Mickey and I left for our third annual foray to Lake Guntersville on Thursday confident that we were going to catch a lot of fish.  The first cold front had hit, which is supposed to put the fish into the grass where they should fall prey to our Ribbit frogs. We arrived to a North wind and bluebird skies. The first afternoon we fished a new area, to us, with limited success.   Mickey caught this one on a buzzbait.

another one

The second day started at the Goose Pond exactly at the spot where I caught an 8 1/4 two years ago. None of those this year, but we did manage to catch a couple there. The bass were not in the grass but on the edges near deep water. The morning bite quickly turned into a long lull, so at around noon we left for Brown’s Creek, where in the past we have done well. We came around the corner of a pocket and saw bass schooling and busting shad. They were hard to catch but finally we caught a few on a swimbait that we had rubbed with the scent I’ve been writing about.  We would have caught a few more but I broke three off setting the hook.  Finally I thought to check my drag and it was locked up. I freed it up but those three were gone.  We found another pocket out of the wind where the fish were schooled and caught a few including this 7 pound catfish Mickey caught on the flavored swimbait.

Saturday morning we just cut to the chase and went straight to Brown’s Creek knowing we were going to burn up the schooling fish but the shad were not in the pockets and the fish were not concentrated there.  So we searched for new places. This one  came from one of the new spots.

We pretty much got whipped Saturday. We were not the only ones. A man told us, that in a big tournament, 6 pounds got a check and there were a lot of zeros.  Sunday it was Brown’s Creek again mainly because it was on the way out of town. We started about 7 and fished until 10 in the new spots and caught 7, all on a Ribbit.  For the whole trip we caught 30 fish, not too good in a place you are supposed to catch that many in one day.

This is a photo of a rod holder I rigged up to keep the rods neat on the trip. It needs some tweaking but worked well to keep the rods straight.  One thing is certain, when Mickey brings the food, you’re going to eat very well. With spaghetti and crayfish fettuccine we ate like kings .