious swim bait. Finally I started catching some better fish. I would simply throw the bait up on the flat off of the river channel and reel it slowly over the grass. They would come out and crush it. I was able to locate one grass flat that was deeper than most and had several good fish take the bait. That was going to be one of my spots to hit in the tournament. The next morning I drew out with the head football coach from Scottsboro High school. We headed out that morning and pulled up to my first spot only to see another boat sitting on it catching fish after fish. After watching them cull a limit after ten or so minutes and not letting us on it I decided to make a move. I went to my grass flat and immediately had a giant smoke my Shadilicious. I got his head turned out of the grass and my partner netted him. He was at least six pounds. Two casts later another big one swiped at my bait but did not take it. I spun the boat around and put a four pound fish in the boat. A short time later I put our third keeper in the livewell giving us our limit. This tournament only allows teams to weigh in only three fish due to the extreme heat. A huge storm was blowing in and I knew I needed to cull my smallest fish. I rigged up an eight inch Strike King Ocho hoping one would take it. I noticed my line was a bit frayed but I did not retie for some stupid reason and that’s when it happened. I got the bite I was looking for. The big fish took me into the grass as I was yelling for the net. The fish finally broke me off. I was disgusted with myself for making a rookie mistake. The storm was blowing in and lightning was everywhere. We decided to call it quits and head to the weigh in. After 140 teams weighed in we ended up in 19th place with 13 pounds. They paid twenty places. The whole event was awesome. The food, the prizes, and the people were great. Lake Guntersville is a fish factory. It is loaded with bass and you can catch them any way you like to fish. From shallow to deep they are literally everywhere. Unlike here at home where three and four pound fish are big, down there that is just an average fish. I would like to thank the people that invite me there every year to come and fish. It is one tournament that I always look forward to fishing.
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