Guntersville Report With Pics

[LarryDavid]

Fished Guntersville and caught a nice limit. No shorts, smallest fish was about 10 inches, biggest ones about 15. A few white crappie, but mostly monster blacks. The 8 inch white ones there last year are all now about 10-12 inches and this place always has the big blacks, it's been the same for the 40 years I've fished there. The water temp was 54 degrees when I got there at 3 a.m., so I knew it was the perfect time because 52-60 has been the best for me at this spot - it's right on their major highway. I only caught a couple in the dark, but it heated up from 5:30 until 6:30. Even as early as I got there, my favorite spot didn't open up until 8 a.m. and that's when I went from 13 to 30 pretty quick.

TVA was pulling about 24,000 cubics steady the whole time, so I didn't have to change tactics to deal with the flow. I used minnows and I was the only one I saw doing that approach, and I was the only one with a limit when I left - bank or boat. I was in my boat quietly fishing straight down. The guy who had the spot before me was tossing jigs and he only caught a couple. They were at about 8 feet around dawn, then adjusting to about 12 foot was the key after 6:30. I only caught 2 stripe, one in the dark to start things which is usually how it goes with me, and about 10 really big brim. I caught one drum and had something at dawn I couldn't get it in. I'm still wondering because I was sitting in 33 foot of water and hooked it at about 8 foot down. Almost fought like a gigantic crappie, didn't pull relentlessly like a cat, or as hard as a drum. Might have been a spotted bass, I've caught a few nice ones there. I fished two rods mostly, but did have 4 down for awhile when I adjusted the depth when they stopped hitting around 6:30 a.m.

A lot of boats fishing the channel around me with anglers tossing A-rigs, small jigs and jigging spoons. The spoon jiggers seemed to be doing the best. It's always amusing to see the faces of people who snag the bottom tossing that expensive A-rig. I'm not a big fan of those, I've done so much better with the donkey rig, you can swim it across the surface, it has the deadly criss-cross motion when you dead stick the minnows, and it doesn't tear your arm off, plus it's so much cheaper to make yourself. I use a triple swivel and Storm minnows, so it's real cheap to make. Oh well, whatever.

I put down lights in the dark. My old battery started to dim after an hour, but it held up until dawn. It did attract some fish for me this time after catching nothing in total darkness.

[Spaceman]

Great catch! I sure like those black crappie

[joshmc]

Care to share which bridge?

[Ditch Basser]

Great report and photo's.

Thanks for the update!!

[droptine]

Congrats on a nice haul!

[Ikard77]

Now thats what im talking about!! Some nice fish!! I caught a few Friday had 19 fishing in 22 ft of water the fish was about 16 ft down caught them on Monkey Milk